Mission: Impossible - Fallout

The Mission Impossible movies have each used a different top director (and in the case of J.J. Abrams created one) and as a result each film has a distinct look and style.  Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote and directed Rogue Nation, returned for this film.  McQuarrie has worked with producer/star Tom Cruise a lot over the past decade and the two deliver what I feel is one of the action films ever made.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout faced two major challenges.  The film was in development in 2016 and then cancelled briefly as Cruise renegotiated his deal with Paramount, hoping to mirror a deal he had made with Universal for a planned franchise of monster movies.  Eventually they came to terms but it almost cost the production McQuarrie since he had assumed the project was off and moved his family away from London where production had been planned for.  The second challenge was that Cruise broke his ankle about halfway through production doing a jump from one building to another.  Cruise famously does all of his own stunts and his commitment is impressive for anyone, but especially someone who was 54-55 during filming.  I wonder how Cruise is able to get insured for these films or if he will have additional trouble doing so in the future. 

Lately the Mission Impossible films are coming out more frequently.  The first three films, made at the height of Cruise’s popularity, were released over a 10 year period when he had many other high profile projects.  The last three have come out over 6 ½ years.  Cruise and Paramount clearly recognize that Mission is his only guaranteed winner at the box office.  The three films Cruise made between Rogue Nation and this were Jack Reacher: Never Look Back (an ok sequel to a slightly better smaller scale action film based on a series of books), The Mummy (which I saw on a plane and thought silly and harmless) and American Made (which played like a lighter Goodfellas and in which Cruise gives a very colorful performance as a real life pilot who was also a drug runner).  Reacher and American Made were minor successes and The Mummy was seen a big failure.

The plot of Fallout builds off the last three films and combines the visual spectacle of Ghost Protocol with the intricate plotting of Rogue Nation and the heart of Mission Impossible III.  The Mission Impossible series initially distinguished itself by giving each entry have a different feel than the others due to very different directions, akin to the Alien series.  The biggest jump would probably be in the first trilogy where the story changed from a twisty thriller in the original to a full on action film in the second to a third which combined spy action with a domestic drama.  Other than the presence of Ethan and Luther there was little to connect each entry and the other members of the IMF teams were interchangeable.  At the end of III when Ethan and his new wife Julia happily left IMF in the final scene on III I figured the trilogy was over as Ethan was going on to a new life. 

Ghost Protocol had some connections to the past, but the initiation of Christopher McQuarrie as writer/director for both Rogue Nation and Fallout has made those two films feel like one big story as Salomon Lane, played by Sean Harris, returns teamed up with a new villain, Augustus Walker, played by Henry Cavill.  Vanessa Kirby plays a new character, the White Widow. McQuarrie also wisely brings back Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa, Alec Baldwin as Hunley along with Simon Pegg as Benji, Ving Rhames as Luther and Michelle Monaghan as Julia.  Jeremy Renner’s Agent Brandt is absent this time.  Although I like the character he was not needed in this story.  

Soloman Lane was a strong enough villain (and the Syndicate has enough presence in Mission Impossible lore) that it was a good idea to bring him back for a second film.  As his circumstances have changed Lane has morphed from the controlled bespectacled manipulator to this slightly more unhinged Unabomber look.  Lane is still alive at the end of the film so he could be used again though I think his story has been played out. 

In previous posts I have mentioned before that each Mission Impossible film has a well-respected actor that the team reports into.  Although Hunley is here again, now much more supportive of Ethan than in Rogue Nation this film also adds Angela Bassett as the CIA director who is senior to Hunley.  Bassett brings an edge to this no nonsense chief and it is about time that the IMF team reported into a woman.

Henry Cavill as Walker nicely compliments Lane.  Even though the trailer had already revealed Walker would be the antagonist it was fun to watch him and Ethan in a buddy cop routine for the first half of the film.  Although Cavill is the current Superman I quickly forgot about it as because although he has played Superman three times to date the films are not as beloved nor have they been re-watched as much as the Christopher Reeve films.  Cavill is the first major antagonist to pose a serious physical threat to Ethan as he is bigger, stronger and about 20 years younger.

