Film of the Week: Mission: Impossible – Fallout

It’s common that of most franchises, the third or fourth film starts declining in quality. The writers are stretching out their ideas to breaking point, they’re attempting to build upon something we already know of, and the end product doesn’t quite live up to the previous films. Some franchises do stand tall after the third film, fourth film, or even longer. Harry Potter had 8 films, The Fast and Furious has 8 films as of writing this, Insidious has 4 films. I would have added the Marvel Cinematic Universe within the list, with 21 films and counting, but technically it’s a bunch of franchises within one, telling a story a certain key points, and not necessarily in every single film such as all the aforementioned franchises.

The Mission: Impossible franchise is one of the few which has continued strong for 6 films. A fair amount of franchises ends their story at 3, or throw in a prequel masquerading as the third film – but Mission: Impossible has continued the story of Ethan Hunt for 6 blockbuster films, and not one has disappointed its fans. Each and every one has gone above and beyond in an attempt to beat the previous, especially in relation to the absolutely insane stunts Tom Cruise does. He’s in his 50s, and he always wants to do one better than that of the previous film. The stunt performed took an entire year to prepare. They had to make sure everything was precise before doing anything, and even then the directors and producers were constantly nervous when Tom was doing his stunt, because he’s one of the top actors in Hollywood; if anything happened to him, that’d be an absolute disaster for everyone, including the studio making the film. But, Tom pulls of his stunts with top professionalism, each and every time. Sure, production had to stop whilst he recovered in hospital due to a broken ankle after landing badly during a jump, but considering Tom’s track record, a broken ankle is good luck in comparison to the bad.

The sixth instalment is still giving the high intensity battles, action packed car chases, quick thinking and wit, and laugh out loud comedy from the team. It’s practically a direct sequel from the fifth, with the Syndicate in its battered form after losing its leader, still trying to continue forward, but with Ethan’s unbeatable way of thinking, outsmarts everyone before they even know it, to pull off the impossible, and as always, comes right down to the very second before absolute disaster. Even after sixth films, I’m still relieved when the day is saved so I can return to the centre of my chair for the remainder of the film.

It was a joy to watch this, and if they decide to make another, I’m confident they’ll not leave me disappointed. But, really, what stunt can Tom do to top that of the skydive jump. The bigger the stunts become, it’ll be an impossible mission to actually make the film, but whatever Tom decides to tackle next, I’ll be excitedly waiting for it.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyhadNouns)