Review of Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) by Wayne_Posh — 15 Aug 2018

The production of Tom Cruise’s sixth installment in this decades-old spy series was famously put on hold following a near disaster during the filming of a stunt in which Cruise’s Ethan Hunt attempts to leap from the top of one building across a chasm to the safety of another building. The failed stunt resulted in fractured ankles and 8 weeks of delayed production. The buildup, publicity and the motivation behind this stunt is a perfect analogy for Mission Impossible: Fallout. The minds behind this film set out to create a eye-catching, edge of your seat spectacle and succeed despite several near misses.

The premise here is that Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his Impossible Mission Force team of spies botch a nuclear arms deal and are tasked with retrieving the goods by any means necessary while under the watchful eye of the CIA with a thuggish Henry Cavill acting as babysitter long for the ride on the IMFs exploits. Along the way, the audience is treated to a series of amazing action set pieces including a death-defying skydiving sequence, shootouts, chase-sequences, and the aforementioned leap of faith. Along the way, Simon Pegg does an excellent job of providing the levity and the excellently relentless Rebecca Ferguson acts as foil to Cruise’s Hunt. If the casting sounds familiar, it should since many characters and plot points carry over from McQuarrie and Cruise’s previous collaboration (Rogue Nation), and it is ultimately to the film’s benefit as the casts dynamics work well and helps to flesh out this universe that the filmmaker seems to be building. There are laughs; there are thrills; but most importantly, there is motivation for all of these people to be on screen together which doesn’t feel forced or unnatural. However, despite everything this movie does well, there are a few hiccups along the way.

To be fair, at a runtime of 2 hours 28 minutes, the movie does not drag or punish you for sitting through it. The filmmaker at work here does a good job of pacing the action to allow the audience time to breathe and soak in the splendor before jumping into another intense scene. In addition, the exposition (and there is a lot of it) feels natural as spies need to be briefed and debriefed on missions and does not give the audience many reasons to doze off during scenes that don’t contain running or shooting. What does happen though is a case of over extension. Fallout contains what seems like a natural, traditional first, second and third act; yet it decides to cram in a fourth act for the heck of it at the 2 hour mark. It’s almost as if McQuarrie and Cruise wanted to begin the sequel to the film before the credits rolled. And this is what’s unfair to viewers: subjecting them to the overindulgence of the filmmaker rather than giving them a movie going experience they are not soon to forget for the RIGHT reasons. Besides this, the movie also seems to waste great actors at the expense of Cruise’s screen time. Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett and Alec Baldwin all essentially provide cameos when their characters seem to warrant more. And most egregiously, Henry Cavill’s brash, roguish super spy (a role he seems born to play) is unfairly pushed aside on several occasions.

Despite a few missteps, and a challenging runtime, Fallout provides a spectacle that few other movies are able to accomplish these days. It awes, provides laughs, and constantly reminds its audience why some movies just have to be seen on the big screen. Similar to the aforementioned stunt mishap, Fallout has every intention of impressing its audience with the sheer size, danger and gall it takes to constantly raise the stakes in a genre that relies on tropes and familiar plots. But as the real-life story showed us, no matter how meticulous the planning that goes into such a risk, it does not guarantee a perfect shot.