Raising the bar for action films

Hollywood action movies are like fast food, something you consume not for its health benefits but to appease your taste buds. Tom Cruise knows this better. With his hallmark character Ethan Hunt, the 56-year-old international action star has kept it real in serving up his more than 22-year-old tent-pole franchise ‘Mission Impossible’ that has upped the bar for action genre, a genre which has otherwise been completely dominated by superhero movies. The series was adapted from a 60s TV show featuring secret US agents working for a fictional intelligence agency named the Impossible Mis­sion Force (IMF) that deploys them in high-stakes missions to save the world. Cruise’s version kicked off in 1996 and the latest installment ‘Fallout’ is the sixth outing of super-agent Ethan Hunt. It’s surreal to see a series outdoing itself with each new sequel.

 

Both Hunt and the franchise have done the impossible and improved in tone and approach over these years. Hunt has grown from a boyish daredevil to an emotionally mature one. And the series, as it is handed from one ace director to another, has been able to stay rel­evant to new generation of action fans with its original and grand action set pieces.

The new mission pits Hunt and his team against a terrorist group known as the Apostles. This group is made up of the remaining members of the anarchist organization called the Syndicate that Hunt’s team suc­cessfully infiltrated, capturing its leader Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) in the previous film ‘Rogue Nation’. This time Hunt is after the leader of the Apostles, someone named John Lark, who wants to get his hands on three plutonium spheres to equip nuclear weapons that will wipe out one third of world population and create a new order.

On Hunt’s side are Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stick­ell (Ving Rhames) and a new CIA operative August Walker (Henry Cavill), who is there to track Hunt’s each and every move and report it back to his superior. Then there’s ex-British secret agent Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who criss­crosses Hunt’s plan to recover the plutonium spheres.

‘Mission Impossible’ is known for its breathtaking action sequences. Hunt sparring with villains on the roof of a speeding bullet train, Hunt sprinting in the narrow alleys of Shanghai or Hunt dangling from Burj Khalifa. Even when these sin­gularly spectacular action moments from the past films are fresh in our minds, ‘Fallout’ never plays the safe game and gives the audiences what they want: a high-stakes plot pep­pered with edge-of-your-seat action.

The real charm of ‘Fallout’ is Tom Cruise giving his everything to make Ethan Hunt an empathetic action hero. With so much climbing, jump­ing and diving that Cruise does in his action avatars, clocking at least one action film a year, he plays Hunt with remarkable energy as if the film’s frantic pace flows from his character’s bloodstream. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie throws Cruise in one dangerous situation after another, giving him little breathing space. If it wasn’t for Cruise’s unwavering dedication, the action pieces would’ve fallen flat.

But ‘Fallout’ isn’t all about stunts and Ethan Hunt leaping from every­thing and everywhere. McQuarrie is thoughtful in using the story and characters to drive the big stunts. His screenplay explores the inner dynamics of Hunt’s friendship with teammates Benji and Luther, chips in a romantic thread between Hunt and Faust, and wonderfully plays with Hunt’s conflicted loyalty with his own government.

So McQuarrie punches in a dra­matically charged script with his technically brilliant filmmaking. ‘Fallout’ may or may not be the final film of this exceptional series, but it is by far the most enjoyable and best adventure of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.