Mission: Impossible - Fallout

DVD, Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) film

Tom Cruise has had the opportunity of a lifetime with this film series: to portray a character across twenty-two years of his career in the cinema, with more to come. He started in the Brosnan era of James Bond, outlasting that, continued and reinvented during the Daniel Craig era, soon to outlast that, too, and seen off the Matt Damon Jason Bourne era. How many actors can say they've pulled off such a feat with still more will to continue the role? I wish that we could see more of the Ethan Hunt behind the heroic persona, the man that is ageing yet still continues to battle villainy with every ounce of physical effort he can muster (which is a considerable amount, to be sure). I want too much, I know, but I do wish there was a little of the 'Star Trek II' spirit in the writing - in that film characters reflected on mortality and the changes to life which made things ever more poignant. It's not like they never made any more films and did their hero stuff after that, but it placed them in a vulnerable position. I'm of two minds with this train of thought because my favourite 'Mission: Impossible' is number two when Ethan was the unstoppable action hero, never fazed, reacting deftly and ethically, while never looking like he could fail, his daring legendary, his stamina inexhaustible. But that was almost twenty years ago and he was a comparatively young man then. With III they started something which addressed that, took him out of the field and into training up a younger generation, both for the sake of believability I suspect, and in preparation for when Cruise would be too old to keep it up.

Thing is, he's kept it up, and the relatively dark days of 'M:I4' where Jeremy Renner was groomed to be his successor as the action man of the franchise are long consigned to history, the final indignity for that character being his sidelining in 'M:I5' and now complete absence from 'M:I6,' something I was not concerned about in the least. Nothing against Renner, I wish him well, but I was never impressed with him in either the Bourne or 'M:I' series and if there are to be recurring characters alongside Hunt then they need to have something more than mild likeability. It's fortunate that for the majority of such roles they have worked. As I've mentioned in reviews of the other films I'm not sold on Simon Pegg's Benjamin Dunn, he was only added for comic relief, something that Luther Stickell was more than capable of, as well as the latter's prime position as computer expert ('Everest man'), which Benji usurped making Luther pretty much obsolete except as a mouthpiece to fill people in on the strong and silent Ethan who is quite private in many ways, playing his cards close. The good news is that Benji is much less silly in this film, the bad is that Luther is still largely unnecessary for the story, but the other good news is that he does get some key moments, the main one being his conversation with Ilsa about Hunt's wife Julia, filling her in on the plot to 'M:I3' in touching terms, as well as getting assistance from Julia herself in the field.

Michelle Monaghan's inclusion, even in a fairly minor way, was essential to the missing exploration of Hunt's ageing because her introduction in 'M:I3' was a bold attempt to add depth to the action hero that was the charismatic, but facade, face of Ethan and if she had been excluded for two films in a row it would have made them far more about the action set-pieces, which is mainly what they are about - of course they aren't about examining the human condition and what it's like to get old and lose the former abilities due to the natural process that can be postponed, but not avoided. As someone in their thirties I'm going to be looking for that kind of thing in films, just as when you're young you're looking for the vicarious excitement of taking part in sky-top chases and motorbike speeding, hand-to-hand combat and dealing justice to injustice. But at least Julia adds something to Ethan's real life beyond all the fancy stunts, which is why her scenes add much more weight to plot and scenario, these two of which are really only there to garnish action. Sometimes there's more tension from something personal, however, than any number of nuclear bomb threats, and it came from Julia's presence. When Luther intimates that Hunt and his wife are no longer married, but doesn't actually say the words I was remembering that every film ends in triumph and happiness and was expecting this to follow the pattern. That is until we meet Julia out in a field hospital where she can live out her best life doing what she was made for, the cost being marriage to Ethan. If there was any hope of reunification it's dashed by her having married some doctor and that was a shame.

