MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING : Tuesday 20th May 2025.

I saw the heavily promoted, much hyped and highly anticipated M Rated 'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING' earlier this week, and this American spy action film is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. This film serves as a direct sequel to 2023's 'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' and is the eighth and possibly the final film in the 'M:I' franchise. McQuarrie's previous feature film Directing output takes in his debut in 2000 with 'The Way of the Gun', which he would follow up with 'Jack Reacher' in 2012, 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation' in 2015, 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' in 2018 and 'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' in 2023. The first seven films in this hugely popular and successful franchise grossed a total of US$4.14B at the global Box Office from combined production budgets of US$1.5B, with this eighth instalment costing somewhere in between US$300 and 400M, making it one of the most expensive films ever made. The film had its World Premiere screening in Tokyo on 5th May, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival on 14th May and it set for a worldwide release from this week onward although a handful of territories (including Australia) saw its release brought forward to 17th of May.  

Picking up two months after the events of 'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, who also Co-Produces here) in the opening scene places a VHS tape into his recorder and its plays back a message from the US President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) who urges him to come out of hiding and to hand over the two piece cruciform key which he still has in his possession. Once played the tape self destructs within five seconds. And so the trusty band of IMF Agents reassemble and with Ethan and Grace (Hayley Atwell) they go after Gabriel (Esai Morales) who is looking to take control of the 'Entity A.I.' and to bring the world to heel. However, Gabriel captures Ethan and Grace and coerces Ethan into retrieving the core module, revealed to be the 'Rabbit's Foot' (reference 'M:I:III'), from the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol for him, which would give him control over the Entity's source code. Ethan and Grace escape with the assistance of IMF agent Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and new recruits Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Theo Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis). Following a foot chase in a system of disused tunnels adjacent to London's Underground train lines, in which Gabriel successfully evades Ethan, the team uncover a device that Gabriel used to communicate with the Entity, which shows Ethan a vision of a coming nuclear apocalypse. Ethan realises the Entity needs access to a secure digital bunker located in remote South Africa to ensure its survival.

Ethan sends his team, under the leadership of Benji Dunn, to retrieve the Sevastopol's coordinates, while he rejoins Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) to disarm a nuclear device Gabriel planted in London. Luther tells Ethan that he developed a malware for the Entity called the Poison Pill, but that Gabriel had stolen it the night before while Luther was sleeping. Sacrificing himself, Luther stays behind in a vain attempt to stop the bomb, giving Ethan just enough time to escape the bomb's blast. 

Ethan surrenders to President Sloane, who urges cooperation due to the Entity's escalating control over global nuclear systems, with all but four of the world's nuclear armed countries still in control of their nuclear arsenals - Russia, China, the UK and the USA, with the other five having lost control to the Entity already. With only four days before it launches global strikes, Ethan convinces Sloane to let him act independently to locate the Sevastopol, against CIA Director Eugene Kittridge's (Henry Czerny) objections, and that of others including Serling Bernstein (Holt McCallany) the Secretary of Defence; General Sidney (Nick Offerman) the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs; Walters (Janet McTeer) the Secretary of State; Richards (Charles Parnell) the Director of National Intelligence; Angstrom (Mark Gatiss) Head of the National Security Agency; and Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham) a US Intelligence Agent. 

Ethan's team travel to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, home to a Cold War–era sonar station that detected the Sevastopol's sinking. They locate former CIA analyst William Donloe (Rolf Saxon) (reference 'Mission : Impossible'), who was exiled to the island decades earlier after a covert break-in at CIA headquarters, courtesy of one Ethan Hunt. Donloe reveals he memorised the Sevastopol's coordinates after recognising the sonar signature. As Grace, Benji, Theo and Donloe’s wife Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk), hold off an occupying unit of Russian special forces in a firefight, Donloe transmits the coordinates by Morse Code to Ethan, who by now has joined the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush in the North Pacific Ocean to dive to the Sevastopol wreck. 

