Review: Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation

It's almost hard to imagine that just 22 years ago, Mission Impossible was released as a cinematic version of an old 60s TV show and has evolved into one of the biggest action franchises of all time and has done so with only six movies. With the exception of the second movie - which we ignore for good reason - the series has only gotten better and better as the years pass and Rogue Nation is no different, inviting some of the franchises most intense moments and a shot of new blood to keep things going strong.

Following on from Ghost Protocol the IMF is under some hard times, despite Ethan's best attempts the unorthodox nature of his work and the destruction it has caused over the years is viewed as nothing more than borderline terroristic and the IMF is shut down and absorbed into the CIA under the direction of Alan Hunley. This comes at a bad time for Ethan who has been searching for a fabled terrorist group known as the Syndicate for over a year and believes to have found a connection between a series of disasters and an attempt to throw the world's power off-balance, during his investigation he has a run-in with a strange woman called Ilsa Faust who helps Ethan while still working for the Syndicate leaving her true intentions up in the air. Ethan tries to get access to some information only to discover that his team is being dissolved, with no IMF and himself being branded a fugitive, Ethan is forced to go on the run.

Six months later and Ethan has been on the trial of the Syndicate ever since with the CIA never far behind, out of his team Brandt is (reluctantly) working with Hunley, Luther is retired and Benji is stuck doing data work. After tricking Benji to Vienna, Hunt enlists his help to find the leader of the Syndicate, Solomon Lane, and prove to Hunley that the Syndicate is very real and very dangerous. However when the Vienna mission crosses paths with Ilsa once again, Ethan realises that he'll have to rely on her to take down Solomon, not really knowing what side she's working for.

It's a strong plot that relies heavily on the Mission Impossible style of never giving the full plot out right away, it's fed through drips and drabs as each new piece of information adds another layer onto the story and it takes the characters to new locations each and every time. However its inclusion of Ilsa that really sets this film apart, without really knowing if she's with Ethan, against Ethan or just working her own angle, she injects the film with a much needed mystery and intrigue since she becomes so important to how everything plays out and you're never quite sure where the film or even her character will go next.

My one issue - and it is a very, very minor issue that I'm sure only I will have - with the story is that there's no mention of Michelle Monaghan's character from the last two movies. I get that Ethan wants everyone to believe his wife is dead but there's no mention of her at all, not even when Ilsa tries to get Ethan to run away with her he doesn't use the fact that he's married as a reason not to go. It's a small thing but after her nice little cameo in the last film I kinda wanted to see more of her or just acknowledgement that she still exists.

The characters were all fun and it's great to see all the returning players back in their roles and do so effortlessly. Jeremy Renner as William Brandt was the only one who first felt like he wasn't given a lot to do, because he was a far more passive character at first he felt like he was pushed to the sidelines to make room for Ethan, Benji and Ilsa. He did get better towards the second act and once he brought Luther in to help him find Ethan before the CIA did he added another layer to the already strong story, particularly when he started questioning Ethan's methods and whether it was really necessary to take so many risks that could blow up in their face.

Ving Rhames was brought back into the fray as Luther, not as big a role as some of the earlier films but it's always great to see him remain part of the team and his computer skills were a vital part to helping Ethan's work in the field. It was also great to see how loyal Luther was to Ethan after 19 years of friendship that he was willing to risk treason to help him or die trying, Rhames always brings it and Luther's one of his best characters so keeping him part of the franchise after all this time is never a bad thing.

Simon Pegg gets a much needed upgrade to his role as Benji and one of my favourite parts of the film was how important he became to the whole thing, primarily as being Ethan's first contact following the IMF's disbandment but more than that, his eagerness and willingness to take on all the risks and all the troubles that Ethan is facing because they are friends and Ethan needs his help proves that Benji has come a long way from his days behind a desk. In a lot of ways this almost becomes Pegg's film at some points as he provides both comic relief and a helpful partner to Ethan's madcap schemes and that importance is only further proved by the turns taken in the third act. As funny as Pegg can be this is some of his best dramatic work since The World's End.

Series star Tom Cruise is of course back once more, and say what you will about Tom Cruise in his personal life, professionally he is a goddamn movie star and never fails to bring that quality to his films, the M.I. series being no different. Now maybe it was the tone of the film or maybe it was just me but I felt like this was the first film is the series to address the fact that Ethan's getting older, or at the very least that the missions are getting harder for him because this is the first film that actually felt like Ethan was going to push passed his breaking point and ultimately end up killing himself. It was an interesting turn to take but Cruise manages to sell that vulnerability to Ethan, humanising him a little more than some of his counterparts - another reason why I wanted to see his wife was because I liked him they managed to stay married and didn't have to resort to the murdered/divorce angle to force Ethan's character - plus it also made the team feel necessary rather than just extensions of Ethan, he genuinally needed them and that level of necessity is rare to find, especially in modern action films so I'm glad to see it becoming part of Ethan's character.

