Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Walking into a Mission: Impossible instalment, one would usually expect for the regular dose of stunning action sequences that define the title. But, ain't no audience in the world ever thought we'd be getting an arthouse action movie under the disguise of the most mainstream film franchise in cinematic history!

The Mission: Impossible series has reached a comfortable financial status, with the first 5 films having grossed over 2.7 billion dollars worldwide. If there's ever a better time to take risk, it is definitely now. And writer-director Christopher McQuarrie has done exactly that! Screenwriting is deservingly the most expensive investment one could ever pour in for the rendition of a motion picture. It requires painstakingly laborious brainstorming sessions, with drafts after drafts being sculpted all the way up to an exceptional final scripted product. Mission: Impossible - Fallout is an exceptional final scripted product!

What the film did so aesthetically was, it took a protagonist we are all familiar with and rammed him through a series of arduous, difficult and head-spinning choices to make from start to finish! The complexity of what it means to be Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) was explored so eloquently this way! To save a friend or secure the plutonium. To rescue a terrorist he spent a whole movie previously catching or go against a trusted confidant. To allow the henchmen to kill the female officer or stand up for her instead which would in turn blow his cover. To pretend as a merciless killer in the form of John Lark by proving he is who he is or lose the one opportunity he has. To give up the manifesto for a live telecast in return for crucial information or buzz off. To surrender a friend in exchange for the courier contact or not. Each and every choice Ethan Hunt made broke him and drove him right into dreadful failures plus serious consequences, before permitting him to reap complete success plus satisfying rewards at the end. That's precisely the basis of screenwriting, ladies and gentlemen! What do you get by strictly following the basis of screenwriting? A terrific fucking movie!

Not only the hero's character development was clinically focused here, the story was also strong and full of conflicts! Walker's (Henry Cavill) suspicion towards Ethan Hunt's ulterior motive added a new layer to the narrative! Competitions for the same goal from all corners created tougher obstacles for the main character. Arguments about difference in strategies spiced up the interactions. Seeing the IMF team breaking hurdles one by one to achieve their goal via constant improvisations despite damaging reverberations truly adhered the tale to its theme: "The greater the suffering, the greater the peace."

Christopher McQuarrie as the director has focused on an aspect in Fallout that was never really paid much attention to in the previous entries - the acting performances. Apart from navigating the storyline with utmost steadiness, the characters we know and love were given equal amount of importance. Ethan Hunt is incomplete without Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames). The latter two's banter have always been what we've wanted to enjoy! Luther's heartfelt relate to Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) was one of the best scenes written! The same can be said about the conversation between Luther and Julia (Michelle Monaghan) over diffusing a bomb. Henry Cavill was a good addition to the long-running saga and left a memorable mark, together with the ever-threatening Sean Harris as Solomon Lane and Vanessa Kirby as the White Widow. Too bad Jeremy Renner couldn't join the set due to his Marvel Cinematic Universe commitments. With a robust collection of cast like this, chances of anything going wrong are minimal.

With a lot being different, we still got the same flavors we anticipate to see in a Mission: Impossible feature. Subtle humors worked big time! Bumping into a female officer during prisoner heist and lavatory cubicle misunderstanding were hilarious! Some of the revelations were fantastic! The staged hospital bedroom and news broadcast channel was too cool, reminding us of the first segment from the first movie! Walker's true colors being exposed over and over again with Benji dressing up as Solomon was funny and exciting! Mission parcel inside Homer & Odyssey with neat and minimalistic presentation spelled the goal vividly to us and the protagonist. Although there were fancy gadgets in this one too, the practicality of it was at its best approximate to reality, such as the smartphone-controlled car. The dreams lent good foreshadowing to Ethan meeting his ex-wife during pre-climax. It was a sentimental moment that raised the stakes more than ever before. Expositions were glazed across nice and easy too. With payoffs fulfilled with long-coming confrontations and loose ends tied to little sweet bows, an amicable resolution was achieved!

A Mission: Impossible movie discussion isn't worth anything without mentions about the stunts and action sequences! Holy shit! If anyone in the theater hall falls dead due to cardiac arrest, the filmmakers have to take the blame! That severe was the intensity! Toilet brawl, mission to rescue Walker during the HALO jump before an abrupt landing, Ilsa grappling with Solomon while saving Benji in the process, Ethan hanging onto an elevator bottom, plutonium deal gone south, building run and jump across church, office and rooftops, truck collapse, driving a lorry in the tightest alleyway possible, non-stop motorbike chase on Paris' busiest streets with opposing vehicles coming right at you, Solomon Lane trapped underwater, solo car and bike chase between Ethan and Ilsa plus the entire nail-biting climax where Ethan hops onto a helicopter package, crawls on top of it before falling, gets into the chopper, races like a madman through canyons, clouds, mist and valleys, crashes and gets stuck inside a narrow rock fledge, fisticuffs with the antagonist at the edge of a cliff and stops the nuclear bomb detonation before the clock hits zero! All of these stunts were done live, advanced immaculately with practical and visual effects our normal eyes can't differentiate! For a project that's worth millions, this is for sure the quality of choreography we aspire to witness on big screens!

Rob Hardy's stylish and slick cinematography was the VIP of this joint! Cloud view with lightning beneath airplane, Ethan standing on top of a skyscraper staring at a departing helicopter and ascending another helicopter via a rope with mountains at the background were phenomenal eye candies! All the tracking shots were amazing as well! Some of the settings displayed in this picture will remain unforgettable for the rest of our lives, such as the square trees garden, waterway below bridge, open club setting and Kashmir's snow-covered green land. Aside from the obviously beautiful imagery, most of the action episodes would have definitely lost its impact for not the way it was shot and delivered. Long, wide, unbroken takes have always been the perfect method to can a stunt scene and it will always stay that way!

Lorne Balfe's score was truly international stuff! Watch out for the musical score driven mind-perception part involving Solomon Lane's extraction! The sound design and mixing were top notch outputs! Transitions using mirror and smoke were seamless! Opening credits was kickass too! Not to forget, the burnt face makeup effect was natural! On the flip side, the speech bar fight was a little awkward to watch. Middle portion consisting of the debate regarding who can or can't be trusted could get a little too much. Although 15 minutes may seem like an unrealistic deadline, the makers have squeezed out the most tension they could out of that duration!

Mission: Impossible - Fallout is undoubtedly one of the most breathtaking, heavy, emotional and heck, the best action flicks of all time! It will be grueling for a sequel to beat or even come close to this one, but no matter the outcome, the audiences are always gonna benefit from anything at all this series has to offer!