Ethan takes a deep dive inside a specially designed suit used by the dive-master into the icy cold waters of the Bering Sea. After overcoming several obstacles inside the stricken Russian submarine, he retrieves the Podkova module containing the Entity's original source code, but accidentally triggers the wreck to slide down the continental ice shelf. Narrowly escaping through an empty torpedo tube but having to exit from his dive suit, Ethan suffers from decompression sickness and drowns during the ascent to the surface, but is rescued and revived by Grace and Tapeesa using a makeshift decompression chamber. Reunited with his IMF team, Ethan outlines his plan to use the Poison Pill to upload and isolate the Entity on a one of a kind five dimensional physical drive created by Luther before he died, and so trapping it from the outside world. 

Ethan suspects Gabriel is already waiting at the South African bunker with the Poison Pill, aiming to seize control of the Entity by forcing Ethan to surrender the Podkova module. The team arrives at the bunker in South Africa only to find it abandoned except for Gabriel and his henchmen. He reveals another nuclear device with a twenty-minute countdown, demanding the module. Ethan agrees, but the handover is interrupted by Kittridge, who wants the US to control the Entity. 

The bomb is activated in the ensuing gunfight in which Benji sustains a bullet wound to his stomach. Gabriel flees the scene, knowing that Ethan will pursue him. Paris performs emergency surgery on a critically injured Benji as he falls in and out of consciousness, while guiding Grace to reboot the bunker systems to trap the Entity. Donloe buys the team enough time for everyone to escape safely before the bomb detonates.

Ethan chases Gabriel in a biplane and climbs onto Gabriel’s plane mid-air. Gabriel fails to shake him off despite numerous attempts to do so, and jumps with a parachute while the plane is flying upside down, but is killed after hitting the plane’s rudder head first. Ethan finds a second parachute, escapes with the Poison Pill, and connects it up with the Podkova module mid-descent, so allowing Grace to finish the upload. 

Kittridge and Briggs find Ethan and land their helicopter close by to collect him. Kittridge is frustrated when Ethan hands over the destroyed module of the Sevastopol while Briggs, who is revealed to be James Phelps Jnr., the son of Ethan's original team leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight - reference 'Mission : Impossible') and makes peace with him. The IMF team reunites in London's Trafalgar Square at night time, where Grace gives Ethan the Entity, now safely isolated on Luther's 5D drive, and after acknowledging each other from a careful distance, the team fade into the crowd and go their separate ways.

Here, as with the previous three instalments, Director and Producers McQuarrie and Cruise have delivered us an action spectacular that doesn't let up on the practical thrills and spills, and death defying stunt work that this franchise is probably best known for. Cruise's commitment to his craft is on full display here once again as he pushes the boundaries of his stunt work all in the name of giving his audience a realistic experience to savour. The production values are top notch, but then for a budget of between US$300 and 400M that is to be expected, and the supporting cast are all on point. The plot however, left me feeling a little meh!, and how one man alone could save all of humanity from nuclear annihilation left me feeling just a tad incredulous. That said, 'Mission : Impossible - The Final Reckoning' is a fitting end, or so we are led to believe, to this multi-billion dollar taking franchise that has plenty of nods to those prior seven instalments, and leaves the door open for further offerings, should we choose to accept it, and whether Tom Cruise is up for another impossible mission to save 'those we hold close, and those we'll never meet'! At a running time of just ten minutes shy of three hours, this film will not leave you wanting. See it on the biggest screen you can.

'Mission : Impossible - The Final Reckoning' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE' - Tuesday 11th July 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE' earlier this week, and this eagerly awaited American action spy film is the seventh film in the 'Mission : Impossible' franchise, and is a sequel to 2018's 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout'. This film is once again Directed, Co-Written and Co-Produced by Christopher McQuarrie who also helmed 'Fallout' and 2015's 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation'. The first six films in the ever popular franchise grossed worldwide US$3.57B at the Box Office off the back of combined production budgets of US$828M. 'Dead Reckoning - Part Two' is slated for release on 28th June 2024 with Christopher McQuarrie again in the Director's chair with Parts One and Two being filmed back to back. This film cost US$290M to produce, and has so far grossed US$20M.

