Some sequels feel stupid in the very fact that they’re sequels. The "Mission: Impossible” series has managed to avoid that dilemma. It doesn’t continue its story because it wants to, or even because it feels it needs to. It does what it does because it has to. Missions don’t simply end for this fictional agency. These movies have to remind us that these characters are people with real, important jobs and don’t vanish into thin air once they’ve had their screen time, at least in their world.
“Mission: Impossible” doesn’t have a mind of its own, but it certainly works as if it does, so who cares? None of these films have ever really felt like a one-and-done deal. The one and the done are accomplished more independently. However stiff its moments have gotten, “Mission: Impossible” has stuck around to wheel out solid, stand-alone movies that, even while following their routine save-the-world schedule, don’t feel like sell-outs. Stand alone they do, but they always have a local climax. Sure, just another one couldn’t hurt. Or feel like a forced addition to the last.
Even when it has its own franchise working for it, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, the newest of the series, acts like it has everything to prove. And it goes on to do just that. I’d say it’s the best of the saga yet. I’m glad I can use that word, “yet.” Apparently these things just don’t run out of juice.
“Rogue Nation” opens up with a jaw-dropping plane-takeoff sequence. You’ll see what I mean, but for now, trust me when I say it’s jaw-dropping (commercials ruin everything). Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt, running up and down the tarmac. Benji (Simon Pegg) is off to the side doing his computer hacking, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) is yelling over the ear pieces, there’s some sort of bomb that needs to be deactivated, everything’s happening during everything. The editing is just clean enough for us to think a cool, giddy, and exciting “Yeeeaaaahhhh” before the signature title page rolls in.
We’re informed that Hunt has been obsessing over a secret crime organization known as the Syndicate, who, judging from the sinister name, is up to no terrorist-y good. Just in time for the director of the CIA (Alec Baldwin, playing Alec Baldwin as always) to shut down the IMF for extensive structural damage inflicted during their last go-around. The consequences of action movie destruction these days are pushed so far back into our minds that they need to be addressed in subsequent films.
So Hunt is on his own, bringing tech-savvy Benji with him and sweeping the globe looking for clues that will lead them to the secretive thugs, all the while being chased by the American government. They eventually run into an undercover MI6 agent (Rebecca Ferguson), a semi-mysterious figure who helps the IMF crew with providing some inside info. But she might actually be working for the Syndicate, or she might not be. Kind of like a good-bad “not-sure-if-we-can-trust-that-person” situation. Anyway, that adds to the complexity.
“Rogue Nation” takes an even lighter tune than did its predecessor, the enjoyable “Ghost Protocol.” It’s a good ol’ spy movie, and the shootouts and car chases feel more like a “Wham!” and a “Bang!” instead of just crunching blows. Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote and directed this one, molds a “Mission: Impossible” that’s more like Brad Bird’s “Protocol” in that sense. It’s got a bit of chirp to it, the right kind. The transitions, the twists and the cliff-hangers let us forget about the expected inconsistencies of this genre. How much time is passing, for example? What’s airfare looking like with all this traveling? Let’s face it, do we ever need to worry about that? It truly feels retro, and it’s a relief. Can I have some actual fun in a fun movie, please? Thank you.
The movie’s cool. I could say stuff about how the action in the movie just fits, or how the characters feel familiar enough to fall back onto, or how the score is used to its optimal effect here. But it’s not that kind of film. All I can say is that… it’s cool.
For a while, growing up with the James Bond played by Daniel Craig, I would have said that no “Mission: Impossible” would ever catch up to Casino Royale or Skyfall. Ethan Hunt was good company. This 007 is irresistible. In the past, Cruise’s counterpart has felt more like an echo to what James Bond is getting down in sleekness and control.
And here I am, saying that, looking back at the year of 2015, “Rogue Nation” has beat Spectre. Spectre was good, but with that one, you got out what you put in. I found myself really working to make something out of it, and while I did find it worth my time at the end of the day (it had the basic stuff to make it stick), we’ve gotten used to the Bond story with a twist, not one of plot (because it’s Bond) but of color. If you’re looking for Spectre to deliver that, you’re out of luck. Not bad, but not challenging either.
If you map out the last couple of Bond movies, you’ll realize “Mission: Impossible” has taken the opposite direction. It started out trying to take itself seriously in the first couple of pictures and only ended up looking a bit ridiculous in the process. Now, with “Rogue Nation,” it has reverted to something better, more bouncy, more swift, less apologetic. It doesn’t leave everything on the table, only the things that it can get right. If it’s the simple stuff, fine. Maybe the reason we see those things as the simple stuff is because we have never really seen them done well.
More than ever, we need more good adventure movies. Not good action movies. The amount we have of the latter fluctuates from summer to summer, but I think we’re good on that. Even more, focusing on creating a good action movie is making it harder than it needs to be for the filmmaker. A good action movie must be increasingly inventive with its staging, placement, and stunts to make itself worthwhile these days.
We need to fall back into the tradition of the adventure movie, one where you go places and enjoy those places for the new atmosphere each one brings. How sad we feel once a fantastic adventure movie ends. Sad we are here, but ultimately glad that we had the experience.
