Rating: ****
Review Date: 7/22/23
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Music: Lorne Balfe
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Pom Klementieff,
Greg Tarzan Davis, Esai Morales, Henry Czerny, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman,
Nick Offerman, Angela Bassett, Rolf Saxon
"The world is changing. Truth is vanishing. And war is coming."
A delightful piece of escapist nonsense that gleefully spits in Donald Trump's face. The rogue A.I. known as "The Entity" from "Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023) has decided it wants to wipe out all human life on Earth by taking over every nation's nuclear weapons arsenals. But it can't blow up the world and expect to live without having a safe place to hide out, so it needs Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to let itself inside the Doomsday Vault in South Africa. To counter this, Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), and Paris (Pom Klementieff) need to infect the original source code with a virus and trap The Entity in what amounts to a large thumb drive. As I said, it's completely absurd, but the point of these big budget spectacle movies is to watch the slick action scenes and see Tom Cruise's death-defying stunt work.
The movie has a lot of callbacks to the previous films and especially the original, which is arguably the weakest entry in the series. That said, it was delightful to see Rolf Saxon return as hapless computer scientist William Donloe, who was reprimanded for Hunt's break-in at the Black Vault in 1996. Hayley Atwell is back as master thief Grace, but a bit more hysterical this time. However, she does have one excellent fight scene towards the beginning of the film. Pom Klementieff is also back, which comes as a surprise, and she thankfully has a much more substantial role this time. Sadly, Rebecca Ferguson is NOT back, which was the biggest mistake that Part One made. Simon Pegg has a larger role this time and gives an excellent performance. Gabriel (Esai Morales) is still the villain (or jilted henchman, if you prefer), and he's still a grating and annoying twat. Excellent performances all around with Angela Bassett as the hard-as-nails US President, Henry Czerny as Hunt's slippery and conniving boss, and Hannah Waddingham as a bad-ass Navy Admiral. But it's Tramell Tillman who steals the show as the stoic Captain Bledsoe, who helps Hunt find a sunken Russian submarine. His character and delivery are shear perfection.
Of course, it wouldn't be an M:I film without some jaw-dropping action pieces, most notably a claustrophobic submarine infiltration and some harrowing airplane stunts. While these intricate set pieces are huge and brilliantly executed, I enjoyed the hand-to-hand fight scenes more. It's definitely a top-notch production and it looks and sounds absolutely fantastic. The camera work and cinematography are superb and the action looks seamless. The locations are beautiful and everything has a grand sense of scale. The film tries to tie up the entire series with limited success, and definitely has a sense of finality to it. However, they still leave the door open for Hunt's return, even though Tom Cruise is starting to show his age. And what's up with his awful hair? The film brings even more attention to it by having Grace call it out at one point. Additionally, much like the previous film, there's one stand-out moment that's so obviously baffling that I couldn't let it go. As Gabriel jumps out of a plane, he laughs at Ethan and says "There's only one parachute!" and yet in the next scene, Ethan has a parachute. So, where did it come from, and why did the film explicitly call out that there was only one? What was the point, and how did that get by the writers, editors, and continuity people?
It's not a perfect send-off, and it makes me wonder how much of the film was rewritten and reworked after Part One's poor reception. The fact that "Part Two" doesn't appear in the title makes it feel like they wanted to sweep the previous film under the carpet. As with any film that features technology as a plot device, the writing is ridiculous and the logic is absurd, but the characters do a good job of selling it. The film excels at creating and maintaining a tense and gripping atmosphere, and that's perhaps the most important thing. You can't deny the spectacle and craft that the M:I films have brought to the industry, and it will be interesting to see what comes next.
In the funny credits department: Polar Bear Guards
Were polar bears an actual concern during filming?