Here the film opens up on board a Russian nuclear submarine under the pack ice of the Bering Sea - The Sevastopol - with two high ranking naval officers each with one half of an interlocking key forming a crucifix like shape, insert said key into an AI device that renders the submarine invisible to other foreign vessels so allowing it to stealthily potentially invade any other country's naval fleet undetected. Up on the radar screen comes the sighting of a foreign submarine that the Captain gives the order to arm the torpedo tubes and engage. But the foreign vessel has already launched a torpedo attack on the supposed invisible Sevastopol. As the crew prepare for impact in the closing seconds the torpedo's simply disappear, as does the foreign submarine that the Sevastopol had already sent torpedo's toward. The AI device is seen going into overdrive, as its own torpedo's turn around and head back in the direction from whence they came, detonating on impact and killing every crew member on board, many of whom float to the surface only to be trapped under thick sea ice, with the Sevastopol sinking to the bottom of the sea. 

IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, who also Co-Produces here) is assigned to retrieve half of a key from his ally and disavowed MI6 Agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who has a bounty of US$50M placed on her. He travels to the Arabian Desert, engages in a gunfight during a sand storm with a bunch of bounty hunters and briefly reunites with Ilsa with them both having seen off all the hunters. After staging the scene, he tells her that to all intents and purposes she is now dead, and therefore to lay very low. 

Back in the US, Ethan infiltrates a meeting of the Community, where officials of various intelligence agencies, including former IMF Director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and the Director of National Intelligence Denlinger (Cary Elwes), discuss an experimental AI called the Entity. Originally designed to sabotage digital systems, the Entity turned rogue, expanded to potential sentience, and infiltrated all major defence and military systems and intelligence networks worldwide. The worlds key power players are now racing both to prevent sabotage and to gain control of the Entity, which rests with both halves of the key, although no one knows at this point what the key is for!

Ethan firmly believes that the Entity is too powerful for anyone to control, and so he vows to destroy it. He and his teammates Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the holder of the other half of the key. Ethan evades Community agents as well as Gabriel (Esai Morales), an Entity liaison with ties to his pre-IMF past, before losing the half-key to professional thief and expert pick-pocket Grace (Hayley Atwell). Meanwhile, Benji identifies an item of luggage containing a suspected explosive device sent by the Entity, and he races through the back of house baggage conveyer to locate it and defuse it. With the device counting down from four minutes with a series of riddles to answer, Benji is successful in disarming what turns out to be a fake nuclear device. Rattled by the Entity's seeming foresight and the appearance of Gabriel, Ethan goes after Grace alone, and tells Benji and Luther to abort their mission. Ethan is able to dodge past the Community agents with Grace evading Ethan who boards her planned flight to Rome. When in Rome however, she is picked up by the local Police revealing that she is wanted in several countries for theft, extortion, bribery etc. and is in possession of about a dozen different passports all bearing photographs of her likeness. 

In Rome, Ethan tracks down Grace by pretending to be her lawyer, before Community agents and Gabriel close in. After a lengthy high speed car chase through the streets and alleyways of Rome Grace escapes again, but Ethan is picked up by his team and Ilsa. With Benji and Luther providing support, Ethan and Ilsa infiltrate a party held by arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby), aka 'The White Widow' in Venice, hoping to find the buyer for the complete key, as well as what it unlocks. Grace is also present as is Gabriel. Grace delivers the half-key to Alanna while Ethan fails to talk Alanna out of selling the key. 

Gabriel delivers an ultimatum to Ethan, saying that he must choose which one of Grace or Ilsa is to die. The team scatters, with Ethan being chased down on foot by Paris (Pom Klementieff), a stone cold French assassin working for Gabriel. Ethan faces off in a gated at either end narrow alleyway against Paris and one of her colleagues, overpowering them both, but sparring their lives. Gabriel meanwhile knocks Grace out and kills Ilsa before Ethan arrives on the scene. He is devastated by her loss.