I saw it as a clear message from the writer that they were admitting defeat: Julia was added in to create complication on a personal level for Ethan. She was his Kryptonite, the secret that could defeat him if used against him, and Ethan isn't Superman any more (even if he does face off against one in Henry Cavill!). In 'M:I4' they solved it by showing she was still there, he couldn't see her, was trapped away from her, but it wasn't the end. With 'M:I5' they avoided the question, making it a surprisingly nonconformist entry in the genre when the action hero and action heroine don't pair up as they do in practically every other action film, and if you didn't know the history you'd probably think it strange for such a traditional film that follows most conventions of the genre, to take a different, refreshing approach. It seems they've at last managed to free themselves of the 'burden' of the Julia albatross hanging round Ethan's neck like the payload from the helicopter, only so they can go back to the typical younger woman who's in the same business so has less chance of being used against him. Hello? Surely she'll be just as much of a liability, if not more so since she has the same job of being an agent for the security service and is going into the line of fire against the villains as much as Hunt. So it doesn't solve the problem in that regard, it just means an 'ordinary' woman such as Julia, who doesn't have the training to take care of herself as an agent could, can have a normal life instead of being trapped. It's a bit of a tragedy: they could have kept the complication and found ways to deal with it to enhance creativity, but they go the easy option and oust her.

I'm not saying I'd like Hunt to retire and sail off into the sunset because without him the series wouldn't be anywhere near as much a draw, but they could find ways to have him move higher up the organisation while still being out in the field - Hunley, Alec Baldwin's IMF boss, managed it (and was killed for his trouble - who will they get next after Jon Voight, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Fishburne, Tom Wilkinson and Baldwin?). The first three films had a sense of progression: the first turned the expected on its head, the second went for style more than anything, the third dialled back and went in an entirely different, real world, grounded direction… and then the series became a little bland in comparison. See, one of the things I loved about them was how different in tone and style each one was, different directors, a new IMF team, but with just enough to provide continuity between them with Luther or the visual trademarks like the outstretched limbs (we had hanging from ropes, hanging in the air repulsed by magnetic force, and last time floating underwater - this time it's skydiving). From 'M:I4' onwards, once JJ Abrams' Bad Robot took over (with 'M:I3'), the films 'calmed down' into something that looked and felt quite samey each time because that's what BR do. With this fourth film in the Abrams cycle they went a step even further from the series' initial unique and varied approach by using the same Writer and Director, Christopher McQuarrie in succession. They'd found the winning formula that would make the most cash and weren't going to allow for experimentation or risk any more, sadly. Much like 'Casino Royale' and 'Quantum of Solace,' this is pretty close to being part two of a duology with some of the same characters and unfinished business moving towards resolution.

I say moving towards resolution because Solomon Lane, the villain from 'M:I5' is broken out of custody (who had him, I'm not sure? Was it the Americans, the English, the French, the Swedes?), and ends the film right back in custody (definitely the English that time, sent to them by the Americans… I think…), but still very much alive. Ilsa Faust, Ethan's semi-assistant in that film is back to learn that he's married, then that he isn't any more, and that's as far as it goes. So I wouldn't be surprised if both these characters come back in 'M:I7,' because if you don't die you've got a reasonable chance. Indeed, Lane is the only villain not to die in the series (Phelps, Ambrose, Davian and that completely forgettable guy in 'M:I4' all bought it big time), and Ilsa did so want to kill him… But as for Julia, I think not. It was a gladdening addition to have a part of it this time when they could so easily have written her out with a line or even just intimated that Hunt is never going to talk about her again, but they take the time for her and the film in consequence is the longest so far at two hours, twenty-one minutes, and never boring! Seeing her in Hunt's nightmare at the beginning was a lovely touch - I knew she was going to be in the film and suspected it would be more than one scene at the end because otherwise she wouldn't have had such a credit, and you can't go more than one film without mentioning someone's secret wife and hold onto credibility. But the guilt of Ethan over changing her life so radically and his nemesis, Lane, being the one to voice it in his head immediately made this film something that was respecting what had come before rather than desperately trying to appeal to new viewers because it's become almost a serial with Julia the main linchpin, and Lane the latter one.

