Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Recommendation

Mission: Impossible - Fallout has become my go to spy movie recommendation. In my opinion, it is the best of the Mission: Impossible films, which is my spy franchise of choice. These movies are light hearted enough to remain fun throughout, unlike Bond movies, but are still grounded enough to have some stakes unlike a Fast and Furious movie for example.

Out of all the movies in the franchise, Fallout has no real flaw in my mind when it comes to what a spy movie should be. I’ll dive into it more in the “thoughts” section, but it lacks the issues that I pointed out in my reviews of the other films. There is a strong villain, Ethan and his team don’t seem invincible, and this time there are clear stakes when it matters.

If you are looking for an action film or a spy film, you would be hard-pressed to do better than this one!

Thoughts

Taking a Beating

In Mission: Impossble - Fallout Ethan Hunt is essentially the polar opposite of his character from MI:2 in that he is far from invincible. There is a great video essay on the Every Frame a Painting YouTube channel about how Jackie Chan is the master of Action and Comedy, and this mastery comes from the hero always being the underdog. Ethan and his team are constantly at a disadvantage and are having to fight their way back. When the heroes are at a disadvantage throughout the film, any clever trick they pull feels that much more earned and exciting.

Having Stakes When it Matters

In most of the other Mission: Impossible films, the overarching stakes are somewhat underwhelming. I already talked about how MI:2 is the worst offender here, but even MI:3, which I like a lot, suffers from the bad guy’s evil plot not mattering in the grand scheme of the movie.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is the first installment where the evil plot feels like it will actually be carried out and is actually going to kill millions of people. This movie does the same thing, but they wait to reveal how the nukes are going to be used until the point when the other action has already played out.

Throughout the film, we know that Lane and Lark are in possession of three bombs and we do the math that three cities might be destroyed. Those are stakes enough, but in the final act the writers find a way to up the stakes without moving the goal posts. Rather than bombing a city, the bad guys intend to poison the water supply of a third of the world’s population. Rather than the suspense slowly tapering off, the story is carefully constructed so that the majority of the bombs are out of IMF control and even after they get one back, they still haven’t saved the day until all of them are disabled.

The 3 bombs in Fallout and the virus in MI:2 are very similar on the surface, but the way that they are handled between the two movies are vastly different. In Fallout, Ethan isn’t able to destroy most of the problem by the second act, and at no point have they truly made progress to save the world until all of the bombs are destroyed.

Another Great Use of the Mask Technology

The masks and voice changers that let you impersonate anyone are a staple of the Mission: Impossible franchise, but it’s rare that we see a new use for them. This movie does two things with the masks that I really like.

First, they break the mask making machine in the fight scene at the party in Paris. This may have been intentional as we learn that Henry Cavill’s character is the bad guy, but it also means that there is a logical, shown reason why the team isn’t relying on their biggest asset throughout the meetings with the broker and as they orchestrate Lane’s breakout.

The only other time they use the mask is for an awesome twist where we think that Lark is about to free Lane, but ends up revealing himself to the IMF. I really enjoy that scene because it perfectly 180s what feels like another loss for the team into a win. Because the movie is so restrained with its usage of the masks, the twist is less expected. We’ve already written off the masks as something they can’t use anymore.