Tom Cruise found his franchise, although it took a while for the Mission: Impossible films to hit their stride. For a while, these films seemed like afterthoughts in Cruise’s career, the kind of projects he made when he needed a sure-fire international success to reinforce his box office bankability — or when he wanted to collect a major-league check for playing with cutting-edge gadgets, driving dreamy cars and strolling through exotic locales.
But the third time was the charm, as director and co-writer J.J. Abrams turnedMission: Impossible III into a clever thriller that simultaneously spoofed and celebrated Cruise's screen persona. Brad Bird directed Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which figuratively and literally took the series to new highs.
And now The Usual Suspects director Christopher McQuarrie has taken charge of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, which immediately announces that the 53-year-old Cruise is not about to slow down. The movie opens with a sequence in which Cruise's character, agent Ethan Hunt, hangs on for dear life to an airplane as it's taking off. And that's just the curtain-raiser.
In Rogue Nation, Hunt is trying to take down The Syndicate, a sinister organization devoted to inciting political instability in hot spots around the world. But an unsympathetic CIA director, played by Alec Baldwin, is tired of the Impossible Mission Force's unruly behavior and wants the IMF shut down.
That means Hunt and his reliable team of associates must operate outside the system. In London, Hunt runs into the cryptic Ilsa Faust, played by Rebecca Ferguson, who seems to be a double agent, working for the Syndicate and perhaps undermining it at the same time. Or is she? Hunt trails her from the Vienna Opera to Casablanca (Get it? Ilsa? Casablanca?) and then back to London to learn her true allegiance.
Along the way, there are some outstanding set-pieces, including an assassination attempt during a performance of "Turandot," a trip to an underwater vault, a hair-raising motorcycle chase and multiple twists and turns.
Although the laws of nature should decree that Cruise is a bit old for this kind of thing, he looks quite credible and spry, and he's still got strong chemistry with Mission: Impossible veterans VingRhames and Jeremy Renner. But the movie's ace in the hole is Simon Pegg, in his third Mission: Impossible film as Benji, the technical wizard who provides plenty of humor as he tries to keep up with the hard-driving Hunt.
If the film has a flaw, it's that after nearly 20 years of Mission: Impossible movies, we have all learned not to take anything at face value, so some of the film's "surprises" are perhaps not all that startling.
Even so, Rogue Nation is an enjoyable espionage escapade that should keep spy fans satisfied until James Bond returns to the screen later this year. That tape may self-destruct in five seconds, but the Mission: Impossible series has not self-destructed after five movies.
