Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018)

For once, an M:I entry has the same director as last time. As such, it enjoys clearer continuity than usual, perhaps helping us remember the order of the unnumbered sequels. (I might have been the only person in my theater to recognize a callback to the first movie in the form of a funeral for "Max.")

The Apostles, the Syndicate's offshoot following the arrest of leader Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), have acquired three nuclear bombs and plan to sell them to a terrorist code-named John Lark. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) accepts the mission to stop them, partly by impersonating Lark. But while the FBI director (Alec Baldwin) trusts the Impossible Missions Force now, the CIA director (Angela Bassett) doesn't, so Ethan must go with CIA agent August Walker (Henry Cavill), who's not introduced with good humor and thus will be obnoxious at best. Indeed, Walker initiates the suspicion that Ethan is Lark....

Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) still have big parts as Ethan's partners. Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) comes back into play for further complication, particularly regarding what to do about Lane. Even Julia (Michelle Monaghan), Ethan's amiable ex-wife, appears near the end. Notice anyone missing? Yup, Jeremy Renner had to have Brandt sit this one out so he could keep being an Avenger. (Not sure which Marvel movie he was working on; he hasn't appeared in any in two years, and he had only so much screen time then.)

In case you're wondering about my religion tag, it mainly has to do with one of the supporting villains. Nils Debruuk (Kristoffer Joner), who built the bombs, wants to target the most revered cities of each Abrahamic faith, believing that doing so will unite the adherents. Despite their name, the Apostles don't seem to share his anti-religious focus, but they do agree with him that great suffering yields great peace.

This film is big on twists, most of which I didn't see coming. It's also big on having more than two agendas in conflict...and the IMF team experiencing many failures along the way. As a result, it's not always obvious what the heroes ought to do.

I think Ethan gets more injured in this entry than in any other on the silver screen. That doesn't necessarily mean relative realism, mind. You don't have to know much about physics or biology to see something off about someone getting hit by a car at high speed and not appearing to need any medical attention (this happens to two people). I'm still OK with that, for helping to ground the series in semi-fantasy.

The action? Oh my, the people involved have outdone themselves. I'm not surprised at the time and expense put into these scenes. William Friedkin would admire the car chase, and John Frankenheimer would applaud Cruise's stunts, not least a genuine skydive. How fortunate that a broken ankle was the worst Cruise got.

If there's one sequence I found more awkward than awesome, it's the men's room fight scene. The setting alone would make it so, but the skill levels involved and a few happenstance timings and odd decisions made me think, "Mission: Improbable." Was it supposed to be funny to, say, the 13-year-olds in attendance?

I'm undecided on where to rank Fallout in the series, with length being the main minus. But it's definitely in the top 3. Perhaps my dad will see it when he's not too tired of action flicks.