Mission Impossible: Fallout

After 22 years, this sixth installment of the escapist spy fantasy continues to deliver sheer fun, thanks to the charming, charismatic lead performance by Tom Cruise. It begins as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) receives an assignment to take out the Apostles, an evil syndicate of international anarchists determined to detonate nuclear bombs in Jerusalem, Mecca, and the Vatican. At Hunt’s side are loyal teammates Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg). Also on hand are IMF boss Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), CIA director Erika Sloan (Angela Bassett), and her henchman, August Walker (Henry Cavill). After capturing radical Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), their challenge is to obtain the plutonium cores from an arms dealer known as White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) and find the mysterious John Lark, who wrote a nihilistic manifesto claiming that “the greater the suffering, the greater the peace.” Along the way, they are joined by intrepid MI6 secret agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and Ethan’s estranged wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the film delivers a number of dazzling stunts, with Cruise racing the wrong way ‘round the Arc de Triomphe on a BMW RnineT motorcycle with 70 stunt drivers in pursuit, climbing onto an open helicopter in midflight, and dangling off the side of a cliff. And for the opening HALO (high-altitude, low-opening) skydive over Paris, Cruise jumped more than 100 times from a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III at 25,000 feet. A box-office and critical hit, Mission Impossible: Fallout serves up an intense action-adventure thrill ride. (Full disclosure: my son, Don Granger, is an executive producer.) Highly recommended. [Note: Blu-ray extras include three audio commentaries (one by director Christopher McQuarrie and star Tom Cruise, another by McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton, and the last by composer Lorne Balfe), the production featurettes “Behind the Fallout” (54 min.), “Foot Chase Musical Breakdown” (5 min.), and “The Ultimate Mission” (3 min.), a deleted scenes montage (4 min.), storyboards, and bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for this excellent entry in the M:I franchise.] (S. Granger)