Grace is wracked by remorse over the death of Ilsa and is convinced to join Ethan's team. They prepare to board the Innsbruck-bound Orient Express train where Alanna plans to meet the buyer. Luther leaves for an off-grid location to investigate traces of the Entity on his hard drive. On the train, Gabriel kills the conductor, destroys the brakes and fires up the engine to gain maximum speed. He meets Denlinger, who proposes an alliance between himself and the Entity. Denlinger explains the complete key unlocks the chamber containing the computer of Sevastopol, a Russian submarine sunk by its own torpedo. An early version of the Entity was injected into the system with the task of sabotaging the submarine's stealth capability, but it instead tricked the Sevastopol into destroying itself. This early version is still on the submarine, and whoever can access it can devise the means to either control or destroy the Entity. Gabriel kills Denlinger and attempts to kill Paris to ensure only he knows about the key’s purpose. He further says to Paris that she will betray him to Ethan, because he spared her life. Grace reluctantly agrees to impersonate Alanna, as long as Ethan is standing right beside her in disguise, but the machine which 3D prints their face masks fails as Ethan's masks is being printed. Grace goes it alone disguised as Alanna and brings the complete key to the buyer, who turns out to be Kittridge. Though tempted to betray Ethan for a reward of US$100M and protection for her very good friend Grace, she sides with Ethan just as the bank transfer gives the command to accept or decline the transfer of monies, and so presses decline. She then pickpockets the key from Kittridge, and flees back up the train. 

Ethan, meanwhile, in constant radio contact with Benji is riding his motorbike alongside the Orient Express with the intention of jumping onto it when it slows down to take a bend in the tracks. Little do the pair know that Gabriel has sabotaged the train and it is accelerating uncontrollably. Ethan misses the crossing point and so Benji directs him up to the next point when he can intercept the train. This leads Ethan to ride up narrow mountain paths and fire trails, until he comes to a halt on the edge of a perilous cliff. Benji asks Ethan if he can see the train to which he responds with a yes, and then tells Ethan to jump off the cliff as he has a parachute on his back. And so Ethan does just that, and rides his motorbike off a cliff and successfully lands in the train saving Grace from being shot by Zola Mitsopolis (Frederick Schmidt), Alanna's brother, but Gabriel escapes with the key. 

Ethan overpowers Gabriel on the roof of the speeding train but is prevented from killing him by Community agents Briggs (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis). Gabriel escapes the train and initiates a countdown to detonate the viaduct bridge crossing ahead. Grace and Ethan detach the locomotive from the other carriages and save the passengers, but they are not able to escape. 

Just as they are about to plunge down the broken bridge, they are saved by Paris, who is near death. Paris mutters to Ethan of the Sevastopol before falling unconscious. As Ethan flees the train with a one-man chute, he tells Grace that she can trust Kittridge and that she should join the IMF. Grace then informs Kittridge that she has chosen to join IMF. Ethan meets with Benji when he lands at the bottom of the valley and they drive off with the key that Ethan pickpocketed during the fight with Gabriel, who is seen very angry indeed that his precious key has been replaced with a Zippo lighter. 

With 'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One' Writer, Producer and Director McQuarrie and Producer and star Cruise have crafted another non-stop, heart pounding action joy ride in this franchise that is now 27 years old, and for which Cruise has been playing the titular lead character for almost half his life. And at age 61 now, Tom Cruise does not seem to be letting up on the action set pieces as he prefers to work all his stunts, firmly in the belief that this is what the audience wants to see, and it's what gets bums on seats. And who can argue with that, because it seems to be paying off as 'Top Gun : Maverick' and early reviews of this latest 'M:I' offering would attest to. The film boasts a stellar cast who are all on point, a plot-line that is firmly planted in the present, well choreographed action set pieces that will keep you glued to the screen, stunning locations, a smattering of suspense, some occasional wry humour, and at a run time of just above 160 minutes that flies by and will never leave you wanting. My only criticism is all the angst ridden dialogue around 'The Entity' which if it is mentioned once, it is referenced a hundred times rendering it more like gobbledegook mumbo jumbo rather than the creation of a whole new world order that is implied. That said, next years 'Part Two' can't come soon enough.

'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

TOP GUN : MAVERICK - Tuesday 31st May 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'TOP GUN : MAVERICK' earlier this week and it is finally here, after its originally scheduled release date of mid-July 2019 was pushed back to allow for the production team to work on the elaborate action flight sequences, and was reset for late June 2020. It was then moved to Christmas 2020 because of the COVID-19 outbreak and then delayed again to early July 2021 due to scheduling conflicts and the ongoing escalation of the global pandemic. It was further pushed back to a mid-November 2021 release before its final delay to last week for a global release, following its World Premier at CinemaCon in late April and a screening at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in May in an Official Selection Screening, where it received a five-minute standing ovation. This film is the sequel to the 1986 film 'Top Gun' and is Directed by Joseph Kosinski whose previous film making credits are 'Tron : Legacy','Oblivion' and 'Only the Brave' with the upcoming 'Spiderhead' due for a release on Netflix from mid-June. This film cost US$170M to produce, has so far grossed US$391M and has garnered widespread critical acclaim, with many saying that it is better than Tony Scott's original. 

