Now its time to review the recent addition to the Mission: Impossible series (at least at the time of writing this) Mission: Impossible- Fallout (2018). The sixth entry to the Mission: Impossible series in my opinion is the strongest one to date. With non- stop action, a heavy plot with a load of twists and tensions between the IMF and the C.I.A.
The film starts off 2 years after Rogue Nation with Hunt being sent on a mission to find some uranium in order to prevent the Apostles (the new name for the Syndicate) from inventing a bomb that can wipe out a whole country. The mission goes sideways as the Apostles steal the uranium leaving Hunt and a agent trusted by the C.I.A August Walker (Henry Cavill) to find more from a dealer known as the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) who is later revealed to be the daughter of Max from the first film. Hunt, Walker and his team track down Lane (Sean Harris) and capture him. However things go sideways again with Walker turning out to be an Apostle known as John Lark. With the Apostles having the uranium for the bombs, Hunt and his team must stop them from destroying the world.
Again the films director is Christopher McQuarrie, who at this point is the director with the most Mission: Impossible films under his belt with another two yet to go into production. Like Rogue Nation, McQuarrie directs Fallout similarly with the non stop action and a heavy plot with a lot of twist and turns. However the film has a slightly slower pace to it for us to engage with the character as there are a lot of big character moments in the film.
Like any other M:I movie, the film has a lot of great action set pieces such as the skydive over France in a thunderstorm where Walker goes unconscious and Hunt as to save him without being caught by lighting. Also the whole chase scene where Hunt and the team capture Lane and run from an assassin (Isla Faust) who is chasing them around town. And of course the third act were Hunt and Walker fight each other on a mountain to reach for the remote that can disarm the bombs from blowing up. Their are a lot of character driven moments in this film which make it us feel engaged with the characters than ever before, at the start of the movie Luther (Ving Rhames) nearly dies as he is captured by Apostle agents as they make Hunt chose between him and the Uranium. For Hunt he has nightmares of Lane killing his ex- wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) who makes her return to the series.
However, like any movies there are some things that drag the movie down a bit. First of all I feel that Henry Cavill's performance as Walker is a little flat, this makes Walker feel a little forgetful as a character and I worked out that he was the Apostle John Lark after he talks to his superior Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) as he frames Hunt as being Lark. I also I felt that the White Widow and her brother Zola (Frederick Schmidt) were a bit underused in the film, while their mother Max from the first Mission: Impossible film didn't have the biggest part, they feel like they were an after thought and I hope they return in a future sequel. Also I felt that Hunley (Alec Baldwin) was also underused as he is only in two scenes and is killed off and feels a shame as he had a lot of potential to become the secretary for the IMF in future movies. One more thing, although this is a minor thing and doesn't really drag the film but they do not explain where Jeremy Renner's Brandt is. Although Renner was filming Avenger: Endgame at the time so he was not available for filming, they don't bother to explain what happened to him or where he is. Hopefully we get to see him in Mission: Impossible 7 which is set to release in 2021 as his Hawkeye series as nothing new since it announcement at the D23 event last year.
Before I give this movie an overall score, I just want to talk about how much the Mission: Impossible movies have evolved over time. The first Mission: Impossible film was a spy thriller that had a lot of tensions for the protagonist, over time the plots for each movie get bigger and bigger with Hunt evolving from the sole survivor of a botched mission desperate to clear his name, to a confident and skilled team leader with a lot of experience under his belt. The stories for each film get bigger and bigger as Hunt is recruited to stop a spread of a man killing virus to stopping a terrorist organisation from building a bomb that can wipe out billions. Also in the first film Hunt didn't use a gun and since then although compared to most action character he uses a gun very little, he still has used one in each movie as well as riding a bike in a chase scene although that might be down to Tom Cruise's obsession with motor vehicles.
Overall I would give Mission: Impossible- Fallout a 9/10- A heavy plot with a lot of character moments however suffers from some underused characters with their potential wasted, also would need to see the previous film to understand half the story of this one.