MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

mission: impossible - FALLOUT (2018) movie

Genre              |   Spy-Fi Thriller

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   147 minutes

Released         |   2 August 2018

cast

​Tom Cruise ... Ethan Hunt
Rebecca Ferguson ... Ilsa Faust
Simon Pegg ... Benji Dunn
​Ving Rhames ... Luther Stickell
Alec Baldwin ... Alan Hunley
Sean Harris ... Solomon Lane
Henry Cavill ... August Walker
Angela Bassett ... Erica Sloan
​Vanessa Kirby ... White Widow

director

Christopher McQuarrie

writer

​Bruce Geller ... (television series)
Christopher McQuarrie

cinematographer

​Rob Hardy

music

Lorne Balfe

film editor

​Eddie Hamilton

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box office result

Worldwide               $? million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

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the best dialogue

Solomon Lane: "Your mission, should you *choose* to accept it." I wonder, did you ever choose not to? The end you've always feared is coming. And the blood will be on your hands. The fallout of all your good intentions.

August Walker: How many times has Hunt's government betrayed him, disavowed him, cast him aside? How long before a man like that has had enough?

Alan Hunley: [to Hunt] You had a terrible choice to make in Berlin: one life over millions. And now the world is at risk.

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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018) MOVIE IMAGES

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018) STORY SYNOPSIS

Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Missions team must work with MI6, the British Foreign Intelligence Service, to stop Solomon Lane from finishing off what he started in the previous film, Rogue Nation.​

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date  29 July 2018
Pop ​Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐½

It would seem that MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT has struck a chord with the movie reviewing fraternity on a global scale. With a slightly delayed release in Australia, media reviews of the film are still a few days away. Elsewhere, either in mainstream media or via online review sites, those who’ve seen the film are almost universal in their praise. Many reviewers have concluded the latest Tom Cruise film featuring his most successful cinematic alter-ego - Ethan Hunt - is the strongest entry yet in this enduring Spy-Fi series.

There’s no doubt that this latest instalment feels likes the best MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE film and there’s a reason why it evokes that reaction... FALLOUT is very methodical in the manner that it ticks all the boxes as far as the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise is concerned, but it’s hardly ground-breaking...

The best thing about FALLOUT is that it’s predictably predictable.

At the top of the checklist is the film’s star. Audiences buy tickets to Tom Cruise movies knowing that, at bare minimum, they will get around two hours of Tom Cruise...

Sometimes they get the Tom Cruise that is working way too hard to make whatever he’s doing successful because the project sacrifices everything for the sake of Cruise. 2017’s THE MUMMY is a painful reminder of what happens when Cruise is allowed to control of all elements both in front of and behind the camera. Fans of the Universal Monster movies were robbed of the “Dark Universe” because that film was so focussed on Cruise and, by comparison, very little on Sofia Boutella’s titular character.

Sometimes, there’s the Tom Cruise movie where he wants to be an “actor” and not a “star”. 2017’s AMERICAN MADE is a good example of this type of Cruise film. Working with a Director he knows, in this case Doug Liman, Cruise delivered one of his best performances in years. It was surprising the film didn’t feature more throughout the 2017 Award season because it was a genuinely good film.

Sometimes, as happens with the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies, Cruise teams up with a cast & crew that he knows and works well with, where he’s not required to operate at maximum “Tom Cruise” volume in order to deliver a solid piece of entertainment. Including FALLOUT, the last four MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies have perfected the formula for this type of Cruise movie, delivering one of the better big screen franchises going around, tapping into all the great elements that the star brings to a movie while dialling-down the things that aren’t so endearing (such as repeatedly flashing his pearly whites or being overly emphatic when delivering lines…).

Reason One to see FALLOUT - The Tom Cruise work ethic...

While Cruise is really starting to show his age, the MISSION series has maintained its relevance by showing that its star can really do all the things he’s seen to be doing. FALLOUT takes this reliance on Cruise’s physical prowess to a whole new level, as returning Writer-Director Christopher McQuarrie puts him through all kinds of physical tests to show the IMF team leader is still up to the task. There’s not much doubt that Cruise is heavily involved in the writing of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies, so much of the daring-do up on the screen leads back to him and his desire to bring “more” but better than the last time.

While Cruise’s much-publicised broken ankle is up on the screen for all to see, even more impressive is his helicopter stunt work toward the end of the film. Without ruining the action, Cruise’s determination to hang underneath a moving helicopter marks a high-point for an actor who has always invested himself heavily into what he does and clearly takes pride in being able to do much of his own physical action. Then there’s the skydiving above Paris… That’s a whole new level of testosterone in action!

While the star’s stunt work is the hallmark of the film’s action set pieces, FALLOUT also refines other elements of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series...

McQuarrie and Cruise have decided to use their latest effort as an opportunity to work through a “Best Of” compilation for the franchise that started over two decades ago with Brian De Palma’s 1996 film. The 2018 MISSION features characters and scenes that, in some way or another, all link back to the previous five films. Fans of the series will be thrilled in the way that McQuarrie’s story weaves threads from all of the IMF big screen adventures together as Cruise takes Ethan Hunt on a trip down memory lane that sees him confront (and challenge) his relevance as an undercover operative working in a constantly changing world where the concept of right & wrong and good & evil are not as straightforward as he once believed.

Reason Two to see FALLOUT - The Tom Cruise work ethic...

