THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When you try to be done with the action, don’t think it’ll be done with you.
PLOT
Mission: Impossible III follows IMF agent Ethan Hunt retiring from fieldwork and now training recruits, as he’s settling down with fiancé, nurse Julia Meade whose unaware of what he does. He ends up returning to the field when Assistant Director of Operations John Musgrave warns him that protege Lindsey Farris has been captured while investigating black market trafficker Owen Davian. Assigned with fellow field agents (Luther Stickell, Zhen Lei and Declan Gormley), they find Lindsey in Berlin and retrieve two damaged laptops. Despite shooting their way out, the agent would die from an explosive pellet implanted on her head. Shortly after her funeral, Hunt receives a postcard from her late protege with a microdot she sent before her dying. Unable to crack it at the moment, technician Benji Dunn is able to recover enough data from the laptops confirming Davian will be in Vatican City to obtain an unspecified weapon dubbed the "Rabbit's Foot". Despite being reprimanded by director Theodore Brassel, Hunt leads an unofficial mission to capture Davian. Before leaving, he and Julia have an impromptu wedding to confirm commitment towards her. On the day of the mission, he and his team succeed in infiltrating the Vatican and capturing Davian, staging his death. As they fly back to the States, Hunt interrogates him to demand an answer on what exactly is the Rabbit's Foot. The dealer ignores him and instead threatens to kill him in front of his wife. Hunt responds by threatening to throw him off the plane, only for Luther to convince him to not do so as they'll need him to find the weapon. Upon landing, Hunt gets to hear part of Lindsey's microdot video, claiming that Brassel might be align with Davian. Before he can hear the rest of it, he gets attacked on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel by mercenaries who extract the enemy. Realizing his wife is in danger, he rushes to the hospital only to realize she's already been abducted. Davian would then call him and give him 48 hours to retrieve the Rabbit's Foot in exchange for Julia. Time is briefly wasted when the IMF briefly apprehend him and question him for losing Davian. With the help of Musgrave, he helps him escape and tips him the Rabbit's Foot is in Shanghai. When he gets there, he and the team succeed in capturing the weapon in what appears to be biological hazard. Just when Ethan surrenders it during a meet-up, he gets tranquilized and taken to another hideout. When he wakes up, he sees what appears to be Julia tied and gagged in duct tape. Davian tells him he's implanted him with the same pellet that killed Lindsey. Despite being assertive that he retrieved the weapon, the dealer shoots her and leaves. Musgrave would then appear and reveal to be the true traitor of the IMF. He even unmasks Julia and reveal her to be Davian's translator who failed to protect him in the Vatican. He admits the whole point of the ruse was to confirm the weapon's authenticity and explains the allegiance with Davian is to give cause for IMF to have a preemptive strike towards terrorists he works for. After confirming Julia is still alive, Ethan knocks Musgrave unconscious and begins searching for her. With help from Benji, he is able to find her location. He ends up fighting Davian who arms the pellet in his head. Luckily, the agent is able to defeat him when he inadvertently gets ran over by a car. Right after this, he makes his own impromptu defibrillator to disarm his explosive. Once it goes off, Julia would resuscitate him back to life after shooting down an arriving Musgrave who was carrying the Rabbit's Foot. When Ethan wakes up, he finally explains to her his line of work. When the agent returns to the States, he turns down another mission by Brassel to enjoy his honeymoon. The film would end with him and Julia being congratulated by his teammates.
