Mission: Impossible-Fallout poster
As I watched Mission: Impossible-Fallout, I kept wondering what M:I creator Bruce Geller would think. My guess: I think he would approve.
The best episodes of the original 1966-73 series featured slick plans devised by Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) and Jim Phelps (Peter Graves). While the plans were brilliantly devised, the Impossible Missions Force would be forced to improvise when things went wrong or surprises occurred.
Previous Mission: Impossible films, which debuted in 1996, have this same feature. But in the newest installment, IMF leader Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has to improvise more often, more quickly than ever before.
The new film also has a personal angle (an apsect Geller wouldn’t have been fond of) — something the 007 film series has featured constantly since 1989. But for M:I-Fallout, the personal angle doesn’t overwhelm the proceedings.
As a result, Hunt isn’t out for revenge (a la Licence to Kill, GoldenEye, Die Another Day and other 007 films). No readings of poems (a la M in Skyfall). No villain with a “personal” connection to the hero (SPECTRE’s new version of Blofeld).
The trailers for Mission: Impossible-Fallout have emphasized that evoke set pieces from 007 movies (Licence to Kill and Tomorrow Never Dies). Some fans complain that’s ripping off Bond.
But, in the end, they’re only set pieces and don’t take up that much screen time. What’s more, there are twists involved that weren’t shown in the trailers.
Mission: Impossible-Fallout still is mostly its own thing. It tips its hat to the original show via a Lalo Schifrin-inspired score by Lorne Balfe. It’s not the first time the movie series has embraced Schifrin. Joe Kreamer, composer for 2015’s Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, also weaved Schifrin into his score. Balfe does it his own way. (CLICK HERE for a feature story Jon Burlingame did for Variety about Balfe’s work.)
Meanwhile, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, who also worked on M:I Rogue Nation, keeps things at a frantic pace. The movie has a 147-minute running time. That’s almost as long as SPECTRE’s 148 minutes. But M:I-Fallout, overall, moves more quickly. At the same time, McQuarrie’s movie isn’t just set pieces strung together.
As a fan of the original TV show, I still don’t care for how the first movie in the Cruise series made Jim Phelps into a traitor. At this point, I just have to rationalize the film series is an alternate universe.
At 56, you’ve got to wonder how much longer Cruise can keep the Mission: Impossible film franchise going. But that’s something most viewers won’t think about until after they’re headed home from Mission: Impossible-Fallout. GRADE: A-Minus.
Filed under: James Bond Films, The Other Spies | Tagged: Christopher McQuarrie, Lalo Schifrin, Lorne Balfe, Mission: Impossible Fallout, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, Tom Cruise |
The Spy Command 
if Skyfall what’s the dark night of the Bond series than Mission impossible fallout was the skyfall of the MI series . The producers and director were really going after a bond feel especially with the orchestral music. they certainly did a better job then Spector although that wouldn’t of been difficult . it will be interesting to see where Danny Boyle and Bond 25 go after this movies influence
Excellent review. This was my first M:I movie, as I’m not a huge Tom Cruise fan, but it coincided with the opening of a new Cinépolis movie theater franchise in downtown Dallas, and I went as much for that as the film.
I agree with your take on the film right up to the last line, but I wasn’t thinking about Cruise’s age after the movie, I was thinking about it DURING the movie! The idea that Cruise, at 56, is doing his own stunts is more than just hard to buy into, especially with as many close-ups as they used in the film! If he does another one, which, almost certainly, he will, they should change the title from Mission: Impossible to Mission: Unbelievable!