MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT
Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill and Ving Rhames
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Rated: PG 13
Running time: 2 hrs 27 mins
Paramount
I’m curious if Tom Cruise has in his contracts a clause that says he must run in his films. In early films like “Taps” and “The Outsiders” he ran with others. He was constantly running to school in “Risky Business.” “Legend.” “The Firm.” He raced Robert Duval at the end of “Days of Thunder.” Hell, even though he spends most of the film in a wheelchair, he found time to run in “Born on the Fourth of July.” But none of these films can prepare you for the mileage he covers in his latest adventure as Ethan Hunt: “Mission: Impossible – FALLOUT.”
The film begins with Hunt (Cruise) and his Impossible Mission Force (IMF) attempting to retrieve three pieces of hardware needed to outfit nuclear bombs. However, when one of his force-mate’s life is put in jeopardy, Ethan chooses them over the success of the mission and the hardware is absconded with. Cue the music!
Not only the best of the “Mission: Impossible” films, “FALLOUT” is also one of the best films of the year. After an introductory scene that would have made the opening moments of most James Bond films seem tame, Hunt and company are soon introduced to CIA Agent August Walker (Cavill, out of his Superman uniform but just as bad-assed), a no-nonsense kind of guy who certainly would have let a member of his team die and not give it a second thought.
There are so many twists and turns here that to go into too much detail about the rest of the film would give away some nice plot points. Suffice it to say that Cruise easily covers a few miles by way of his fleet feet. Run, Ethan, run.