Though that opening wasn't bad (despite the nicked 'Terminator 2' horror explosion), the film didn't have me on board with that. It would have needed a mind-blowing action scene such as the likes of 'M:I2' threw me into to settle me in, and instead I saw more incompetence as Ethan and his 'team' (only two people with him?), manage to lose the deadly plutonium in a bungled exchange. And it really is Ethan's fault because he pulls the same trick as in 'M:I5' when, to save an assassination target's life, he fired to wound before the assassin could kill. This time it's his buddy Luther who's the hostage, but what happened to Hunt's pinpoint accuracy, that old 'how many bullets do you have?' question, followed by 'enough' ('M:I3'). He has to blast out a few shots, taking down Luther (in bulletproof vest), as well as the hostage-taker. I didn't think Luther would be killed off, for one thing they tend not to go that direction unless the character isn't truly important to the audience (Hunley). If they'd had him mumble something about failing eyesight and gone that route through the film, as daring as it would be for an action star to admit to such things, it would have added a new and satisfying uncertainty into the mix. Although, as I said, I liked Hunt best when he was practically perfect and you always knew he would have the answer, find the best solution, save the people and do it ethically, too, the series certainly responded to Bourne's introduction of more physical consequences and so we see him limp for a bit, not quite make a jump comfortably, or have to make more than one attempt at something, like sliding down the rope under the helicopter.

With 'M:I4' they went the humorous route, upping Benji's role to costar and having Hunt forced to look ridiculous on too many occasions as he fails or falters, usually due to technology on the blink, losing the cool image he had. This was probably due to Cruise trying to get the audience on board after his famous public embarrassment, and having us laugh at the character seemed an equitable way to do that. It apparently worked, as these films have remained successful (as has Cruise), and he doesn't need to do this stuff any more if he doesn't want to, but seems to love doing the stunts and getting the rush. Throughout the changes in approach to the character, and I was personally pleased that the silliness was successively toned down with each new instalment, the core of who Ethan was remained the same: an ethical hero. At the point in the film when it seemed like he'd become just like any Bond spy, running in with some nasty people to achieve his goal and forced to personally execute a poor policeman only doing his job, to save himself, I was about to be very disappointed. Then it ends with him back in the meeting and it was all a dream! Well, an envisioning of how the White Widow's gang would operate. I'm always expecting the twists, that's one of the problems with a series like this: how to surprise people that are expecting surprises without turning it into some Russian literature level of convolution. It certainly succeeded on that front at least twice. First with that imagining of the ambush and again with the double/triple twist later on. It was at that point just after the imagined ambush that the film finally had me on board because you're automatically wondering how Ethan is going to get round this obstacle.

I think that's what makes the series work: it's all about the physical, mental and personal obstacles that Hunt has to work around, with, or through, and the joy is seeing how he uses his own skills and those of his team, their gadgets and their faith in him that pulls everything together. Otherwise he may as well be James Bond: go in, shoot the bad guys dead and save the day the short, brutal and relatively simple way. But no, he doesn't like to kill and only does so when he has no other choice, such as when, after kidnapping Solomon Lane, they stumble upon a humble policewoman and he takes down four thugs who are about to kill her. I did wish he could have found another alternative, whether saying something that would have got them to spare her, or incapacitating them rather than shooting to kill, as he always looks cooler when he succeeds against impossible odds (it's not 'Mission: Difficult' as Anthony Hopkins once suggested), or even another opportunity to show that age meant he was slightly less effective. But he generally does a brilliant job of thinking on his feet and coming up with a way in split seconds. Veteran viewers of the series would see some things coming a mile off, such as the tricking of the doctor that had built the plutonium weapons and was lying in a hospital bed watching the TV's report that his bombs had detonated. But I suppose we were supposed to see through that one as it would be a strange film if the bombs had done their business so early on and it was a lovely callback to the very first scene of the first film where they fool someone in the same way, then knock down the set.

