Preview: Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in this sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. He’s joined by his IMF team in a race against time to stop a anarchic cell from creating a bomb using black market plutonium and killing millions.

This film contains all the double and triple crosses and people pulling their faces off to reveal that they’re really other people that you could possibly want. The elements that you’ve come to know and love are all here in this installment, the amusing banter with sidekicks, the love interests, the big bad guy and the bad guys who are masquerading as good guys, Tom Cruise running, and some really big set pieces.

After six installments, you’d expect the series to be flagging, and yet this film really packs a punch. Unlike a lot of modern thrillers, the plot is neatly and clearly laid out (we’re looking at you, Michael Bay) and doesn’t sacrifice character for spectacle. It has a lot of fun with it’s little “here we go again” style in-jokes, and creates a sense of friendship and fun, which is nicely off set by the action sequences.

And at 2 hours 27 minutes, this film really packs them in. I expected this film to lag at some point with that long screen time, but actually, it fills the time beautifully. There are some excellent car chases and shoot outs, which are always fun, but it really outdoes itself with it’s larger action sequences. I don’t want to spoil them, but knowing that Tom Cruise likes to do his own stunts and things, I really felt on the edge of my seat watching them and some of them really looked like they hurt!

It’s also really beautifully shot, and there were a few times when I wondered how they could have got some shots that seemed to glide around action scenes so well, or one stunt shot in Paris shot at magic hour that must have had to have been captured in one take.

On the whole, it’s a really entertaining action film, and well worth the ticket price to see it on the big screen.

See It If: you like fast paced action films, it has great set pieces and will please Mission: Impossible’s fans as well as newcomers to the franchise.

BONUS: After the screening, Sarah Cook of Movies On Weekends and I recorded their first podcast, a First Reactions recording taken in the lobby of the cinema. It’s quite fun and irreverent, and captures our immediate reactions to watching. You can listen HERE.