'Mission : Impossible' as an original television series ran for 171 episodes from late 1966 until early 1973. The television franchise was relaunched in 1988 for two series with only Peter Graves returning from the original line-up as Jim Phelps. It was only a question of time therefore before someone would grab the concept and bring it to the big screen, and that fell to Tom Cruise who launched the successful movie franchise that has just seen its fifth reincarnation in 'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION' which I saw earlier this week.
With five films over 19 years Tom Cruise has Produced all five, with only two characters having gone the distance and appeared in all films - Tom Cruise as action man Ethan Hunt, and Ving Rhames as electronics wizard and sidekick Luther Stickell. There too have been big name Directors that have helmed each instalment - Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J.Abrams, Brad Bird and last up Christopher McQuarrie - however, the themes, the action quotient, and the 'impossible' set pieces have remained a constant. With a combined production budget of US$650M, the series has so far generated US$2.22B which takes in the most recent film that has grossed already US$152M since its release less than two weeks ago.
And so to 'Rogue Nation', Directed by Christopher McQuarrie for US$150M, in which we we have our intrepid team once again saving the world and saving themselves from all manner of evil foe as they go head to head with a previously secretive force known as 'The Syndicate'. The film opens with a spectacular stunt that sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) hanging off the side of an A400 military airbus as Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg back for his third outing) attempts to engage the planes computer system from the ground to open the side hatch to permit Hunt access as the plane takes off carrying a cargo of deadly nerve gas. Naturally, Hunt succeeds, terrorists are thwarted and the world is saved from being gassed to death.
As Hunt readies himself for his next mission at an IMF sub-station, he is ambushed and then abducted after receiving his all too familiar message which self-destructs in five seconds, but after telling him that unless he turns himself in 'The Syndicate' will hunt him down and wipe out all those closest to him. When Hunt comes round he is tied to a pole in a darkened underground room surrounded by a bunch of eastern European looking heavies who are intent on inflicting all manner of harm on our hero. Aided by undercover disavowed MI6 Agent Isla Faust (Rebecca Fergusson) he escapes, but now knows that 'The Syndicate' is real and that they operate in the shadows undertaking covert international criminal activities often on a large scale, often complex and heavily funded.
The Syndicates mission is also to bring down the IMF, but, in the meantime CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) has mounted a campaign to close up the IMF operations as an outdated, dangerously autonomous, renegade organisation that is out of control and not answerable for the carnage it often leaves in its wake (referencing the previous films here). Hunley is successful and IMF is closed down and absorbed into the CIA - leaving William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) answering to Hunley and tasked with bringing in Hunt who is now on the run; Dunn as an IT desk-jockey; and Stickel in semi-retirement.
With Hunley failing to track down the elusive Hunt, six months pass and we find Hunt holed up in a Paris apartment having amassed a catalogue of Syndicate Agents, their history, movements and operations that all follow a theme of wonton death & destruction. But Hunt has reached a dead end in trying to identify the king-pin, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who was responsible for his abduction earlier on. As Hunt enlists the help of Dunn the action takes us to Vienna where the two meet up and cross paths with Faust after an assassination attempt at the Vienna Opera. From here we move to Morocco where Hunt and Faust must infiltrate an underwater server to ultimately allow Dunn to retrieve a ledger that contains transactional data on how The Syndicate is funded and by whom. Meanwhile Brandt and Stickle have located the other three in down town Morocco and jump headlong in to lend their unofficial support which sees the IMF crew chased down through the back streets and highways of Morocco by the armed, dangerous and motorcycle mounted Syndicate.
After a well executed car and motorcycle chase Faust makes off with the retrieved ledger on a USB stick given chase by Hunt and several other Syndicate heavies. It doesn't end well for the heavies and Faust eludes Hunt which sees him crashing off his bike at 120mph in spectacular fashion wearing no skid-lid, jeans, sunnies and and a Hawaiian shirt - shaken but not stirred with barely a scratch . . . now that's impossible!
Although Faust made off with the USB stick Dunn made a copy which however, is triple encrypted, and only the British Prime Minister can open it with his palm scan, retina scan and voice recognition. How then do they convince the PM to do this . . . sounds impossible too, but naturally, nothing is impossible for our IMF boys. And so we move to London and a charity auction attended by the PM (Tom Hollander) at which Hunley is closing in, tipped off by Brandt as part of the plan to have the PM open the encrypted files.
Through this we learn that The Syndicate was supposedly closed down in its early planning stages as it was believed to be too extreme and not supported by the PM, but Solomon Lane hijacked the project, went rogue and progressed with it anyway. In the meantime Lane kidnaps Dunn and straps a motion sensitive ticking bomb to him that will explode in a crowded restaurant unless Hunt releases the file to him within a certain time. With Hunt thwarting this attempt on Dunn's life, a foot chase follows through the nighttime streets of London that sees Lane face off against Hunt, with the latter as you would expect rising the victor but only after getting punched, beaten and shot at several times by Lane and his henchmen.
I enjoyed 'Rogue Nation' and it has to be said Tom Cruise does it well, the action set pieces are solidly executed, the story line moves along at a good pace, the locations well chosen and the drama is interwoven with just the right amount of humour and emotion to keep it grounded. This is worth seeing on the big screen, and with 'M:I 6' already announced for pre-production in 2016, for me, it's up there with Bond as the must-see franchise when a new instalment is released.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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