Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’

We’ve now seen Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), one of last year’s most acclaimed action films. Eh, it was OK.

It starts with a great gag: A terrorist has planted atomic bombs in holy cities around the world. The IMF brings him in but not before the bombs go off. As they watch the news footage, hosted by Wolf Blitzer, they get him to tell them how he did it, including the cancel code. Then they reveal (SPOILER), it was all a put on. The bombs hadn’t gone off, Wolf Blitzer was Simon Pegg in a rubber mask, ha ha! Now they have to go after some plutonium.

The buy takes place in Paris, by the Seine, just like in Ronin. But it goes bad when Ving Rhames get taken hostage and Tom Cruise doesn’t let them kill him. Now the bad guys have the plutonium and it’s all their fault. Because of this, Angela Bassett saddles the team with CIA agent Henry Cavill, with his famous mustache.

So, big car chase through Paris, foot chase in London, blah blah blah. Ethan Hunt’s undercover wife (Michelle Monaghan) is involved, plus his beautiful coworker Rebecca Ferguson and nemesis Vanessa Kirby. There are some amazing stunts, all of which Cruise actually performed, including leaping from rooftop to rooftop (broke an ankle on that one), piloting a helicopter (really learned how), and some zero g stuff in a smashed helicopter hanging off the side of a fjord.

Oh yeah, that fjord is supposed to be in Kashmir. But we just saw Heavy Trip - we know what Norway looks like.

All the running/jumping/flying was great fun. I also liked Simon Pegg’s comic touches, and of course, Ving Rhames just being there. Cavill has a great shambling style, walking with his arms a little ways out from his sides like a gorilla - and that's not even counting his "guns" scene. But the emotional arc of Cruise’s guilt and his wife and all was just “eh” as I said above.

Ms. Spenser declined to watch most of this (very long) movie. But she dropped in for the last 30 minutes or so. She got to see some good stunts (which really reminded her of Heavy Trip), but also had to watch 4 (5?) different women tell Tom Cruise how wonderful he is. Blech!

This is the second M:I movie direct by Christopher McQuarry. I’m afraid they may be settling into a rut. I’ll keep watching for the stunts, but I’m not sure I’m looking forward to the next one.