Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

We’re cooking with gas now.MI: I has the gadgets and Luther.MI: II has Long Haired Ethan and choreography.MI: III has Julia, humor, a team, and a great villain.Ghost Protocol is where it all comes together for the first time. Ghost Protocol is when Mission: Impossible finds its identity and pacing and tone and they just amp things up from here with each successive film. Ghost Protocol is objectively not the best M:I film (Fallout nudges past it by a hair) but most days it is my favorite. Fallout is on TV all the time and sometimes if I catch Fallout when I’m in the right mood it overtakes GP, but most of the time this is the one for me. It’s the one I go back to most often when I want to watch Mission: Impossible. The jump in quality from 1/2/3 to GP and everything after is staggering. It’s like they are two different franchises, like they rebooted it without ever stopping making them. This is the only film to feature input from Cruise, JJ Abrams, Christopher McQuarrie, and Brad Bird. The fact that this Brad Bird’s first live action movie, and that he has only made one other live action movie since is crazy. He should have done another one of these, he should have done one of the Star Wars sequels, or maybe a James Bond. The whole movie is him going “look what I can do!” It’s just immaculate craftsmanship from beginning to end. The prison break opening sequence is amazing. The silent Kremlin sequence is amazing. The car elevator fight reminds me of Yoda vs Sidious in the Senate chamber from Revenge of the Sith in the best way. Of course, the high point of the film and the franchise both literally and figuratively is the Burj Khalifa sequence. In the history of filmmaking there has been anything like the Burj Khalifa sequence. If you told me Tom Cruise funded the building of it just so he could jump off it for this movie I would believe you. The fact that it isn’t even the climax of the film is a testament to this script. Everything is done with such care, such attention to detail, such smoothness. Everything just flows beautifully from one moment to the next. It’s extraordinary. The Kremlin hallway sequence is some of the most ingenious near-future tech that seems plausible. The water droplet thing is great. The magnet suit is cool. The gloves are kickass. All of the tech is slightly futuristic but none of it is ridiculous. No exploding pens or watches with lasers and tasers. Just very useful stuff. At the same time, all the tech fucks up, which adds an element of comedy and improvisation. What makes this film stand above the rest is the humor. Everything is so god damn funny. Everything Benji says and does is funny, but also TC’s physical comedy is next level here. The whole prison break sequence with Ethan and Benji wordlessly fighting through the cameras is incredible. When he shrugs at the befuddled prison guards waiting for the door to open? Unbelievable. The stuff with the glove while he’s climbing. It’s both perilous and stressful and also so funny. When Tom looks at Renner and says “NO SHIT!” when he notices the line is too short? Howling. Also is this the only time Tom swears in the whole franchise other than an occasional damnit?  This is the second best team in the whole series. Paula Patton absolutely rules. So gorgeous and lethal. Renner is such a breath of fresh air, the only one matching Tom in alternating between intense and funny. When he does the deep knee bends to avoid jumping into the vent? You see why they picked him to almost take over. Benji in the field is the best thing to ever happen to the franchise aside from maybe introducing Ilsa. The ONLY thing missing, and one of two reasons I don’t give this a perfect five stars, is no Luther aside from the cameo. If Tom is the heart of the franchise, Luther is the soul, and it just feels incomplete without him. I so wish we could have gotten one movie with Ving, Renner, Pegg, Ilsa, and Paula together. Alas. Michael Nyqvist’s villain isn’t the best (the other thing keeping this from 5 stars), but he’s serviceable and his scheme is fantastic. Nyqvist’s magnum opus as a villain comes a few years later as Vigo in John Wick! The one thread they don’t pull on that I would like an answer to is where did he get the mask of his henchman? Also, I’ve watched this movie a bunch and it’s the first time I ever picked up at the end when Ethan is walking away listening to his new mission they mention The Syndicate! Tom was 48 when they filmed this and it’s the last time I think he still looks youthful. The hair isn’t quite as long as MI: II, but this might be the best he has ever looked. God he’s a beautiful man. (I’m straight, btw). Also, this is the first Mission: Impossible movie after his infamous couch jump and going on the big Scientology promo tour calling sex pest Matt Lauer glib. In that time frame he makes Lions for Lambs (awful) and then Valkyrie where he plays a Nazi with good intentions (??) and his career and reputation is almost completely destroyed. What happens to movies after that? Marvel. This movie opens with him being literally broken out of prison and saying “if they wanted me out of there, then it must be pretty bad out here.” Meta commentary on the state of his career and the state of the movie industry without him? You be the judge. This movie harkens back to a time when people thought Lost’s Josh Holloway was gonna be a huge star. lol. That’s gotta be producer JJ Abrams’s handy work. Also, they never say it but Holloway’s character’s name is TREVOR Hanaway. I always enjoy a Trevor shout out. Useful spy skill revealed in this film: he can draw.