THOUGHTS
Ironically, this was the first film in the franchise I got to see and it was definite blast in theaters at the time. Years later, it still holds up very well despite the evolution. In his theatric debut, Director JJ Abrams is able to get the bar where it needs to be for others to follow. And with that being noticed, he delivers in making another awesome action flick. The second you hear Michael Giacchino's exciting score, you know you're walking into a whole other realm. Thanks to impressive editing by Mary Jo Markey & Maryann Brandon, each action scene is off the walls intense. From each shootout that goes from Berlin, to the bridge to Shanghai, they were all thrilling to get through. I always come back enjoying this one with each viewing because it teaches us about balance. In life, we have to balance everything about us. And in this case, it's important to do so with work and family. If you don't pull this off, it will definitely lead to a mishap. Seeing this play out in the perspective of Tom Cruise returning as Ethan Hunt, it's handled greatly. Cruise again shows commitment with the various stunts to echo the drive he's defined the character for. The best one has to go to the bridge explosion when the ripple effect hits him sideways instead of forward. It is likely an unrealistic scenario, but it's executed incredibly. Cruise overall shows how passionate Ethan is with his line of work, but is reaching to the point of being self aware he's not invincible nor immortal. He tries to slow down by settling with Julia because this is his attempt to enjoy whatever he'll have left of his life. Whenever we see Michelle Monaghan smile as his wife, we just know she's worth making a transition. Ethan fell for her because she reminded him there was more to life than being a savior, which would only be ironic since she would save him in return. Monaghan had us appreciate this character because she was generally compassionate and matched Ethan's resilience. I think she loved him back because she respected how focused he was within action and was willing to slow down for her. Although later films would reveal things didn't last between her, at least Ethan accepted he can't do his job forever. While it took a while for him to find who he believes is the one, it's good to know he still had friends in the meantime. You already know it's gonna be a good time when Ving Rhames returns as Luther because at this point, he proves his loyalty by sharing whatever he identifies as good advice. He definitely proved to have a strong conscience this time around because he was smart enough to stop Ethan from prematurely killing Davian. He truly was a great friend because he was there at his time of crisis. Benji ain't in here as much in comparison to his later films, but Simon Pegg gives a good taste of what we would be in for. Pegg had us love him fastly for his kindness towards his coworkers and cautiousness he displays in his line of work. It shouldn't be an argument when calling him an unsung hero because without him, Ethan would've not found Julia sooner. Within the main team, Maggie Q & John Rhys Meyers made Zhen and Declan on their own right for putting their intelligence to good use and being brave enough to help Ethan in a crucial time crunch. It's a big bummer hey haven't been seen since because they definitely would have been helpful in future missions. No one really talks about Lindsey enough, because we really should since her arc set the story in motion. From what we get to see, Keri Russell was able to show her to be as well trained you'd expect when under Ethan's wing. On top of that though, she definitely competent enough to handle the tasks at hand before things went awry. It was also honestly pretty cool to see Laurence Fishburne as Brassel because it represented a new era in the agency with someone else in charge. He definitely comes off as a stubborn boss, but that come from how he prefers success over failure and ain't gonna give slack until the job is done. It has to be a given another mole/traitor was in the agency because there is always gonna be someone going bad for their own gain. Billy Crudup made clear Musgrave was a guy who hated he wasn't earning enough respect and had to go low in order to try and earn it. Unfortunately for him, his bitterness got the best of him and led to his demise when getting shot by the hero's damsel. Last but not least,I know Cruise is the star of this film and overall franchise but you cannot deny Philip Seymour Hoffman became one of their best villains as Owen Davian. He has made such a big mark because he was ruthless enough to make his point across and get what he wants. He was willing to threaten Ethan because he knew he could do follow up on it, which he did when orchestrating Julia's abduction. You also gotta give him credit for proving his callousness when making Ethan believe he shot his wife because it came to show you can't doubt what the enemy can do until it's too late. However, it wasn't enough for him to make another deal and the world felt a little safer with him out of commission. I have a very soft spot for this movie, but even my sympathies don't excuse some issues I caught onto upon re-watching. For example, Ethan showed up for the mission way past sunrise. Either Luther or Brassel allowed this to happen, it's a surprise the team was willing to wait for him. And the attempted rescue is indeed the first of many dope action sequences, but shouldn't the henchmen have placed cameras if they weren't gonna do any lookouts? They almost made it too easy for the team to save Ferris had it not been for the bomb in her head. And I don't even blame Luther for admitting it sounds impossible to sneak into the Vatican, but he of all people should know when you're part of the iMF and Ethan is leading the mission, you basically got the job in the bag. That should definitely be thought about after stealing the CIA NOC list. Moving on, it's ridiculous how there weren't any guards at least around Vatican grounds to see Ethan take out a camera. It's like the Vatican put all the investment inside the grounds instead of elsewhere. Also, it is a smart plan to get Owen to the bathroom, but what if he never went? It's the biggest gamble at this point because he could've ignored getting a stain by leaving the Vatican. And where was he after he hid his unconscious body out of the building? It didn't look like he was on the getaway boat so it's odd on how we don't know when and how they put him in a getaway vehicle without being spotted. I really don't want to hate on Brassel but how has it been so hard to get Owen anyway? He knows he visits the Vatican yearly, which makes it crazy he didn't mention not having teams camp out to get him. It was smart for Ethan to use a transmit button to stall Brassel, but that's pretty embarrassing for the latter to be held up by something that should be outdated by the movie's point in time. I probably would've not guessed to be bit by Ethan if I put a phone to his ear while he's up, but I feel like Musgrave should've done this because he knows damn well Ethan is the best at what he does. If anything, he should've just left it on speaker. And boy was it a rookie mistake for Hunt to bump into that tray. I know he's in a rush to save himself and his wife, but he of all people should not be this clumsy no matter how rushed he's in. Other than that, you'll still be having as much of a blast as I did. In conclusion, Mission: Impossible III is an excellent three-quel for having another change of pace that suits the tone very well. If you've enjoyed the first two, you'll dig this one as well.
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