Following on from the events of 'Top Gun' albeit thirty years down the track, Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell (Tom Cruise), has remained a US Navy test pilot in order to deliberately avoid promotion which would see him grounded rather than doing what he loves - flying. Rear Admiral Chester 'Hammer' Cain (Ed Harris) has plans to visit the airbase where Maverick is located to shut down the hypersonic 'Darkstar' scramjet programme and redirect the funds to drone programmes which he sees as the future. Maverick has taken the jet to MACH 9.0 before but needs to prove that it can fly at MACH 10.0 and so takes the prototype to its speed objective before Cain arrives, and ultimately takes it to MACH 10.3 pushing it yet further into the boundaries of its capability, and ends up destroying the prototype and parachuting to safety before the jet crashes down to Earth and erupting in a ball of flame. Cain is poised to ground Maverick for his recklessness, but his friend and former rival Admiral Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky (Val Kilmer), now commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, intervenes and orders Maverick to NAS North Island as a TOPGUN instructor. 

Upon arrival as North Island, Maverick is ordered to train an elite group of pilots assembled by Vice Admiral Beau 'Cyclone' Simpson (Jon Hamm) and Rear Admiral Solomon 'Warlock' Bates (Charles Parnell) to bomb an undisclosed uranium enrichment plant that is seen by the Pentagon as a threat to the USA. The plant sits in a deep gully with steep mountain terrain on all sides and at the end of a winding canyon and is defended by surface-to-air missile batteries and both old and new enemy aircraft. Maverick plans an attack with two pairs of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets, which will fly through the canyon and destroy the plant, while also exceeding the Hornet's general flight and operating instruction limits. Maverick is initially rebuffed by the pilots, particularly by Lieutenant Jake 'Hangman' Seresin (Glen Powell) and more so by Lieutenant Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick's former best friend and Radar Intercept Officer Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, who died so tragically in the first film.

As the pilots train for their mission watched on closely by Cyclone and Warlock, animosity develops between Hangman and Rooster, who resents Hangman's cavalier attitude towards his wingmen, while Hangman criticises Rooster's caution. As the pilots observe and succumb to Maverick's skill as a pilot they reassess and amalgamate around him. Maverick also reunites with former girlfriend Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connolly), who now owns and runs a popular bar on North Island, and who he hasn't seen for the last three years. He admits that partly the reason for Rooster's reluctance to bond with him is because after Rooster's late mother Carolyn made him promise to keep her son from flying, he blocked Rooster's application to the Naval Academy, setting his career back by four years. Maverick later meets with Iceman, who now has throat cancer and communicates by typing. Iceman reassures Maverick about teaching the pilots before passing away days later. Maverick and the pilots attend his funeral with full military honours. 

With Iceman gone, Cyclone removes Maverick as mission trainer and takes over setting new parameters that are less risky on going in but more risky on coming out. However, Maverick makes an unsanctioned flight of the simulated course with the original parameters, proving that it could be done within a two-and-a-half minute timeframe. Cyclone is reluctantly convinced, and appoints Maverick as the strike leader in a F/A-18E Super Hornet.

The day of reckoning arrives, brought forward by one week because the uranium enriching plant was taking receipt of its uranium deposits a week ahead of schedule. Maverick chooses and pairs himself with pilot 'Phoenix' (Monica Barbaro) and her Weapon Systems Officer 'Bob' (Lewis Pullman) in a two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet, while Rooster is paired with 'Payback' (Jay Ellis) and his Weapon Systems Officer 'Fanboy' (Danny Ramirez). Hangman and the remaining pilots are put on standby. The team launches from an aircraft carrier while a cruiser fires Tomahawk cruise missiles to destroy the landing strip at the air base near the plant. The strike team reaches the plant and destroy it. They are attacked by surface-to-air missiles and a pair of patrolling Su-57 fighters. When Rooster runs out of countermeasures, Maverick sacrifices his jet to protect him and ejects. The remaining aircraft return to the carrier, believing Maverick was killed in action. Against specific orders issued by Cyclone, Rooster turns back and saves Maverick from an Mi-24 helicopter gunship, but is shot down immediately afterwards by another surface-to-air missile and ejects nearby. The two reunite and head towards the destroyed airbase, where they steal an old albeit still working F-14 Tomcat and head back to the carrier. Maverick and Rooster get into a dog-fight with two intercepting Su-57's ultimately shooting them down, but as third arrives and begins to attack they run out of their own missiles, bullets and incoming missile countermeasures. Hangman arrives from standby to shoot down the Su-57, and the planes return to cheers on the carrier, where Maverick thanks Rooster for saving his life, and Rooster says that's what his dad would have done. The pair reconcile their differences.

