Unlike the past movies in the series, Mission: Impossible - Fallout is directly tied to the last entry. It truly is a companion piece to Rogue Nation, continuing the story and featuring many of the same characters. Where you could fall into the previous chapters in the M.I. franchise with just a some surface knowledge as to what it was all about, Fallout demands that you've seen its predecessor.
If I didn't know better, I would think Mission: Impossible - Fallout was the bookend to the franchise. The way everything comes together reminds me of that last episode of a television show that knew ahead of time it was getting one last chance to say or do something and tie up loose ends. It also seems like their was a conscious decision to call back to or pay tribute to most of the past entries in the series. Their are obvious homages to many of them, from 1996's Mission: Impossible to MI2 to Ghost Protocol. Some are more apparent than others.
Tom Cruise brings his A-game and then some to Mission: Impossible - Fallout. I would venture to say he does at least two times the amount of stunts here than he has in any of the other movies. He's constantly jumping on to or off of something. When he's not doing that he's riding a motorcyle, driving a car into oncoming traffic, or flying a helicopter into the side of a mountain at breakneck speeds.
Henry Cavill is just a beast in Mission: Impossible - Fallout. I believe his nickname in the CIA is the Hammer, and he earns it. He's like a blunt object that just forcibly moves any object out of his way. When he stands next to Cruise in scenes, he towers over him like Frankenstein's monster over an angry villager.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout is very much an ensemble piece. Each character gets his time in the spotlight. Of course, Ethan Hunt is the center of the story, but Benji, Luther, and Ilsa all get their chance to shine as well. Even Alec Baldwin gets a bigger role in this one.
The action sequences in Mission: Impossible - Fallout are just ridiculous from start to finish. I honestly can't even fathom how most of them were even shot and from what angle. There are many sequences that were clearly filmed from a camera mounted on Tom Cruise and they really give you a unique perspective of what the actor saw as he was doing his own stunts.
I don't know how Tom Cruise and Company do it, but every time they release a new Mission: Impossible movie, it somehow is better than the last. Rarely can that be said for a film franchise, but I don't think I'm in the minority when it comes to this opinion.I give a lot of the credit to Cruise because, let's be honest, he really is the glue that holds the whole series together.
YOUR mission, if you choose to accept it, is to go see Mission: Impossible - Fallout as QUICKLY as POSSIBLE!
Mission: Impossible - Fallout is rated PG-13 for violence and intense sequences of action, and for brief strong language. The only language that really surprised me was when Henry Cavill drops an F-bomb. The violence is pretty standard for the series and nothing out of the ordinary.
Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) directed and wrote Mission: Impossible - Fallout. It stars Tom Crusie, Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Fergoson, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett, and Michelle Monaghan. The movie runs 147 minutes long.