This film added some new blood to the procedings, Alec Baldwin came in as CIA Director Hunley, manages to toe the line between bureaucratic asshole and regular asshole before proving to be a vital part in Hunt's final plan, here's hoping to more from him in future instalments. Sean Harris took the villain role as Solomon Lane, admittedly more could've been done with him, I don't think the series is ever gonna get a villain as good as Phillip Seymour Hoffman in part 3 but to Harris' credit playing an omnipotent background player who very rarely got his hands dirty unless he was sending a message did make him one of the better villains the series has had, the low whispering I could take or leave but I understand the attempt being made with it.

However, the best new character of the film, hell the best character of the film full stop, is Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, this film is not the same without her and it's hard to imagine anyone else playing this role, this is a star-making performance and I really hope that Ferguson explodes after this. What makes Ilsa so great is how fluid she was as a character, you never knew where her loyalties lay and it made watching her so engaging just trying to figure her out, one minute she's helping Ethan escape capture, the next she's arming herself for an assassination. She claims to be working for the Syndicate to help Solomon find what he's looking for and she also claims to be double-crossing him to help Ethan. She can kick-ass without trouble one second and need help the next, whenever she opens her mouth you can't tell if she's telling the truth or lying to save her own ass or something in-between but the point it, everything she does, everything she says has a purpose and it's trying to figure out what that purpose is that makes the character - and even the film - that much better. Ferguson knocks it out of the park, nailing each and every layer of the character, from confident femme fetale to lost and scared and over her head, I can't begin to praise this performance enough and in a year already filled with great female performances, Ferguson is gonna stand out as one of the best.

The film reunites Cruise with his Jack Reacher director Christopher McQuarrie, now Mission Impossible has been a series to always have a new director with each entry, for better or worse this does mean that there's never anything stale with a new movie and McQuarrie proves himself a great fit for the franchise, from his opening, pre-titles scene where Ethan is holding on for dear life on the door of a cargo plane - which amazingly was done for real with no CGI or tricks or anything - you can tell this entry into the franchise isn't pulling any punches and it just grows from there. The opera scene was a lot more intense than I was expecting due to the necessity for silence and the multiple parties involved with Hunt, Faust, and two assassins all vying for the same target, I actually got goose-bumps in that scene which surprised the hell out me cause I never expected to be that affected by it.

Morocco proved to be a triple threat with three big set-pieces coming one after the other and yet thankfully never feeling like it's overburdening the film. Starting with a great and very tense spy event where Hunt has to hack an underwater security programme without an oxygen tank before Benji arrives at a high risk security gate which then moulds into a car chase (complete with humorous pratfall by Cruise after suffering some minor damage from the water) which THEN turns into a motorcycle chase down a highway and into the cliffs. It might sound like a lot but the three of them so close together ensures that there's a never ending stream of fear and adrenaline as you begin to wonder how much further can it go. It also means that the final act in London can be a lot smaller and a lot more personal since the big set-pieces have already been pulled off. Hunt's double-bluff with the Prime Minister is a great scene that reminds us why Ethan Hunt is a spy to begin with and the night-shot, chase through the empty London streets provides a rare sense of unknown dangers and close-combat that hasn't been used in the series all that much, there's actually a knife fight between Ilsa and one of Lane's henchmen that proves to be one of the more exciting parts of the movie despite not being as loud or as fast.

I also really liked how previous missions Hunt has been a part of came up in questing how effecting the IMF and indeed Hunt himself was, Hunley brought up the break-in from the first movie and the Kremlin bombing from the forth as actions against the IMF while Ethan's decision to hand working launch codes to a terrorist (also in the forth film) was brought up to signify Ethan having a history of taking needlessly complicated and risky plans. It was small touched here and there but their inclusion were nice little nods to how far the series has come whilst also providing an answer to a question nobody thought to ask, how does Ethan get away with all of this?

Is Rogue Nation the best Mission Impossible Movie? Probably if the upward trend is to believed and I have trouble believing that as great as Ghost Protocol was it can beat this film, I'll hold off until a revisit to I can see how it holds up. On first viewing though I really liked this film, it adds in a genuine threat and a great new source of mystery with Ilsa, the cast is great with Renner, Rhames and especially Pegg proving themselves vital friends and partners to Cruise's older but never stronger Ethan whilst Ferguson's Ilsa steals the whole film with a layered and difficult to decipher performance. All the while, McQuarrie's direction manages to deliver some truly intense action sequences but never forgetting about where the series came from. A definite for one of the most fun times in the cinema this year and if you're a fan of the franchise this is a must-see.

8.5/10