Spoilers abound below:

To set up the plot Ethan and CIA agent Augustus Walker are sent to recover plutonium that a group called The Apostles, which the IMF team lost in the opening sequence.  The Apostles is led by the imprisoned Solomon Lane. Through a connection with the power broker known as the White Widow, Ethan is forced to break Lane out of prison in Paris to access the plutonium.  Ilsa Faust gets involved as she is under suspicion by the Mi6 and needs to kill Lane to prove she was not turned in Rogue Nation.  Walker frees Lane and the IMF team follow Lane and Walker to Kashmir where they plan to explode a nuclear bomb (fueled by the stolen plutonium) in a medical camp.  Julia, about whom Ethan has been having guilt ridden dreams since she has been forced into hiding because of him, and her new husband are running the camp which is near a big water supply that would be contaminated. 

Although McQuarrie is back much of the principal behind the scenes crew is different.  Rob Hardy is the new cinematographer and gives the film a dark yet more elegant look.  Paris, New Zealand and London  look gorgeous with closely framed movement in the respective action scenes.  Hardy often sets up long fluid takes that establish geography, make the action clear and enhance the look of the spectacular locations (Paris, London and New Zealand, and Norway).  The framing feels classic and I far prefer it over fast cut action scenes that I often find disorienting. 

The editor from Rogue Nation, Eddie Hamilton returns.  His cuttings works in conjunction with Hardy’s work both allowing the scenes to breathe but keeping the pace up.  There is a new composer, Lorne Balfe.  Balfe’s score gives a higher level of drama and suspense and includes just the right mix of Lalo Schifrin’s theme.  The score has several highlights but I particularly like the bongos and choir of Stairs and Rooftops from the London footchase, Escape Through Paris, and Mission Accomplished.

Cruise gives his best performance as an Ethan who is guilt ridden and tormented by Lane.  Most of the film is told from Ethan’s point of view as was Mission III, which also looked at Ethan as a character.  Cruise as Ethan rides a motorcycle, climbs up a rope up to and then flies a helicopter, runs, jumps from building to building, hangs off the bottom of an elevator, climbs a mountain, has several vicious fights, and does a HALO jump.  McQuarrie matches Cruise’s ambition and the two make all of these stunts as exciting as possible and ensuring they serve the story, which has several of McQuarrie’s trademark twists.      

Below are some thoughts I had while watching the film.

As the film is about Ethan’s guilt about Julia taking an assumed identity the film appropriately starts by setting it up and ends with it being resolved.  The beautiful outdoor wedding ends up becoming a horrific scene which is a metaphor to Ethan feeling he has destroyed Julia’s life.  I remembered their actual wedding in a hospital chapel in III as very simple.  When it cuts to Ethan waking up alone on a floor it is a marked contrast to the life he used to have with her which was in a nice house. 

Ethan’s compassion for others is a recurring theme.  He looks after Benji, Luther, and the female cop in a scene similar to one in The Town.  In contrast to Cruise’s own Jack Reacher or some other ruthless heroes Hunley correctly identifies Ethan’s strengths as finding ways to not cross certain lines which is refreshing. 

An interesting pattern is broken with this film.  In the odd numbered Mission Impossible films (I, III, and Rogue Nation) Ethan’s hair is short and in the even numbered ones (2 and Ghost Protocol) it is long.  Fallout is part six and Ethan’s hair is short so I suppose it will have to be long in the next two films to put things back on track.

The action sequences are all multilayered and form part of the narrative and include character development.  Tomorrow Never Dies had a cool HALO jump that was immediately forgotten as Bond landed in water and began looking through a shipwreck.  The HALO jump is far more ambitious as Ethan spends the fall trying to save Walker, disregarding completely that he, Ethan, does not care much for Walker.  Ethan’s value of human life comes first.

