THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Excelling is what franchises tend or at least try to do when making more entries. Mission: Impossible is one that defines excelling because it always found a way to be better than before. A great example goes to Rogue Nation.
PLOT
The 2015 film follows IMF agent Ethan Hunt go through a mission he was far from prepared for. After intercepting a shipment of nerve gas, he gets compromised by the rogue operation said to have been a rumor known as the Syndicate. He is gassed unconscious by the organization’s leader Solomon Lane. In Washington DC, CIA Director Alan Hunley is able to convince the senate committee to decommission the IMF and assimilate it into the former, blaming them for the Kremlin’s destruction. When Ethan wakes up, he finds himself in a torture chamber and is almost killed by ex-KBG agent Janik Vinter aka The Bone Doctor (Jens Hultén). Luckily, he gets saved by MI6 agent Ilsa Faust who helps him escape but her keeps her cover as a member of the Syndicate. Hunt alerts William Brandt of what happened, but is told he’s on his own due to IMF’s recent absorption. With Hunley believing the veteran agent to be rogue, he would spend the next six months hunting him down with no true success. At that point, he would also spend time putting ex-IMF agent Benji Dunn under strict scrutiny and security due to his past alliance with Hunt. His cover does reach an end when his friend invites him to an opera showing in Vienna, hoping to apprehend Lane. There, they do find Ilsa intending to assassinate the Austrian Chancellor (Rupert Wickham) to regain the enemy’s trust, but two more assassins are there to kill her. Ethan is able to save her by grazing the chancellor while he and Benji succeed in taking down the assassins. Saving Ilsa would sadly not matter as they wish due to the chancellor still getting killed in a bombing plotted by Lane. Ethan would have to let Faust go for the sake of her cover. When he and Benji regroup, the former explains that the Syndicate has been responsible for many attacks he was unable to prevent. Because of the two’s proximity to the chancellor’s murder, Hunley orders the Special Activities Division to capture or kill them both if necessary. Not wanting his friends to die, Brandt reaches out to former agent Luther Stickell to find them before Hunley does. He does through looking for Ilsa, in which he also finds out she’s disavowed. As Ethan & Benji meet up with Ilsa in Morocco, she explains that Lane is a rogue MI6 agent and has a digital ledger containing names of all Syndicate operatives. Ethan is able to swap personnel data underwater in order for Benji to take the ledger undetected. He almost drowns until Ilsa saves him. After she does this, she takes the ledger from them and takes it to her handler, MI6 Chief Atlee. However, he decides to virtually delete the data to force her continuing her assignment. She wouldn’t realize it until reuniting with Lane. When Ethan & Benji regroup with Brandt & Luther, they discover through their own copy that the ledger contains a digital red box only capable to be unlocked by the biometrics of the British Prime Minister (Tom Hollander). When the team confronts Ilsa in London, it would only lead to Benji get taken by Syndicate operatives. Lane orchestrates this to get the upper hand, making Hunt deliver their copy of the ledger to him decrypted. Feeling no other choice, Hunt decides to move forward in making contact with the Prime Minister to decrypt it. When Brandt alerts Hunley of the plan, they meet with the PM and Atlee in a charity auction hosted in Oxley. When taken to a secure room, the PM confirms the Syndicate’s existence by explaining its original intent to perform missions without oversight, insisting that he cancelled it during the planning stages. When Atlee unmasks himself to be Ethan in disguise, the real Atlee would soon show up and the agent would subdue him, getting him to confess he started the Syndicate and has been trying to cover it up since Lane hijacked it, this trying to frame Faust until it was blown over. Hunt and Brandt give the credit to Hunley for the revelation, knowing the committee will believe him more than them. Once the ledger is decrypted, it is also revealed that the ledger instead contains to access to numerous accounts worth billions combined. Realizing Lane will use all that money to fund the Syndictae, he deletes it all before he goes to an exchange intending to free Benji. When the villain virtually speaks through the agent’s friend during negotiation, the protagonist claims to memorize all the data and offers himself in exchange for Dunn and Ilsa to be let go. He does release Dunn from a bomb, but orders the Bone Doctor to kill Faust and Hunt. Faust is able to take down Vinter and his team, while Hunt lures Lane out and traps him in a bulletproof cell, gassing him unconscious. Back in DC, Hunley would return to the Senate committee to with the claim that his past claims were to serve as pretext to help Hunt expose the Syndicate. The film would end with Brandt welcoming him to the IMF as the new secretary.