That was a little silly, but then this is an action film in a long-running series so of course they're going to do some silly things like dramatically knocking over the set and smugly explaining everything that had just happened, to the intended victim! I can allow them some small victories as things don't go according to plan most of the time. The downside of writing a review after watching a film only once is that you're as busy keeping up with the plot, the names of people, places and organisations and who's doing what and why, where and when, that it's easy to get boggled. The upside is that it's the most honest immediate appraisal of whether a film works or not, reaction without time for preconceptions. And I really didn't have much in the way of those because I hadn't followed the interest generation of its media. Having fallen away from cinema attendance as somewhere overpriced that I just don't like having to go to, I never seriously considered seeing this film in its natural habitat. That's quite a thing to admit because for a while this was one of my favourite film series', without reservation, then it became one of my favourites with slight reservation, then I could no longer say it was one of my favourites, until it has become something I take for granted: I'll see it eventually on DVD, I'll add it to the collection for the sake of completeness, not whether I really like it and are likely to watch it again and again in years to come.

The last time I failed to attend one of them was 'M:I3,' and that was only because I couldn't drum up support and didn't feel like going alone. With 'M:I4' and 'M:I5' I liked them, but neither made me glad I saw them on the big screen, and since it had become an almost inevitable occurrence with any film-going experience I didn't feel any compulsion for this one, and I was probably right, because while it keeps to a certain quality, it doesn't push the format far enough to justify its existence and does continue the feeling of conformity begin in 'M:I4.' I did enjoy it, as I said, it won me over within a reasonable span of time and it kept the attention, had some tension, and while the helicopter stuff at the end was merely reasonably entertaining, I would say as a whole it does some things better than the previous film. But I'd probably still place it fifth in the order of merit: 2, 1, 3, 5, 6, 4. The things it got right were not spending unnecessary time laughing at the characters, taking a more serious tone. The weapon was a genuine threat rather than a vague 'rabbit's foot,' even if the motivation was the same as the baddie in 'M:I4' (to destroy the world and start again, that old plan). The villain was fine, I felt Lane was more interesting this time, despite being a bag of meat to be pushed around most of the time, his insanity taking hold ever more as he decides to stay with the second bomb, and his ragged appearance and few, but enjoyable words, making him much more interesting. My only true preconception was that Henry Cavill's Walker was one of the villains, so I assume that was announced as I got it from somewhere as if he was set to be the main villain and expected him to be unmasked. It dealt with the Julia question. Benji and Luther were about equal in screen time. London was definitely better presented than in 'M:I5,' especially when Ethan does his old man's parkour above the city.

They managed to throw in some unique elements such as Ethan having to protect the villain (and I loved that Lane took so long before finally speaking, never reacting in surprise when Hunt pulls the hood off), the long-time joke of Benji getting to don the face mask was carried off twice and was never overstated in its completion of a running joke. In fact, Benji was not a joke. It is somewhat strange in this day and age to see a big mainstream action film mainly starring three old men as the heroes, but it was good fun, and though Ethan's acrobatics are somewhat less smooth and he sometimes needs help (like the fake John Lark alias only being taken down by him, Walker and Ilsa combined - less heroic, but more realistic), he's still fitter than most people half his age. He gets to do the usual running, the usual motorbiking, the fighting, the shooting, the climbing (I do wonder in what stunt he injured himself as that was one thing I did hear about the film), and there's a surprising lack of dependence on gadgetry - I increasingly see the use of more analogue technology in these recent films, like the vinyl record player in 'M:I5' and the stopwatch or wire clippers in this one, so I wonder if Cruise's own preferences are coming out as you'd expect them to use only ever more sleeker tech, the more it takes over ordinary lives. But perhaps tech is now so common and everyday that it's hard to come up with things that impress? In that regard the one thing that stood out was the face mapper. Sadly, we didn't get to see the face mask printer (even there, 3D printers have become a normalised piece of kit when, back in 2006 and the debut of the mask printer in 'M:I3,' such things were still science fiction!), but a scanner that maps a face so minutely and transfers it to a printable file was a bit more to be seen of that familiar tech, though I'm surprised they don't really come up with dazzlingly inventive devices or ways to use them.

