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Ethan Hunt and the IMF team join forces with CIA assassin August Walker to prevent a disaster of epic proportions. Arms dealer John Lark and a group of terrorists known as the Apostles plan to use three plutonium cores for a simultaneous nuclear attack on the Vatican, Jerusalem and Mecca, Saudi Arabia. When the weapons go missing, Ethan and his crew find themselves in a desperate race against time to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
Review :
source:digitalspy
With the addition of Ethan Hunt's former wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) from the third movie, Fallout is immediately given more depth than previous outings and the stakes feel higher, with Ethan Hunt (Cruise) haunted by his past mistakes. However, a downside to this is that the movie is so intent on feeling epic that it's slightly overlong, clocking in at almost two and a half hours.
But by the time its breathtaking final third kicks into gear, you'll forgive it that slight niggle as it delivers the best spectacle we've seen this year. At times, even IMAX doesn't feel big enough to contain it.
Putting aside the direct connection to the previous movie and the series' first returning director in Christopher McQuarrie, it's pretty much business as usual for Ethan and the IMF. A shadowy offset of the Syndicate calling themselves the Apostles has got their hands on some plutonium and his mission, should he choose to accept it of course, is to track them down and stop them before they can unleash a nuclear disaster on the world.
This time around though, the CIA has decided to 'help' out Ethan's team with the addition of August Walker (Henry Cavill), on hand to ensure that if Ethan has to make the tough choice, he makes the right one. There's no possible way this can go wrong, right?
What follows is the usual, winning Mission: Impossible mix of spy games, double – and triple – crosses, chases of all kinds and extended set pieces in various locations around the world. Where the series has improved as it's gone on is that there's an added playful edge to it all. It knows it's utterly ludicrous at times and it doesn't care as it's laughing along with you.
Everyone involved knows what movie they're in, too, and dutifully plays their role, even outside of the ever-reliable mainstay trio of Cruise, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames.
One of the most welcome returns is that of Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust and it's to her credit that, two movies in, you still get sucked into her shady games and have no idea if she's trustworthy. Of the newcomers, Henry Cavill has the biggest role and Fallout makes full use of his considerable frame with some muscular fights, while The Crown's Vanessa Kirby relishes her enigmatic White Widow role, even if she is underused.
But you don't really come to a Mission: Impossible movie for the cast, you come for the action – and you will not be disappointed. With impeccable stuntwork and crisp direction, Falloutdelivers intense and thrilling set pieces that pack a punch with a weight and realism that few other blockbusters can match. What's more, each one feels like something other action movies might use for a climax. Here though, a skydive through a lightning storm or an extended foot chase through and above London is just the warm-up.
The climactic and vertigo-inducing set piece is, quite simply, extraordinary. Its sustained intensity makes the climb outside the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol feel like a gentle stroll in the park, and just when you think it's got about as crazy as it's going to get, it just takes it up another crowd-pleasing level. What's most impressive about it is just how involved you get, even though you're fairly certain they'll succeed. You'll be able to count the number of breaths you take during it on one hand.
It's hard to see how they can top it, but we've thought that before in this series and happily been proven wrong. There does feel to be a sense of finality about Fallout, yet we imagine the only thing impossible about the movies at this stage is believing there's any stunt Cruise would look at and go, 'Nah, that's too much for me'.
And after you've successfully unclenched every muscle once the Mission: Impossible – Fallout credits roll, you'll be grateful that there's a movie star out there like Cruise willing to put everything on the line for your entertainment. It's astonishing he only broke an ankle.
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