Following the mission, Maverick and Rooster are seen working together to restore a P-51 Mustang at a hangar close to the test facility where Maverick was previously stationed. Penny arrives with her daughter Amelia (Lyliana Wray), and Maverick takes her for a ride in the P-51.

'Top Gun : Maverick' is a fist thumping, heart pounding, edge of your seat, adrenalin packed thrill ride film that will leave audiences remembering why they go to a movie theatre in the first place - to see big screen blockbuster action spectacle writ large. And this film doesn't disappoint in any of those departments. The aerial flight sequences of which there are plenty, deliver in spades, thanks to Tom Cruise penchant for keeping his practical stunt work real and putting all his other 'pilots' through the same rigorous training regime to deliver the viewer the bona fide in-cockpit experience. The film has fast paced thrilling flying sequences at its core, but it also has emotion, heart, humour and drama that elevates it above the 1986 original, whilst maintaining some of the touchstones from 'Top Gun', including that this is a Don Simpson / Jerry Bruckheimer production, even though the former died twenty-five years ago; the Kenny Loggins 'Danger Zone' plays in the opening sequence aboard the aircraft carrier; Rooster sits down at the piano in Penny's bar and belts out 'Great Balls of Fire' just as his Dad Goose did; and the closing credits make tribute to the memory of Tony Scott, who Directed the original and who died in 2012. All of that said, it is glorious eye candy that still proves that Tom Cruise still has what it takes in the action stakes and continues to raise the bar in all of his own stunt work while bringing an ensemble cast who together are greater than the sum of their parts, and Joseph Kosinski has proven his deft touch at big action spectacle whilst keeping the human element grounded. See this film on the biggest screen you can. 

'Top Gun : Maverick' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT - Tuesday 7th August 2018.

'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT' which I saw at my local multiplex this week is the sixth instalment in the Tom Cruise action franchise based on the popular '60's television series, that since 1996 has been dusted off every five years or so with another big budget high octane screen offering. The franchise launched with Brian De Palma's first film adaptation in 1996, followed by John Woo's Directed 'Mission : Impossible 2' in 2000; then J.J. Abrams took over Directing duties with 'Mission : Impossible III' in 2006, then Brad Bird assumed the mantle in 2011 with 'Mission : Impossible - Ghost Protocol' followed by Christoper McQuarrie in 2015 with 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation'. These first five films have grossed at the worldwide Box Office a combined US$2.8B from a collective Budget of US$650M. Now in 2018 Christoper McQuarrie returns to the Directors chair for 'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' which he also wrote. Tom Cruise Produces too, as he has all other films in the series to date. The film has received universal acclaim from Critics, with many praising it as the best in the series so far with the cinematography, action set pieces, stunt work, storyline and cast performances as being particularly credit worthy. The film cost US$178M to Produce and has so far raked in US$360M since its release Stateside last week.

The film opens up with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) woken from his slumber in a Belfast safe house. He is delivered the ubiquitous package detailing his next mission . . . .  should he choose to accept it. Set two years following the events of 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation' in which Soloman Lane (Sean Harris) was captured with what remains of his secretive anarchic organisation 'The Syndicate', reformed into a terrorist group operating across the world known as 'The Apostles'. Hunt's mission is to prevent the sale of three plutonium cores to the group on behalf of their client, one John Lark whose true identity remains a mystery. Hunt's pre-recorded message self destructs within five seconds, and next we find him in Berlin where he meets up with colleagues Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) to arrange the purchase of said plutonium cores. However, the mission goes awry, leaving Hunt a choice to either sacrifice the cores or sacrifice Luther being held at gunpoint. He chooses to save Luther's life, and lo and behold the cores disappear into the night, courtesy of The Apostles.

