Mission: Impossible – Fallout: Tom Cruise shoots top guns in a not-so-vanilla sky

Sixth installment in popular action series, gets it right by making viewers care

KARACHI: Averse to the same old candy being sold in a new wrapper, I was never an action film fan until Mad Max: Fury Road and John Wick came along. With an over-reliance on CGI and an overload of unrealistic, gravity-defying stunts, the art of action had gotten lost somewhere.

Of course, I understand cinema evolves and with evolution comes new techniques. Action films also evolved to raise the stakes higher and higher until the stakes didn’t matter and all that was left were the superhero-esque stunts to give you a rush.

PHOTO: THE INDIAN EXPRESS

One may argue that’s all there is to action films but then, the story also matters. As a viewer, I won’t care whether the protagonist saves the day or not if he has nothing to lose. And in an age when every action thriller revolves around a story wherein the entire world’s safety is on the line, there comes a point when the world’s fate doesn’t matter.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the sixth installment in the series, gets it right by making the viewer care. It’s not that the stakes aren’t high enough; it’s not even that the world will crumble. But in our immediate surrounding of the story, there are events which demand greater importance. Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt pays attention to them, rather than the end of the world.

In the opening scene, we see Hunt receive a package with a cover of Homer’s Odyssey, which lays out the new mission. What’s interesting is the choice of the cover, which perhaps reflects on Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, where Hunt becomes a fugitive after the dissolution of IMF and has to find a way back home without being reprimanded for his actions and simultaneously stop The Syndicate.

PHOTO: BBC

Fallout follows Hunt (two years after he captured Solomon Lane in the fifth film) who now has to find and secure the stolen plutonium as CIA agent August Walker (Henry Cavill) watches him. The film takes Cruise through a journey as he, in typical Hunt fashion, wards off multiple threats, assumes different identities and unlocks new secrets.

What I found particularly notable is how Cruise isn’t made to look younger through excessive makeup or CGI. The 56-year-old looks his age and that makes his character much more real. Here is a man who has gone through these events and has grown with them.

In Fallout, we see Cruise chasing top guns in the not-so-vanilla sky, revving a bike like he’s trying to avoid rush hour traffic in Karachi and fight Superman Cavill, who has exchanged his superhero costume for a mustache and a classy antagonistic attitude. While all this may not be new, the difference is that most of the action here doesn’t reek of the cartoonish presentation of, let’s say, the Fast and Furious franchise. There is drama, there is tension but Fallout keeps the action tight and controlled.

PHOTO: HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Sure, the film isn’t totally unpredictable in that you know Hunt is going to save the day. You know the protagonist will not die. Come on, the franchise’s fate depends on him. But the way tension builds until the very last second, you’re with him. You’re in the journey and you believe that anything can happen. This is how Fallout succeeds.

While John Wick changed the action genre for good with its classy ‘gun-fu’ fighting, Fallout isn’t groundbreaking that way. But it’s still rooted and self-aware of its identity. Cruise isn’t trying to imitate James Bond, Jason Bourne or Wick and is comfortable being Hunt. And Fallout proves that, in the new age of Dwayne Johnsons and Vin Diesels, there is still room for Cruise in the action genre.

PHOTO: E! NEWS

Verdict: Go watch Fallout. With mind-blowing action and nerve-racking tension, it will almost make you fall out of your seat.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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