Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Written & Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

I’ve never really been into action movies. I am male, straight, and white; the period where I came of age (1980s thru 1990s) seemed focused on hyper-violent action media that people like me were supposed to eat up. I enjoyed the worlds, designs, and ideas behind many of your typical 80s fare. I was obsessed more with heroes who were not action-oriented. Marty McFly was someone I saw as a fun hero. The same with the superheroes in the comic books I read. I never enjoyed espionage or gun-wielding fare. That still remains today. I am okay with guns being part of a film’s story or nuclear bombs or hand-to-hand combat. I just don’t get a thrill from those things. A story with a strong character arc, especially one that is bittersweet, is what really draws me into a narrative. I know some people adore this movie. I thought it was fine. It’s certainly not the worst Mission: Impossible movie, but I’m doubtful these pictures will ever hook me as they do for many others.

Two years after the capture of terrorist Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the fragmented Syndicate has reformed into the Apostles, the remaining true believers of Lane’s plans to remake the world. A mysterious figure known as John Lark has been hired to help use three stolen nuclear devices as part of this agenda. During a mission in Berlin, Luther (Ving Rhames) is taken hostage, and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) chooses his friend over the nukes. The CIA is furious about the IMF, and their director (Angela Bassett) wants her Agent Walker (Henry Cavill) to be Hunt’s partner as they attempt to capture Lark. A fight with a man they assume to be Lark is cut short by the reappearance of MI6’s Agent Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). Hunt takes on the identity of Lark to purchase the nukes from arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby), but there’s a catch. The Apostles want proof of Lark’s loyalty, so he has to participate in the escape of Lane as the terrorist is being transported from one facility to the next. Hunt goes ahead with it only to find the intelligence community believes he has always been Lark and is part of the Acolytes. It’s time for Ethan to go rogue….again….for the fifth time.

Let’s talk about the things I enjoyed in this movie. The action sequences were very well done. The final fight on the mountaintop had great moments but was very long. If you’ve read my previous reviews on this series, you know I like action set pieces that are sharp & quick. Don’t linger. Show me the fantastic choreography, and then keep the story moving. I always appreciate that this series tries to keep the CG effects to a minimum. The most blatant they get in this movie is the skydiving sequence. They were really skydiving; some of the weather and background elements are clearly done in post-production.

The bathroom fight was great. I like hand-to-hand combat in small spaces where the opponent is quite formidable for our protagonist. Seeing Ethan Hunt get his ass kicked helps bring some grounded elements to the story. He’s not a superhero and feels every punch. When Hunt is running across rooftops and stops briefly in the office building, there is a good bit of comedic levity in a sequence that is just unrelenting. Then you have the Lane escape sequence that is done exceptionally well and feels genuinely dangerous for the performers involved. The shot of Lane in the back of the armored van was exciting to look at. I liked how the camera was mounted in a stationary position, so it moved with the vehicle as it flipped over and caused the water to appear to defy gravity. I was reminded of some of Kubrick’s experimental gravity scenes in 2001.

The fact Ethan Hunt has a complete character arc is good. When ongoing protagonists in a film series have things in their lives change permanently. This film manages to resolve Hunt’s relationship with Linda (Michelle Monaghan), which started in MI 3. It’s clearly because McQuarrie wants a romance between Hunt and Faust, which I get. It makes more sense he would get involved with someone in his line of work who would understand long periods of absence and possible death on the job. I am not entirely convinced of this relationship, though, because (as I pointed out in my review of Rogue Nation) there is no sexual chemistry between these characters. There’s a lot of posing & smoldering, but I don’t understand why they have feelings for each other. Are they just impressed with the other person’s spycraft? That seems about as deep as the relationship goes. 

I think Fallout is a vast improvement over Rogue Nation, not just because Huntley (Alec Baldwin) is killed off. McQuarrie is refining his technical skill, but I still feel there is a deficit in genuine character work. There is no rule saying that action movies have to be shallow with their characters. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road does a perfect job of balancing spectacle and character. I don’t know most of those characters as well as Ethan Hunt after six films, yet I understand Fury Road’s characters better than the Mission: Impossible ones. 

What’s happening in the McQuarrie era is a loss of identity in an MI movie. De Palma gave us the vibes of The Third Man. John Woo delivered an over-the-top poetic ballet of violence. Abrams translated a lot of the elements of Alias into his entry. There was a lot of sentimentality in those three movies. Brad Bird’s Ghost Protocol operates as a movie machine with little personality, signaling a shift. That’s my problem with the McQuarrie era. What are these movies? What am I supposed to feel while watching them? I get that they have impressive action sequences. But why do they need to be two-plus hours long? We get exposition to set up the action sequence, then the action, then more exposition to set up the following sequence. This is what Scorsese means when he talks about modern films being more akin to theme park rides. Those rides are fun, but they know they can only drag it on for a while. The longest part is when you wait in line. The ride itself is 10-15 minutes long. Get your thrill and get off the ride. 

What I am talking about is the fact that different people watch movies for various reasons. I am not watching movies to be thrilled by action sequences. I appreciate a good one when I see it, but I have been more hyped and emotionally moved by films without a single punch thrown than I have these Mission: Impossible pictures. Fallout shifts back to something better, but the quality is not where it should be. Some of the dialogue in this movie, which is laid squarely at the feet of McQuarrie, is extraordinarily clunky and exposition-heavy. There is a bit where Huntley talks to Ethan and states facts like “You are loyal to your friends.” I think part of this is making the translations of the movie for the Asian markets easier? But it results in dialogue that sounds painfully childish and simple. 

You might be expecting a review of Dead Reckoning Part One sometime soon. However, I will wait until both parts are out to watch it, so that review will come in 2024. I have no doubt there will be no lack of thrilling moments. I hope we get better-written characters so there is an emotional investment when they attempt these death-defying feats.