THOUGHTS
I've been a fan of this franchise since my childhood and not a single film has been able to let me down. This fifth entry is proof of that because after already being blown away with Ghost Protocol, things continue to arise in overall quality. Director Christopher McQuarrie and co writer Drew Goddard raises the bar to make a whole other set of extravagance for an action. Each fight and chase scene that goes from Vienna to Morocco are balls to the walls and they wouldn't feel such without incredible cinematography by Robert Elswit. The visual effects are more beneficial than expected due to having us believe a green pool was an underwater server or having us think Hunt jumped into that tunnel when there wasn't really one on set. The same can be with the overall background when Hunt is hanging on to the plane in the opening. The given enhancement to make these scenes realer than they should be are downright phenomenal thanks to the VFX team. Whether or not Joe Kraemer's compelling score is playing, you're once again hooked from beginning to end. Apart from all the thrills this film delivers on, the general story improves from the successors due to its theme of preparing for the worst. There are many things in life in which we can't always prepare for and when we decide to confront them, you have to be able to take whatever risks possible to ensure success. And just because you failed before, doesn't mean you can't try again. This message is crystal clear thanks to Tom Cruise helming the lead once again as Ethan Hunt. The actor continues creating surreal commitment for his character by doing an array of stunts combined that basically outdo climbing Burj Khalifa. He jumped off a 120ft ledge to mimic the dive into the tunnel, hold his breath for an estimated six minutes underwater and did 8 different takes of clinging onto a plane at an altitude of 5000ft in the air and estimated 260mph. When you think about all that, you know this character would do the same if he was real. Hunt is more determined than before because for the majority, he's on his own and takes a while to get resources that'll get him going forward. Once he gets just that, he does everything in his power to prevent any more of a catastrophe. He did make a fair share of compromises but once things stopped going his way, he did remind himself that desperate times will lead to desperate measures. The last thing he would want to do is to infiltrate a prime minister or shoot at a chancellor but when a sinister operation is at the brink of making worse deeds, he knew it had to be done for the greater good. The only way he feels like he is done enough is when everyone is accounted for which shows how much of a leader he keeps growing to be. He knows there is a chance for him to get out of the hole the enemy keeps digging for him, but that ain't gonna happen if his friends are in danger. Everyone that's been on his team is family to him because they have each other's back and respect each other's back and refuses to bear any more loss. So the lengths he went to save Benji and expose the Syndicate simultaneously were breathtaking. Again, he knows he can stop but he refuses to bare with guilt of something going wrong and he wasn't there to prevent it. However long he keeps going, I'll still be rooting for him. Had he not been surrounded by such loyal teammates, there's no telling exactly how long his career would've lasted. It's visble that Benji ain't as fearless as Ethan, but Simon Pegg makes clear he's someone willing to catch up by refusing to stand down. He could've kept on lying for his own protection, but he was done doing that and wanted to keep making a difference like his friend had. Of course he wasn't prepared for being kidnapped, but if fighting a henchman stronger than him wasn't gonna stop him, then the former wouldn't either. Brandt may still be as cautious as he was before, but Jeremy Renner does remind us he's still a guy who cares for the cause deep down. In his eyes, everything can go wrong and he had to play it safe being part of CIA absorbing IMF. But his time with Ethan would remind him you gotta come out of your shell to make the changes you're seeking. So helping him infiltrate was the big change needed to get closer in accomplishing the mission. Apart from Cruise, you know it'd be weird for Ving Rhames to miss out as Luther. He and Ethan are still friends to this day because they match the same confidence. Luther isn't just confident in himself with his impressive hacking skills, but more confident when seeing Ethan's way is more of the only way than the best way to getting the job done. He didn't have to come back, but even he knew Hunt needed all the help he can get. Going into the new characters, it's safe to say Ilsa is the best one of the bunch here. Rebecca Ferguson makes her another standout for having her own dedication to success. She has a will strong enough