Movie Review: Mission Impossible: Fallout ~ directed by Christopher McQuarrie

I’m writing this on my iPad from Regina with no photo accompanying my words. It was a long day - stop overs stretched out my day that began at 5am.  It is now 1045 pm. My long time friend, Donna, picked me up at the airport around 5pm and within an hour and a half, four of us had our feet up in a Cineplex watching a real ~ and no pun intended ~ cliff hanger.  Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) and his dedicated band of spies (Luther and Benjamin) chased bomb maker (Solomon Lane), as well as a bomb that couldn’t be defused, through several hails of bullets, careening car chases (and speeding motorcycles) through Paris. The threat ~ nuclear destruction of five major religious sites and all the people in the surrounding areas. The racing intrigue of undercover spies avoiding Paris police kept us all on the edge of our seats.

I must confess that I watch the structure of a story and how tension is built, growing stronger as the story unfolds. Limits are constantly set that ‘can’t’ be pushed. The lines ‘I’ll make it work’ or ‘I’ll find a way’ tease the audience on to see if, when and how the Gordian knot can be cut. Little bits - and sometimes really tiny bits - of humour were sprinkled throughout the gunfire and crumpling metal. I’ll not fail to mention the fist fights and martial arts that leave only scratches - well maybe a bloodied nose, destroyed ballrooms, bathrooms and anything in it’s wake that removes whole waves of blocks away from the chase. Any threat to the success of the mission are removed until towards the end, the single threat is revealed. A deeply buried mole (Henry Cavill) who, in this case, was foisted upon the mission by the CIA (Angela Bassett) over the objections of another department head (Alec Baldwin).

Most of us know that Tom Cruise does his own stunts which makes them all the more real. It was all shot in 3D so the fighting at the edge of ginormous cliffs and the dangling from helicopters really did make one dizzy in the comfort of our chairs. Included in the story were not one, but two, love interests. One an beautiful ex-wife (Julia) who had a new life but still loved our protagonist, and the other a beautiful spy (Ilsa) who was out to kill the focus of all the mad chases - the man (Solomon Lane) who had developed the impossible to diffuse bomb. Their mission was accomplished with a lot of hard work on the part of the actors and the audience. An interesting aside, the very familiar music score became one of the actors carrying the story and sometimes was the ‘voice’ over the gunfire so that the audience only saw the action but did not hear the devastation.

All in all it was good fun. Our mission was to enjoy this movie and eat lovely buttered popcorn ~ without any scratches, bruises or car chases. Mission accomplished.

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it.......”

~ Mission Impossible (original TV and a string of movies)

Cast:
Tom Cruise - Ethan Hunt
Simon Peg - Benjamin Dunn
Ving Rhames - Luther
Rebecca Ferguson - Ilsa - MI6 spy
Henry Cahill - Walker
Alec Baldwin - Alan Hunley
Angela Bassett - CIA
Sean Harris - Solomon Lane
Vanessa Kirby - a plutonium broker
Michelle Monaghan - Julia (ex-wife)