It’s accomplished

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Genre: Action spy film

Rating: PG15

RUNTIME: 147 Mins

From start to finish, the one thing to take away from the sixth instalment of the Mission: Impossible series, in this digital world where anyone can be anyone through impersonation and carefully-sculpted lies, is that you can trust absolutely no-one.

Two years after the capture of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) loyalty to friendship gets him into a mess that kick-starts the plot. He and his team are locating stolen plutonium while being monitored under CIA agent Walker (Henry Cavill).

The movie is a game of decoys, masks, rapid-fire bullets and plot twists within plot twists.

The action in Fallout is by no means overdone. It is executed brutally and realistically, combat sequences are clean-cut, muscular and without the inclusion of superfluous bloodshed. From the way Cavill throws a punch, you don’t doubt that this is the same man who played Superman in Justice League.

Familiar characters reprise their respective roles, such as Hunt’s team, Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), ex-MI6 agent Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson), as well as IMF Secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin).

Pieces from Hunt’s past link to the present and everything he cares about is put on the line.

Amid car chases and rooftop marathons, his background story is given some screen-time, though arguably not enough. Aside from being stunned by his acrobatics and stamina, we sympathise for the character and his obligatory position as a self-sacrificial hero.

Throughout the course of the film, to say Hunt is ‘lucky’ would be a massive understatement – anything remotely dangerous yet significant to the progression of the plot happens at the last possible second.

Introducing new faces whilst linking them to already-known characters was a clever move on the writers’ part. An example of this is White Widow, played by Vanessa Kirby. The only flaw was the overhyped build-up in meeting this character.

Kirby’s role is enigmatic, but not at all menacing as you might expect from a black-market arms dealer. For someone named after a deadly spider with a twist on the tag, White Widow does not have sufficient screen-time to make any real impact on the audience.

Similarly, characters who are not Hunt, his team, Walker, or Lane just come across as irrelevant. We aren’t able to connect with them – love them or hate them – as we do not see enough of them to make valid judgement.

There are a number of antagonists in this movie, only about two of which I can recall the names of. Perhaps this wasn’t necessarily a negative thing. It meant principal focus is put on Hunt’s trauma and watching him exceed physical boundaries.

As in previous instalments in the franchise, Cruise, 56, defies age and gravity by performing his own stunts, with three of his most noteworthy acts in the movie being HALO-jumping, sprinting through London and helicopter-hijacking.

Lorne Balfe composed the film’s score – both thrilling and edgy – remains well-suited to the scenes and elicited plenty of emotion.

The original Mission: Impossible theme made an appearance, which gave the movie the right feel of nostalgia, considering the first film of the series came out in the late 1990s.

Parisian scenery in both daylight and nighttime is remarkable and we get to experience the dynamic of falling through the sky at perilous altitudes in one breathtaking scene.

Likewise, Fallout is gripping and well worth a visit to a cinema near you.

Showing in: Cineco, Seef I & II, Saar, Wadi Al Sail, Mukta A2

Dilara’s verdict: 4/5