"Mission: Impossible - Fallout" is an Adrenaline Rush - Movie Review

Tom Cruise can continue to risk his life for these Mission: Impossible movies, and I will continue to watch until his body eventually gives out. Or doesn’t. The latter seems increasingly more likely.

Going into a Mission: Impossible movie, you know what you are going to get and Fallout is no different. A slick, stylized spy movie featuring an aging Tom Cruise pulling off death-defying stunts. Despite following this tried and true formula, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is one of the best movies of the year. In fact, it is one of the best action films of all time.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back, and he is the hero we have all been waiting for. While attempting to buy plutonium cores before a terrorist group known as The Apostles can, Hunt and his team (Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) are ambushed. The Apostles end up with the plutonium, and once again, it is up to IMF to save the world. After this incredible screw-up, however, a CIA agent, August Walker (Henry Cavill) is assigned to watch over the team to ensure nothing like this happens again. The problem is Walker and Hunt don’t trust each other.

“Fallout is one of the best films of the year. In fact, it is one of the best action films of all time.”

From the beginning of the movie to the very end, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is an adrenaline rush. The film’s main selling point is its star. No, not Tom Cruise. We will get to him. I’m talking about the stunts. It is impossible to overstate just how unbelievable the stunts in this film are. Between high speed chases, HALO jumps, hanging from moving helicopters, holding on a rock wall and fighting alongside Henry Cavill in a bathroom, one would guess that Tom Cruise has a death wish. And maybe he does. While practically looking into the camera and shouting, “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?” Cruise is one-upping himself over and over again with each stunt. What the stunt team does in this film is the best evidence provided thus far that the Academy must begin awarding an Oscar for Best Stunts. They will leave you in awe.

Now for the actual star (according to the movie poster, anyway): Tom Cruise. What can’t this man do? The man is 56 years old, and he has more bravery in one eyelash than I do in my entire body. He may very well be the last true movie star. His charisma oozes off the screen just as it always has. What makes him such an unlikely action star is what makes him the perfect action star. He seems like an every man. He is not very tall, his biceps are not distractingly large, and he performs these stunts in an awkward way. That awkwardness contributes to the believability in an enormous way. If he falls from that helicopter, Ethan Hunt could die and so could Tom Cruise. We would never get Rock of Ages 2. We believe that he is in danger and we believe that there are stakes to what we are watching.

“What makes [Tom Cruise] such an unlikely action star is what makes him the perfect action star.”

It’s not just Tom Cruise though. So many of the franchise favorites are back. Simon Pegg returns as the always resourceful Benji. Ving Rhames returns as Luther, the perennial favorite since the franchise started in 1996. Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust shows up again to put a wrench in Hunt and Company’s plan. There are many more surprises throughout the film. The twists and turns of Mission: Impossible – Fallout not only feel like natural progressions to the story but they keep the franchise feeling fresh, even six movies in. The shocking moments come so quickly and so often that there were several times that I found myself actively needing a reminder to breathe.

At two and a half hours— by far the longest in the franchise— you’d think that maybe this could be trimmed. As someone who much prefers shorter movies to longer ones, I would be the first to make such a statement. With Mission: Impossible – Fallout, however, it would be wrong. There is not a single scene in the movie that feels wasted. Each scene builds on the one before it and sets up the scene following it perfectly. It flows smoothly and confidently, in a way that only a franchise with six movies can.

“There is not a single scene in the movie that feels wasted. Each scene builds on the one before it and sets up the scene following it perfectly.”

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is further proof why this franchise is one of the best out there and why Tom Cruise is the last true movie star. Despite being a part of something larger, each film in the franchise has its own unique voice and Fallout continues the trend. It separates itself, not only from its own pack, but from the pack of the other Hollywood blockbusters that engulf our movie theaters each summer. Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the most fun I have had at a movie so far this year. As crazy as it sounds, I welcome Mission: Impossible 7 with open arms.

Check out more of our movie reviews! With the return of The Lion King and Toy Story 4 to the big screen to bring our childhood back, Peter Parker and our favorite alien hunters ready to save the Earth one more time, this summer is sure to satisfy all of your movie needs.