The HALO jump marks for the beginning of what must be an exhausting evening for Ethan.  Ethan and Walker jump out of a plane, Walker loses his oxygen tank and Ethan eventually reaches him and gives him his own, they get into a brutal fight in a bathroom, and then they have to fight several guys off in the club. 

The bathroom fight shows how violent Walker is in using the computer to knock out the decoy and then shows the different fighting styles of the three combatants.  Walker and Ethan are losing this fight badly and are only saved by Ilsa, who makes a fantastic entrance into the film.

Vanessa Kirby’s White Widow (and the connection to Vanessa Redgrave’s Max from the first film).  Kirby gives her an unsettling stare, looking with amusement often without blinking.  The White Widow is a power broker playing both sides in much the way her mother did.  The film could have done without the sexual overtones between the White Widow and Ethan.  In a film where Ethan’s heart is clearly focused on two other women this beat felt out of place.

The breakout of Solomon Lane in Paris is this film’s heist sequence.  The music and framing Ethan’s vision of the worst case scenario lets the audience feel his horror.  It is brilliantly structured going from the powerful trucks, to the motorcycle pursuit, highlighted by the ride past the Arc de Triumph, and capped off by the escape into the boat, which McQuarrie only reveals to us after the police discover it. 

Early on in production I saw some footage of the motorcycle chase being filmed in Paris and I wondered if the series was repeating itself too soon as there was just one in Rogue Nation.  Also I do not favor that type of chase so I did not excite me.  When I saw the finished sequence I was happy to be proved wrong as the entire sequence (which forced Ethan to do probably the last thing he would have ever wanted to).

In Rogue Nation there is a car chase in which Ethan drives a BMW in Casablanca in which he is chasing Ilsa on a motorcycle followed by a full motorcycle chase.  In Fallout it is reversed.  There is a motorcycle chase (sort of-Ethan is on a motorcycle being chased by cars), followed by a car chase in which Ilsa on a motorcycle chases Ethan who is again driving a BMW (though a 1986 model). 

The film sets up a potential showdown between Ilsa and the White Widow which is ultimately dropped.  The John Lark plotline is dropped as soon as Walker is exposed as a traitor.

Benji has always wanted to wear a mask and gets to twice in this film.

The London sequence is a big running showcase for Cruise in which he chases Walker from St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Tate Museum mostly on rooftops.  Cruise apparently performed most of the chase soon after returning from his ankle injury.  There is a shot in which leads to the jump to the other roof which is actually two shots stitched together.  If you look closely when Ethan runs by some scaffolding it cuts and his hair changes indicated where the cut took place.  I would not want to be the employee explaining to management why I encouraged Ethan to break the office window to continue the pursuit against Walker.  The finale of the chase shows Ethan running at seemingly Olympic sprinter speeds matched against the London skyline.  Benji’s instruction and cheerleading throughout the sequence make it a comical take on a similar scene in III.   Even though Ethan catches up to Walker he loses the contest as Walker very easily has the drop on him. 

Rhames gets an intimate scene with each Ilsa and Julia which give him more to play with than he usually gets.

Did Benji know Julia is alive as he was told in Ghost Protocol that she was dead?  He left before Ethan told Brandt in that film and Luther has him leave when Luther tells Ilsa. 

The helicopter sequence left me gasping for air, to say nothing of the characters.  McQuarrie gives us a helicopter for each of the two combatants to raise the stakes (rather than just have them fighting in one).  Ethan seems to be learning how to fly and has to reach this detonator without destroying it first.  The brown and gray colors of the background filmed in New Zealand  give the scene a fresh look, especially when Ethan is climbing up the rope to the top of the chopper which is obviously pretty high up.  I love the shared look of disbelief he and the henchman give each other when Ethan gets into the chopper. 

