Since 1996 and over six installments, special IMF (The Impossible Missions Force) agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has been spectacularly ‘figuring things right in the face of danger, often without a plan. In Fallout , Hunt is older and wiser, but definitely not slower. He’s still as slick and smooth, but now he takes time once in a while to pant a little and catch his breath.
‘Same old Ethan’ is at it again and as the franchise is wont to do, there’s a larger-than-life plot where the world is at stake yet again and only one man can save the day. There’s a thrilling plot, with plenty of delicious subterfuge, one-upmanship and double crossing. But that’s not the lure of a Mission: Impossible film. Cruise’s highest grossing film series lassos in its fans with a different charm; it’s the death-defying stunts, the pleasurably perfect fitting of implausible puzzle pieces and of course, the actor himself.
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby
- Storyline: Terrorist outfit, Syndicate wants to destroy the world with plutonium activated portable nuclear weapons. Agent Ethan Hunt has to once again save the day.
Fallout is possibly the best of the six Mission films, with director Christopher McQuarrie (also behind 2015’s Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation ) upping the ante magnificently. The film’s plot is complicated enough to lull you into a sense of comfort with its slightly arduous first hour. But when things start unravelling, it does so by keeping you constantly at the edge of your seat. No one quite does a chase like Cruise and Fallout has them all, from an on-foot cat-and-mouse game to speed boats and even cars. Hunt on a motorcycle will give you all the necessary adrenaline to want to ride invincibly against the flow of traffic. And for the final knock-down punch, there’s a helicopter sequence above snow-clad mountains with gunfire thousands of feet in the air.
In Fallout , three plutonium cores will be used to make portable nuclear devices that can destroy the world. To secure them, Hunt has to pluck the leader of terrorist outfit Syndicate, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) off a police convoy. Previous characters like Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) and fellow agents Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) return. Then there’s the addition of CIA assassin August Walker (Henry Cavill sporting that controversial moustache that got his Superman in trouble in Justice League ).
McQuarrie’s action is superb, at times involving hand-to-hand combat — often with the conspicuous absence of a background score — is intense and potent without the swiftness of an orchestrated and practised attack. Cavill especially shines during his fights, a break from his character’s composed demeanour. It’s easy enough lose yourself in the director’s sleight of hand, but Hunt’s crazy stunts will certainly yank you back to earth. McQuarrie who has also written Fallout , crafts a rewarding blockbuster, succeeding in pushing the envelope with the right dose of humour, an unprecedented amount of action and an explosive bang’s worth of entertainment for your buck.
Published - July 27, 2018 07:22 pm IST
