How many times can one franchise cover the same genre, and still come up with new ways to express it? While plenty of series have been around longer than Mission: Impossible, few have felt as fresh by the time they hit their fifth iteration.
This is a series that has always given off the same vibe of high-tech spy action, yet manages to deliver a fresh take on it every single time. With Rogue Nation, director Christopher McQuarrie has delivered a subtle thriller that hits a balance between bombastic moments and intimate espionage.
It’d be enough for a blockbuster action film in 2015 to be well shot and have structurally great action. But McQuarrie goes one further in Rogue Nation, setting up some unexpectedly creative set piece moments: a brawl in the rafters of a packed theater plays out with countless moving parts, scored to the opera that plays below, a daring underwater heist is edited together with perfect tension.
The first two acts of Rogue Nation are pure summer spectacle, filled with ambitious practical stunts.
Tom Cruise is a controversial figure in the realm of Hollywood – an individual whose personal beliefs and eccentric public antics largely burned his goodwill with a generation of moviegoers. But it’s hard to deny that Cruise is one of the best leading men in Hollywood. He’s capable of forming chemistry with anyone and brings out the best in an already stellar cast. Few action stars today are as dedicated, and as entertaining, as Cruise. That aforementioned insanity is what drives him to grip onto the side of a plane in takeoff, and the results are stunning to watch.
But alongside the bouncy, fun action is an intense character-driven story of espionage. While past movies in this genre boil down the spy profession to double agents and adventures to save the world – Rogue Nation is slightly more cerebral. The stakes are life-and-death, but are more implied than direct. Characters’ motives are called into question, but have more depth than switching from good to evil. Almost the entire third act of the film is focused on this sort of dialogue-heavy drama, which, while interesting, grinds the pace to an abrupt halt. It’s not a perfect structure, but I have to give credit to the film for trusting the audience to be engaged in something beyond explosions.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation could’ve easily succeeded as a standard action film, one dense with cliche and the expected beats of a summer blockbuster. But instead, it chooses to take risks and aim a little higher. Mission Impossible has been a cinema mainstay for nearly 20 years, yet it’s just now hitting a real stride.