to be a double agent, which is oddly seen enough here. But she gets along with Ethan so well because her will is catching up to his. No matter how crippled she might feel emotionally, she still pushes herself to keep going until the job is done. She gives Hunt a chance to flee with him not because she's got the hots for him, but she knows the agencies don't respect him the way she's not respected. They're giving their all and their bosses don't care. She hugs him goodbye she appreciates how much he put himself out there for her when he never had to. That just comes to show how powerful honor is when you're a hero. Now it's pretty easy to see Hunley strike a resemblance towards Eugene from the first film because he doubts Ethan's intentions. However, Alec Baldwin shows us he's still someone who is compassionate as well and wants to look out for the country he's defending. He chose to transition to IMF once restored because even he came to understand how that is the agency to better succeed than others. This franchise has been filled with compelling villains, but I don't think anyone do it better than Solomon Lane. Yes Simon McBurney showed Atlee as a coward who refused to own up on his mistake, Sean Harris shows Lane as an extreme opportunist. He has his own set of selfishness and will not hesitant showing his true intentions to the people who really know him. The second he killed another agent as he abducted Hunt, his cruelty showed no bounds. The same went with his manipulation since he succeeded in also making the protagonist briefly go against his morals. Little would he expect there would be a loophole he'd unknowingly make for it. Had he let Benji die, he likely would've gotten away and would've kept on being a great thorn from afar. Since he would make a return in Fallout, that only proves that the greatest threats are never easy to take down. While I do believe this film outdoes the past, there were still a few things that stopped it from being better. Going back to the top, isn't it a little ironic that the plane was able to encrypt hydraulics software, but not outer doors? I mean that's just asking for your shit to fall out of the air. And let's be honest, shouldn't Ethan have his legs tied down as well? Lane knows how skilled Ethan is and should've known he'd use that to his advantage. Ain't it a little too convenient for Benji to go to Vienna after just being questioned by Hunley? Even if it's been six months, Hunley should still be on top of his ass by monitoring him once he left. It's even more shocking he didn't seem to care when Brandt invited Luther to HQ. Luther is Ethan's oldest friend, so he should definitely be suspicious about him being around. Also I love the opera fight scene the most, but why didn't that stage director move the switch back into place after Benji messed with it from afar? Even if those stands are away from the audience's view, that should be checked out. That's way more confusing than no one noticing Ethan and Ilsa coming down the theater via rope. I'm even surprised no one at the hotel reported a gunshot sound after Lane shot his henchman. And why wasn't there a secondary security guard watching the monitors before Ethan tampered with one by the time Benji arrived? It's like these agencies are begging to get broken into. Benji was also onto something when reminding Ethan he was briefly declared dead before driving. If he didn't want him to drive, maybe he should drive. Would've been more of a hilarious chase than it already was. And of all the dumbest of things to happen by the end of the car chase has to be how the henchman doesn't see Brandt about to run him over. With or without a helmet, he should've heard a vehicle coming right at him. And if not the civilians, how did none of the protagonist spies spot Benji get taken? You can defend Ethan because he was sharply focused on Ilsa, but you can't really say the same with Luther or Brandt since they were on lookout just like Benji. The biggest flaw in Atlee's plan with the Syndicate is having the Prime Minister involved. Sure he would want to put the blame on him if the organization went public, but it's very ridiculous to let your superior be the only one to open the red box when already against your idea. And lastly, it made sense for Lane to shoot at Ethan during the climax because he wants to slow him down if he can at least graze him for the sake of getting the information he needs, but he was shooting at him so much he was gambling a shot worse than a flesh wound. Ignore this, and you'll still be in for a wild experience. In conclusion, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is another action classic for taking appropriate directions needed to create another batch of fresh air. If Ghost Protocol rebooted your fresh air, it won't be too hard of a decision for you to check this out as well.
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