Besides the daredevil stunt work and the doff of the hat to the M:I movie legacy, FALLOUT works because Cruise delivers his best performance as Ethan Hunt.

The MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films have been building momentum ever since J.J. Abrams took over the reins for the third feature. In the hands of Brad Bird and now Christopher McQuarrie, the series has found a formula that works and each successive entry from the third film onwards has developed the franchise and helped it achieve global recognition in the Spy-Fi genre that is only matched by the JAMES BOND series.

(Matt Damon had it with the first three BOURNE movies, but he seemed to run out of puff with the fourth JASON BOURNE film.)

The reason why FALLOUT feels like it’s the best of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films is because Tom Cruise now has to genuinely work hard to do the same things he did twenty-two years. With age, Ethan Hunt has become the most authentic “Super Spy” going around because his action feels real…

One of the best examples of the film’s realism at work is a huge fight scene, staged in a Parisian Men’s Restroom, that takes place relatively early in the story. Ethan Hunt is forced to partner up with Henry Cavill’s August Walker, a CIA assassin, to locate the film’s mysterious villain, John Lark. Believing they have their man, Hunt and Walker corner Lark and attempt to double-team him. It turns out that their target is not just a villainous mastermind, he’s also an unstoppable fighting machine.

Both Hunt and Walker take an awful beating...

Cavill is thirty-five years old and he looks tired from the intensity of the action. Cruise is fifty-six years of age, but, the great thing is, he doesn’t try to make himself go with Cavill and act like he’s thirty-five. At one point, he doesn’t even look like he wants to get back up and fight. This is the pleasant surprise of FALLOUT. Ethan Hunt (and, by default, Cruise) have, reluctantly, accepted that you can’t win every battle. You just have to find a way to win the war.

It’s twin ideas, of “winning the war” & “saving the day”, that FALLOUT is most predictably predictable, falling back onto the tropes that have been the staple for both the Cruise features and the 1960s TV series upon which they’re based.

Subterfuge and misdirection are the stock and trade of the Impossible Missions Force. There’s plenty of it to go around in FALLOUT, but not a lot of it makes much sense. Unlike the two previous, reasonably well-plotted entries, GHOST PROTOCOL & ROGUE NATION, the new film feels much looser and relies on its action to propel the story forward to a contrived conclusion that doesn’t feel as though it’s genuinely connected to the story’s earlier Euro settings of Paris and London. Series tropes such as the impersonation face masks, electronic voice boxes and the room-within-a-room-within-a-room set-up all make an appearance throughout the film and even viewers with only a passing interest in the series will be able to pick any number of IMF ruses well before the story reveals them.


It does give pause to consider; if these “Halloween masks”, as they are described at one point in the movie, aren’t fooling the audience, then, how are they fooling the villains?

Reason Three to see FALLOUT - The Tom Cruise work ethic…

No matter how ludicrous the situation, the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE ensemble seems pretty well equipped to roll with the punches.

The likes of Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames have learned over the course of multiple films that Cruise is the star, but with each successive adventure, both actors seem to benefit from their leading man wanting them to come along and enjoy more of the ride.

After her excellent debut as Ilsa Faust in ROGUE NATION, it would seem that Cruise is now just as comfortable with Rebecca Ferguson joining the IMF team.

While the likes of Jeremy Renner and Alec Baldwin’s characters have been present in recent outings to spice up the dramatic tension, acting as bureaucratic roadblocks to the IMF team, in FALLOUT Cruise, Pegg, Rhames and Ferguson feel like a genuine throwback to the Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus and Barbara Bain version of the original TV show in its first three seasons back in the late 1960s. It’s a well thought out homage to franchise mythology and, once again, it’s a sign of how much effort Cruise puts into the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films that he would, at this stage, still be thinking to have an ensemble that reflects the heritage of Bruce Geller’s original creation.

Reason Four to see FALLOUT - What other reasons do you need?

None, really.

In relative terms, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films are never going to make much sense. They’re all about the gravity-defying stunts, the edge-of-the-seat vehicle chases and the last second “Save” that prevents the world from going to hell in a handbasket. Audiences have connected with the recent entries, perhaps, as has been suggested, because MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films have supplanted the audaciousness of the Bond franchise, thanks to Daniel Craig’s 007 stories being a little more po-faced when it comes to the ludicrous aspects of Spy-Fi.

Tom Cruise has gotten better with each successive movie and FALLOUT makes Ethan Hunt something more than just a man on a mission. What’s impressive is how Cruise has brought his co-stars closer over the course of the last three films, to the point, where, in FALLOUT, there’s the feeling that the IMF team are a genuine ensemble. Even Sean Harris, as carry-over villain Solomon Lane, feels like he’s becoming a modern day Blofeld to Hunt’s James Bond. There’s a very real sense, even with the closure provided at the end of FALLOUT, that McQuarrie & Cruise might already be well advanced on the next IMF adventure.

The great thing for fans of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films is Hunt and his team will always be needed because, somewhere in their fictional world, there will always be a nefarious scheme to thwart and, fortunately for cinema audiences, the IMF team leader has a problem saying “No” whenever he’s asked whether or not he’ll accept a mission...

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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018) USEFUL LINKS

​Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) - IMDb
​Mission: Impossible – Fallout - Wikipedia
​Mission: Impossible - Fallout - Movie Reviews - Rotten Tomatoes

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