The team quickly home in on Nils Debruuk (Kristoffer Joner) and set an elaborate trap to make him confess his involvement and hand over the blueprints for his three portable nuclear weapons as well as releasing valuable information relating to The Apostle's next move. Director of CIA Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) instructs Special Activities Division operative August Walker (Henry Cavill) to shadow Hunt as he attempts to retrieve the plutonium, much to the distrust of IMF Secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin).

Hunt and Walker HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) parachute jump into Paris, where they infiltrate a fundraiser party at a lavish venue where John Lark is set to buy the cores from The Apostles. They track a man whom they suspect to be Lark to a Gents WC, where a fight breaks out between Lark, Hunt and Walker in which Lark gains the upper hand over the other two, but is shot dead unexpectedly by the emergence of Isla Faust (Rebecca Fergusson).

To ensure the successful execution of the mission, Hunt impersonates Lark and meets with an arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, aka The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) acting as a broker, on the basis that she will not be aware of the true identity of Lark. Agents of The Apostles have been sent to kill John Lark and The White Widow, but she and Hunt escape from the private party in a hail of bullets, knives and fist fights with a room full of guests and panicked onlookers. The White Widow has fallen for Hunt's rouse.

Believing Hunt to be Lark, and in order to secure the plutonium, The White Widow tasks him with extracting Lane from an armoured convoy transporting the fugitive through Paris. She hands over one of the plutonium cores as a payment in kind for the mission. Hunt and his team attack the convoy but not as planned, pushing the armoured vehicle into the Seine so saving the lives of numerous Police Officers who would have been collateral damage, and sending the perpetrators into complete disarray. A straight jacketed Lane is extracted from the now completely submerged armoured vehicle by Benji Dunn and bundled into the back of a waiting speed boat and Luther Stickell.

Walker and Hunt drive a panel van as part of their getaway chased down the back streets of Paris by The White Widows henchmen. They then decamp to getaway motorcycles as the van becomes wedged at the end of a narrow street. Successfully evading the Police, but only narrowly, Hunt is picked up in the speed boat by Dunn and Stickell and a hooded and still straight jacketed Lane.

The team of three and a captured Lane now make for a lock up garage in which is stowed their getaway car - an olive green BMW from yesteryear. Upon raising the garage door they are greeted by a random female Police Officer who suspecting that something is not quite right pulls her gun and orders the three and their hooded and bound captive to freeze. Whereupon four of The White Widows goons arrive to take charge of the situation and reclaim Lane. In the standoff the Police Officer is shot but in a non-life threatening way, and the four goons are all rapidly dispensed with courtesy of Hunt. A high speed car chase ensues across Paris, with Hunt skillfully dodging traffic, pedestrians, motorcyclists and all manner of obstacles while also avoiding The White Widow's forces, the Police and Ilsa, who is under orders to kill Lane to fulfil her mission for MI6 and to be able to walk free following her exploits of two years ago when she joined the IMF and Hunt's team. The mission to extract Lane remains successful, whereupon The White Widow instructs the team to deliver Lane, and Ilsa, to London.

Meanwhile, also in Paris, Walker has secretly met with Erica Sloane and spun her a yarn how Hunt is in fact the elusive Lane, and has framed him by doctoring the evidence found on the man they believed to be Lane and who they killed at the party earlier. Walker hands over the dead mans mobile phone containing all the 'evidence' that Sloane needs to incriminate Hunt. Sloane needs little convincing and orders Walker to put an end to the mission by whatever means necessary, even if it means taking Hunt, and his team, out.

The action now moves to a London safehouse in which Alan Hunley confronts Hunt about being John Lark, based on the fabricated evidence presented by Walker to Sloane. Hunt denies these accusations naturally and incapacitates Hunley to continue with their mission. Benji Dunn masks up as Lane for the purposes of the trade with The White Widow, leaving the real Lane under the charge of Walker while Hunt and his crew go off to make the deal. After being asked to monitor Lane, Walker unwittingly reveals himself to be the real John Lark, in association with Lane. But Benji Dunn and the real Lane did the switcheroo and pulled a fast one on Walker which they recorded for all posterity, with Sloane watching in remotely, while Hunt, Stickell and the real Lane were still in the building.

