Mission: Impossible - Fallout

In almost every film some mad man with a nuclear weapon or virus or whatever comes to realize the only person crazier than them is Ethan Hunt, and that’s why he wins. It’s called Mission: Impossible - Fallout because Ethan Hunt spends a significant chunk of the movie falling out of things: airplanes, parachutes, bathroom stalls, Parisian wells, motorcycles, and helicopters (twice). And that is what makes these movies special: Ethan Hunt fails, over, and over, and over again. Nevertheless, he persists.  I have a soft spot for MI: 2, I love MI: 3 despite its flaws, and Ghost Protocol is my absolute favorite because I think it’s the funniest and most fun, but Fallout is truly the only genuine 5 star masterpiece in the franchise. What sets Fallout apart is it takes the vulnerability of the franchise: weak villains, and blows it all up by giving us not one, but two of the best villains in all of movies. Solomon Lane comes back from Rogue Nation completely transformed. In RN he’s barely more than a mildly sinister accountant, all prim and proper with glasses and neat blonde hair. In Fallout he is a full Messianic doomsday cult lunatic, wild eyed, with the hair and beard to match. He feels genuinely threatening for the first time, and when he squares off with Benji and the mighty Ilsa you actually fear he may win. The one thing this film denies us as viewers is a showdown between Ethan and Lane. But McQ makes up for that with easily the most thrilling final confrontation of the entire series with the hulking Henry Cavill’s Walker. The helicopter chase, filmed as if it’s a high speed car chase, is a miracle of daredevil film making. As crazy as it is onscreen it’s even crazier when you realize that McQ is in a THIRD chopper filming everything. They had to shoot it in New Zealand because it was the only country in the world that would let them do it. That’s to say nothing of the HALO jump sequence featuring a cameraman jumping backwards out of a plane at 25,000 feet with a fucking IMAX camera strapped to him (Christopher Nolan could only dream). The Paris car/motorcycle chase rules. The London rooftop chase, with running Ethan/Benji banter is a sublime showcase of their chemistry. And then there’s the bathroom fight, which rivals True Lies and Eastern Promises for best bathroom fight ever.  What gives the phenomenal set pieces their life is the plot. This is the best story in the whole franchise. It’s clever, twisty, original, and completely contrived (but never more than it needs to be!). Cavill’s double-cross is perfectly done and hidden well enough that it came off as a genuine surprise to most people. The growing romance between Ethan and Ilsa, and the final twist of Julia getting thrown back into the mix added emotional intensity. One of my favorite moments in the whole film is the moment Julia and Ilsa have right at the end. This is how it’s fucking done.  The only quibble I have is I prefer the vivid colors of GP, RN, and Dead Reckoning to the muted color palette of Fallout, but that’s the smallest of things. It’s still a gorgeous movie.  Despite being four years older than in Rogue Nation, TC looks incredible in this movie. He somehow manages to look younger here than he does in Rogue Nation even with a shorter haircut. We know I prefer longer haired Tom, but this is the best of all his shorter haircuts. Major props to wardrobe department on Fallout because the jeans, jackets, and boots he wears in this movie are sick. Our boy looks great. Useful spy skill revealed in this movie: he uses deductive reasoning to learn how to fly a helicopter while he is in the helicopter.