Not that they didn't use tech, it's just ordinary stuff like cameras, laptops and drones, not allowing themselves to run wild. Maybe that was the right direction to go as things were fast approaching the futuristic sci-fi with the screens that could project a false view of a corridor in three dimensions ('M:I4'), and that sort of thing, and this film, as well as the previous, seemed a bit more grounded, which in turn makes the stakes seem higher. No one gets bruised, a few moments of staggering is enough to see off a pesky motorbike crash, but that's how action fare works. You're not going to get Rambo-style self surgery or the heroes in hospital beds (although once everything was done, that's where Ethan ends up, so maybe I was wrong and it was just a case of battling through the pain until you have the luxury of relaxing time for medical attention?), otherwise the missions would have to take place over months! If I'm going to nitpick it would be much more about story logic than conventions: the biggest issue was why Walker needed to have a trigger for the bombs when they were already on a countdown? That's the point of a countdown, they go off automatically when the clock… counts… down… Unless it was an emergency trigger in case the clocks froze or failed in some way. The authorities ignoring major accidents or protocol is another: the police bike that waves the convoy on to the backup route could at least have checked to see if the driver of the overturned lorry required first aid before speeding off! And why weren't Ethan and the team accosted at the medical camp? They had no ID, no medical outfits and they just wander around, sometimes running, without ever being asked for an explanation, and there were definitely soldiers there so security should have been alerted, not to mention no one hearing Benji smashing padlocks off cases in a tent!

You have to embrace the plot holes in these things, because if you don't how can you enjoy it? They should be ironed out, there should be thought put into stories instead of disguised with speed and distraction, but then again it's possible that any queries had an answer, they might have thought it through - all they needed to do was a line of dialogue (the police rider saying an ambulance was on the way, for example), or a sound or cut (an ambulance siren, or shot of it on the way!), and problems can be solved: a little thought goes a long way. On the whole it seemed pretty well designed, the characters were pretty well integrated, with no annoying ones, the locations were nice, though I could have sometimes done with a better sense of place as we go from capital city to capital city, and while they look different, the close buildings could sometimes make locations blend together. I think it was St. Paul's Cathedral that Ethan runs through during a funeral, but it would have been nice to have a better sense of it, like breaking into the CIA in the first film, or the Vatican in the third. This was a little too fast from place to place. That said, I didn't feel the editing was too fast paced. Back when 'Quantum of Solace' came out it seemed that if the trend continued we'd be having films with every scene of one or two-second cuts, but that hasn't been the case, thankfully. One area that fell down was once again not pumping out the classic theme music enough during action sequences, and the score was very much influenced by Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Not necessarily a bad thing, and I was glad Michael Giacchino wasn't back for yet another in the series, but I'd have liked more bombastic 'M:I' music, personally.

There were plenty of connections and references to other films in the series, but they tended to be either subtle that could be interpreted as such, or could just be a fact of doing the same kind of things - for example, the 'pull up, pull up: terrain, terrain' warning from the helicopter brought to mind the plane approaching the mountain in 'M:I2,' and it was probably meant to, but equally it could have been there because that's what happens when a flying vehicle is approaching terrain! There are a lot of motorbikes, and didn't Ethan come off one in just the same way in 'M:I5'? Again, could be a callback, or could just be a coincidence. Fighting the villain to the sound of drums at the end? 'M:I2.' Those things weren't as important as using key elements from previous films as essential in telling the story, and for someone like me that loves any of the continuity they allow (and it's not at the forefront because they want to appeal to anyone that hasn't seen them, too), it was beautiful because it feels like these are real people living in a world that is continuing, even though it's fictional. That's one reason why I still like to see these films come out every few years (and they seem to have upped the schedule dramatically, perhaps to take advantage of Cruise before he really can't jump off buildings and the like, and also because Paramount isn't doing too well and needs as many successes as it can pump out to ensure its survival, it seems!), and a few years ago I was just glad of things like this continuing, whether I loved the instalments or not.

