Tropic Sprockets / Mission Impossible: Fallout

By Ian Brockway

Action fans are in luck…again. Christopher McQuarrie (MI: Rogue Nation, Jack Reacher) directs Tom Cruise in another chapter of “Mission: Impossible.“ This one is titled “Fallout.” No one does action better than Cruise and he doesn’t disappoint here. The film benefits from cliffhanger sequences with superb editing and a score to match. There is scarcely a lackluster segment to be found. It is no exaggeration to say that the suspense is maintained from start to finish.

Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes on the interception of plutonium from the hands of terrorists. There are sound reasons for this of course, but the explanations are secondary to the combat, which is basically as always, a fight between good vs. evil. This is Tom Cruise’s oeuvre and he’s a pro. There is something of the old time cinema here. Cruise delivers each wallop with a wisecrack almost, but not quite, like a Cary Grant or a Harrison Ford sans brown fedora. More to the point, Cruise has a “what, me worry?” sense of humor that makes the bone crunching more palatable. One moment Ethan Hunt is sipping a drink and in the next he is firing someone through an entire wall. Hunt is not known for pleasantries and it is all done with a slight cartoon effect in the manner of a graphic novel.

All the better.

Sean Harris reprises his role of Solomon Lane from the earlier chapter “Rogue Nation” while Henry Cavill of “Superman” fame is excellent as a sociopathic agent who is a machine of impassivity.

Like the others, this sequel is a kind of Bond film but with a more comic feel around the edges. Simon Pegg is here again and he is able to show his everyman persona that audiences love.

Who needs James Bond when you have Ethan Hunt? And who else can fly a flaming helicopter through the air like a bronco? The sequences have a Rube Goldberg feeling of absurdity that is surreal but this is precisely what makes it so entertaining. Tom Cruise may not know it but he is almost a Salvador Dali acrobat with a square-chinned mug, a Harold Lloyd of the millenium.

“Fallout” has some of the best action scenes to be found anywhere and it is edited with such impactful immediacy that it acts as a potent antidote against any carbon copy superhero epic. This new episode does one thing that so many action films rarely do: it induces surprise. You will jump and hold your breath. Better still, you will be actively interested in what happens next.

Write Ian at [email protected].

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