Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

"That's a high speed chase! You just had to get the four-by-four, didn't you?!"

Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is trying to prove the existence of the Syndicate, a mysterious and dangerous group of international spies.  His actions, and the rest of the IMF, are called into question by CIA Director Alan Hunley (Baldwin).  Hunley convinces Senate committee to roll the IMF into the CIA, despite protests by William Brandt (Renner).  Brandt is able to warn Hunt, who goes off the grid.  Hunt stays just one step ahead of the CIA for months, while Benji Dunn (Pegg) is forced to undergo weekly polygraph tests to keep his job and Luther Stickell (Rhames) retires.

Benji receives opera tickets and travels to Vienna where is met by Hunt.  Hunt believes he is close to proving the existence of the Syndicate, but needs Benji's help to identify and track a mystery man and woman.  The woman is Ilsa Faust (Ferguson), who is undercover in the Syndicate.  Hunt saves her life and she reluctantly agrees to help the two take down the Syndicate, with an agenda of her own.  Meanwhile, Brandt and Luther team up to find Hunt and Benji, who have targets on their backs.  Can Hunt and his team clear the IMF and take down the Syndicate before more people are killed?



The Mission: Impossible franchise is still going strong.  Like the previous films, this is a stand-alone film with dramatic stunts and near impossible feats.  All of the films follow the same basic premise (with minor alterations and a few exceptions): Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt is given a mission, assembles a team, and then something happens that puts him at adds with his own agency or another government agency that ups the stakes for Hunt and the team.  I still haven't seen the third film, but the only film that deviates from the pattern above is the second, which is the only film to see Hunt get his mission from IMF and not have any turbulence with that agency... it is more of a man vs. man (or team vs. team) film.  There is at least 4 years between each film, and so far each film has had a new director: Mission: Impossible in 1996 (directed by Brian de Palma), Mission: Impossible II in 2000 (directed by John Woo), Mission: Impossible III in 2006 (directed by J.J. Abrams), and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol in 2011 (directed by Brad Bird).

The film begins in the middle of a mission and culminates in the plane scene depicted on most movie posters and the trailer.  The action continues from there, with a intricately paced and choreographed scene in a Vienna Opera House and the big heist later in the film.  As usual, Cruise does many of his own stunts and dives right into the action.  In this film, he meets his match in Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust.  Ferguson gets the chance to show off her fighting skills throughout the film, and regularly saves Cruise's character (a  nice change of pace).  Simon Pegg's Benji even gets in on the action, even though he is mostly on hand for comic relief.

In addition to Cruise and Pegg, Ving Rhames is back as Luther (the only character beside Cruise's Hunt to appear in every film).  Jeremy Renner also returns as William Brandt.  Alec Baldwin is good as the CIA Director who doesn't understand the IMF or their methods.  The only weak point is the villain, played by Sean Harris.  He isn't particularly menacing or memorable (he's just bland).

Overall a decent action film, and a good addition to the M:I franchise.  A 6th film is planned... with the return of McQuarrie as the director.


Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) 131 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, and brief partial nudity
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt
Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn
Jeremy Renner as William Brandt
Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust
Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell
Sean Harris as Solomon Lane
Alec Baldwin as CIA Director Alan Hunley
Jens Hulten as Janik "Bone Doctor" Vinter