The crash is both spectacular and edited in a way that we can believe both men are hurt but not killed.  McQuarrie gives us a couple of shots from inside the helicopter as it crashes which increase the horror.  When the now injured Ethan has to overcome this mountain of a man on the high cliff it gives the film the fight between Ethan and Walker that we have been waiting for, though I feared for Ethan here.  Cavill has a strong moment when Walker gradually gets his bearings and reveals his now disfigured face.  The fight is not just thrilling because of the setting but due to Ethan’s efforts to get through Walker to get to the detonator.  The finale of the struggle on the cliff side recalls Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but also gives a delayed payoff to the otherwise somewhat vane cliff stunt from MI2 since we know Ethan knows how to climb a mountain.  McQuarrie and editor Hamilton wisely do not show Ethan removing the detonator but reveal it after a cut to white.

Balfe’s score over the next couple of scenes is reminiscent both in tone and overall effect of the use of “Time” by Hans Zimmer at the end of Inception.  In both cases the theme is used as an emotional release after a particularly intense struggle that has affected all the main characters.  Both Ethan and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Inception have cathartic moments during the sequences.

Although apparently Cruise and McQuarrie thought that Ethan’s marriage was resolved in Ghost Protocol audiences, including myself, were unclear.  My reaction to Julia’s brief appearance was that Ethan and Julia were still married but living apart.  Julia looked happy but there was still a sense that she was living in hiding while Ethan is having these cool adventures.  Ethan’s flirtation with Ilsa in Rogue Nation made this even more uncomfortable.  Fallout tastefully gives Ethan closure and treats Julia with a lot of respect.  Julia’s getting married it shows that she has moved on. 

Julia’s husband notices Julia’s tension when Ethan appears and asks Ethan a lot of questions.  The tone in which he calls Ethan “Doc” at the end is a sign that he knows Ethan has given a story.  I think Julia may have told him some or all of the truth when Luther tells her “go be with your husband”.  It may explain why her husband leaves in the final scene without question (otherwise why is his wife asking to be alone with another man).   Although Julia is living in hiding she has not changed her first name, which could have been confusing to audiences.

The care Julia and Ethan’s still have for each other is tender without being romantic.  Julia absolves Ethan by stating that she is happy and feels safe because of who Ethan is and what he does.  It is refreshing to see a film in which the ex-lover of the hero is neither bitter (a la Taken) nor still longing for the hero (a la 24: Live Another Day), nor dead (a la many other actions films).  Since Julia has been targeted several times in the series due to her involvement with Ethan that if she appears in future Mission Impossible movies she should not be endangered again unless it were some sort of outside threat.  I like seeing Ethan more vulnerable but not out of character.

There is a clear affection between Ilsa and Julia and some sort of conversation occurred while Ethan was asleep.

The door is now open for Ethan and Ilsa to get together.  Ilsa notably is still the prominent female lead in the film and has her own dilemma about trying to get to Lane.  Ilsa’s best moment in the film is the beautifully framed scene in the garden in Paris.  The moment where she says “You should have come with me” calls back to the warmest moment in Rogue Nation.  At the end when Ilsa comes to the bed he immediately notices her bruises and Ilsa seems uncomfortable as she likes to be the one looking after others.

There has been some debate as to whether the Mission Impossible series has surpassed the Bond series in terms of spectacle and stunt work.  As a longtime Bond fan my thoughts are that it does not matter.  I think Bond is a more fascinating character than Ethan but none of the Bond actors, though they are pretty dedicated, go to the lengths that Cruise does with the stunts, nor would they be allowed to.  There’s plenty of room in the action world for both franchises that emphasize real stunt work and I encourage them to inspire each other. 

As we are on this track, the Bond producers may want to consider hiring McQuarrie at some point as he clearly has a feel for this type of material and can bring it enough spectacle.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a complete triumph and a highwater mark for the series. (One of these days I really need to watch the original series-I have been holding off since I know it would be different than the movies)*****