Certification. 12A
Running Time. 2 hours 11 mins
Director. Christopher McQuarrie
Cast. Alec Baldwin, Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Tom Hollander, Simon McBurney, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames.
Rating. 73%
Almost 20 years after the release of Mission: Impossible comes the fifth instalment of a franchise that seems to get better as each new chapter is revealed. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation sees award-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie take up directorial duties. Whilst McQuarrie certainly ups the urgency (without artificially elevating the suspense), this is the first time there isn't an obvious stylistic departure from the preceding film. Previously, whether it be Brian De Palma, John Woo, J. J. Abrams or Brad Bird, each director brought a fresh perspective to the malleable franchise.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is perhaps the most intelligent of the films to date. But yet again - for the fourth time in five films - Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is forced to operate as a rogue agent whilst at the same time trying to evade his own government.
Returning to the IMF team to join Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation are Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner). The main players manage to revive an infectious camaraderie with apparent ease.
But Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation introduces the audience to an immediately intriguing new character, the duplicitous Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). Resourceful, fearsome and ravishing, the alluring Swedish actress simply smoulders in every scene. There is a definite sense of gracefulness in her performance, reminiscent of the female leads in Alfred Hitchcock's romantic espionage films (Notorious, North By Northwest and Topaz). Ferguson updates the classic serenity of the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Eva Marie Saint or Karin Dor to produce a well-rounded female action lead for the 21st century.
Equally, the film benefits from another impressive screen villain, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). From the initial cold-blooded execution in front of a helpless Ethan Hunt to his gravelly, soft-spoken whisper, Solomon Lane is absolutely chilling. Not quite as menacing as Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Mission: Impossible III, but not far off.
I wonder if the strength of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is as a result of Christopher McQuarrie's heritage as a screenwriter? McQuarrie was awarded the Academy Award for Best Screenplay written directly for the screen in 1996 for The Usual Suspects. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation certainly benefits from more elements of espionage than a conventional action film. As a result, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation has the best parts of the franchise - the intelligent complex plot and spectacular set pieces (none more so than an assassination attempt at the Vienna State Opera) that are not so preposterous that they defy logic, an unwelcome feature of the more recent instalments.
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