I'm still somewhat of this mind when it comes to some things, but not of others. 'Star Wars' I'd be quite happy if they never made another film again because I feel it's so bland as to have lost what made it special. The same for Paramount's 'Star Trek' films - if they can't make Trek right, then why make it at all? The advantage with 'Mission: Impossible' is that it's always been nothing more than an action film franchise - I'm still surprised they haven't set up a modern TV show, however, because like Trek, it's one of those brands that has a format that can still work, though there have been plenty of spy dramas over the years, Paramount split in two and no longer does TV shows, and the point of 'M:I' is more about huge spectacle in the films, not complex character arcs. My point is that 'Mission' doesn't need to try and be 'better' than it was, it just recycles the same adventure-type stunts and threats. The difference used to be in how that was presented, as I keep saying about the first three films. With the films after, and to some extent, thanks to Julia, including the third film in that stable, they've become, not stale, or even predictable, but set in their ways. This could change if a radically different director was given the chance, but that's less likely as long as Cruise and McQuarrie like working together because they've found a partnership that works for them. I'd love it if they got someone like John Woo again, but even going back to old aesthetics isn't necessarily the answer - they've already changed patterns in one small way: if you look at Hunt's hair, it alternates long and short with each film, until this one, which suggests they weren't going to follow every trope they'd chosen before, or that Cruise doesn't feel it suits the age of the character now, perhaps.

That's just a minor thing, and I really only mention it jokingly, but at the same time it is like they've become set in one exact style, one that the current audience expects. They don't want to do anything too drastic, they want to keep Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames. They'll probably keep Rebecca Ferguson, so even the team isn't changing as much as it used to. The risk averse Hollywood knows to make a sure thing is impossible, but once you stumble upon a formula that works, you stick to it. This means that I continue to be only mildly interested in the product because it's remaking the same thing I already own, and unless they do make real changes to the characters (and I don't mean killing them off), the series could die out. That hasn't happened with some things, like the Marvel films, but it has to eventually. Nothing lasts forever, and it's an achievement for Cruise and the rest that 'M:I' continues to be a recognisable brand for current and past generations of filmgoers. Do you keep doing what you do, the same way, hope people stay pleased, or do you come up with something radical? In 'M:I3' there was a moment when I thought they might actually kill off Ethan Hunt. It came close, not that I wanted it, but it would have shaken things to the core. I still don't want people killed off, but I'd also like them to link into not just these recent films, but the older ones, too. If I had requests for the future it would be to bring back Niah from 'M:I2,' as she was a great, selfless character. Just because Thandie Newton turned down 'M:I3' (and how different the whole series could have become if she'd been the wife), doesn't mean she's still uninterested…

Although technology is commonplace now, it still preys on the mind as we think about the coming changes to life that seem inevitable: robots, genetics, hybrids, proper sci-fi societal stuff, and 'Mission' could be well placed to trade in these concerns and questions. Again, I'm not expecting the series to suddenly become a mirror of society or explore deep themes, but there's nothing to stop them from going down that road to some degree. I'm always looking for a series to stretch its concept without breaking it, which is how I felt about the first three films. I'm still glad Hunt is a character that endures, I'm still glad Luther is his man even now (the closest we get to admitting age is when Benji asks why he has to play Lane, and Luther compares his filled out frame with Benji's body type with a look), and that echoes of films I love are still being planned - I think I heard they're making two more back to back, but I could be wrong. But what I'd really prefer is to have another film I really love rather than one I merely enjoy. I'm fully prepared to admit that this is unlikely and a daunting challenge because I've grown older over the course of the franchise and they still want to appeal to younger viewers, especially when someone like me isn't supporting it meaningfully by cinema attendance. But if they want to get me to attend then they will need to advance in some way, and to their credit they did so in this one by dealing with Julia, so it is possible. We'll see. Until then, I have to say this is enjoyable enough, but not quite what I would deem a properly good film, despite coming closer to that ideal.

**