At this Sloane has instructed a shadow CIA team to take Lane, Walker, and Hunt’s team in. The CIA team though has been infiltrated by The Apostles and Walker orders them to attack the IMF team. Hunley is stabbed and killed in the ensuing fight by Walker, who then escapes on foot across London.  Hunt, after bidding a fond farewell to a dying Hunley, chases Walker on foot aided by Benji Dunn guiding him remotely as a result on implanting a tracking device in Walker's neck during the fracas at the safehouse. Walker leads Hunt on a chase across roof tops to the Tate Modern art gallery, where Walker escapes with Lane in a waiting helicopter on the rooftop, but not before making a threat against Hunt's ex-wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) as added security for Hunt to no longer meddle.  

Using the tracking device still in Walker's neck leads the team to a medical aid camp somewhere in the foothills of Kashmir. Faust deduces that Lane intends to detonate the two remaining nuclear devices at a river that crosses the borders of China, Pakistan and India so contaminating the water supply to a third of the world's population. Upon arrival at the camp, Hunt comes face to face with Julia and her new husband Patrick (Wes Bentley) who are both working as Doctors providing voluntary medical aid to the locals. Walker had set up Julia to be there to raise the incentive for Hunt. 

Lane activates the nuclear weapons choosing to stay behind as his work is now done, but seeing to it that Walker leaves quickly so as to be out of harms way when the atomic blasts come, which is counting down to fifteen minutes hence. Lane hands the detonator key to Walker who exists in a helicopter. Hunt takes off in a second helicopter clinging to a payload hanging below, leaving Dunn, Stickell and Faust to locate the two nuclear devices and attempt to disarm them within the next fifteen minutes. Hunt clambers up the dangling payload and into the cockpit of the helicopter dispensing with the pilot and co-pilot before taking the controls. All the while Hunt is negotiating mountainous terrain, cavernous ravines, glacial landscapes and deep valleys under a barrage of machine gun fire from a mightily pissed off Walker in hot pursuit. 

Hunt and Walker continue to engage in aerial combat each from their own helicopter, before Hunt uses his chopper to ram Walker's helicopter out of the sky, causing the two downed aircraft to come to rest on a snow covered cliff edge. Narrowly escaping the remnants of two destroyed helicopters, the pair fight high up on a flattened cliff edge, where Hunt eventually kills Walker by sending him to his death wearing a helicopter necklace that explodes in a ball of flame a couple of hundred metres below. Ethan gains control of the detonator while Stickell, Dunn, Faust aided by Julia, deactivate the bombs with one second to spare. With the two cores safely recovered, Sloane arrives on the scene having sent a rescue helicopter to air lift Hunt off the precipice. Sloane hands Lane over to MI6 aided by The White Widow who has secretly been working undercover for MI6 to infiltrate Lane and his network. Faust is cleared of any wrongdoing and is off the hook with MI6. Hunt, Stickell and Dunn can say Mission : Accomplished, and the world is safe, for another day at least!

'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' is by far and away the best in an escapist action franchise that just keeps on improving with age. Here the Cruisemeister just reaffirms his position at the top of the ladder in terms of balls out epic big screen action commercial cinema where he chooses to do all his own practical stunts for added realism instead of giving way to green screen CGI enhanced effects, and all credit to ya Tom. He jumps, leaps, runs, climbs, clings, fist fights, kicks, shoots and is involved in a foot chase, a car chase, a motorcycle chase, a helicopter chase, jumps from a plane at 25,000 feet and saves the world all in the space of two and half hours of action packed adrenalin fuelled high octane fast paced drama. All the while, the story is believable, the action sequences of which there are many are delivered with a deft touch, the locations spectacular, and Hunt is presented as human after all with emotions, regrets, feelings and a vulnerability that perhaps we have not seen in previous instalments. This is a well rounded film in every respect - from the performances, the pacing, and the practical effects and the McQuarrie/Cruise combo has proved a sure fire winner here that elevates this franchise much further up the food chain. See it on the big screen while you can - you won't be disappointed.

'Mission : Impossible - Fallout' warrants five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-