Tag Archives: Christopher McQuarrie

My Favorite Scene: Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) “Extracting Lane”

Mission: Impossible Fallout’s Best Scene

Mission Impossible: Fallout defied the two defining trends of 2018 at the films. It exceeded the wildest expectations anyone had for the sixth film in a 22-year-old series, and it managed to be the poster child for how franchises can be amazing in a year when franchise fatigue seemed to reach a new level of punishing. Not only is Fallout the best MI film, but it’s also arguably the best film of last year and the best action film since at least Mad Max: Fury Road. The film manages to weave a coherent and compelling plot around a series of action set pieces that play like a compelling audition tape for the creation of a Best Stunt Work Oscar category. No matter what kind of action scene is your personal favorite (skydive; gunfight; fist fight; crashes; explosions; and chases by foot, helicopter, motorcycle, and car) Fallout does them and does them as well as any film ever has.

Sean Harris in MIssion Impossible: Fallout
Sean Harris in MIssion Impossible: Fallout (2018)

Picking one of those set pieces to elevate over the others is a tough call. The HALO jump is astonishing. Cruise and Cavill’s restroom rumble is fantastic. My favorite sequence of the film though is the extraction of the film’s villain, Solomon Lane, from custody and the ensuing madness in Paris. Director Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote the film, crafted a masterful action sequence in which an improvising Ethan Hunt has to figure out a way to break his nemesis out of a moving armored convoy while minimizing any collateral damage intended by his allies of the moment. The sequence, which also highlights the film’s gorgeous cinematography and score by Lorne Balfe, typifies what I think is Fallout’s best move: humanizing Ethan Hunt. There’s more characterization for Ethan in this film than in the previous five combined and, with a few exceptions, most of is done in the beats between actions. He’s tired in this film. Always so cocksure and calculated, Hunt spends a lot of Fallout looking out-of-breath and in overt exasperated disbelief at some of the things he still has to do to keep the world safe. Tom Cruise, at age 56, finally lets his character look his age, and I think he’s a more interesting protagonist for it. Fallout a bar for quality that’s going to be a near (brace for it) impossible standard for future installments of the franchise to follow. If there’s a flaw in the film, I can’t find it.


Mission Impossible Fallout Poster

Mission: Impossible – Fallout Trailer #3 (2018) “What’s Done is Done When We Say It’s Done”

 

The third full trailer for Mission: Impossible – Fallout has been released; or the first international one.  This trailer contains nearly all-new footage that last week’s, so it’s a departure from most international trailers, which tend to be remixes of the domestic.  The sixth film in the franchise, written and directed by returning Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie, finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team seemingly paying for a lifetime of tough choices.  Despite three full trailers, they’ve managed to give little away about the film’s plot, other than the return of Michelle Monaghan, who played Hunt’s wife in MI3 and MI4, seems to indicate this is going to get extremely personal for the IMF operative.  Other than that, all we know for sure is that Hunt’s team is going to run afoul of the CIA and that there will be extended scenes of Tom Cruise running and jumping off of various edifices.


In case you think it’s just you, it’s not.  Tom Cruise has made an entire career of running at top speed through films.  And, why yes, I HAVE included a comprehensive supercut of all his running scenes below.


The Mission: Impossible franchise launched in 1966 with the original CBS television series, which ran for seven seasons and 171 episodes. Mission: Impossible returned in 1988 with a rebooted series on ABC. It failed to find an audience, however, and was canceled after two seasons. It was nearly a decade later that the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible feature film would turn the small screen spy series into a hugely-successful cinematic franchise.

Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, is once again writing and directing the Paramount Pictures sequel, which opens in theaters on July 27, 2018.

Mission Impossible Fallout Poster

 

Mission: Impossible – Fallout Trailer #2 (2018) “Some Missions Are Not a Choice”

The second full trailer for Mission: Impossible – Fallout has been released.  The sixth film in the franchise, written and directed by returning Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie, finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team seemingly paying for a lifetime of tough choices.  Hopefully, given Cruise’s age and declining box office appeal, this will be the finale or at least a transition for the franchise, which-aside from the regrettable second installment, has been one of the longest-running, best franchises in all of movies.  Cruise has been playing Ethan Hunt now for 22 years…which should make all of us feel extremely old (including Cruise).


Mission: Impossible – Fallout finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby also join the cast.

The Mission: Impossible franchise launched in 1966 with the original CBS television series, which ran for seven seasons and 171 episodes. Mission: Impossible returned in 1988 with a rebooted series on ABC. It failed to find an audience, however, and was canceled after two seasons. It was nearly a decade later that the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible feature film would turn the small screen spy series into a hugely-successful cinematic franchise.

Christopher McQuarrie, who previously helmed Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, is once again writing and directing the Paramount Pictures sequel, which opens in theaters on July 27, 2018.

Mission Impossible Fallout Poster

 

Mission: Impossible – Fallout Trailer #1 (2018) *The Hunt is On!*


The Super Bowl has become a movie trailer showcase over the last ten years, but most are 90 second teaser spots (a montage of which we’ll have tomorrow), but the first full trailer for Mission: Impossible – Fallout has been released.  The sixth film in the franchise, written and directed by returning Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie, finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team seemingly paying for a lifetime of tough choices.  Hopefully, given Cruise’s age and declining box office appeal, this will be the finale or at least a transition for the franchise, which-aside from the regrettable second installment, has been one of the longest-running, best franchises in all of movies.  MI: Fallout opens July 27, 2018.

The best intentions often come back to haunt you. Mission: Impossible – Fallout finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby also join the dynamic cast.

Rebecca Ferguson and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Fallout

My Favorite Scene: Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) “OPEN THE DOOR!!!”


Defying the logic of diminishing returns on franchises, the Mission Impossible team is currently working on the sixth film for next year.  That will put movie six out 22 years after movie one with largely the same cast intact.  It was a franchise that didn’t really explode until JJ Abrams and Brad Bird delivered movies three and four, and they stand as two of the best action movies in recent memory.  Christopher McQuarrie’s Rogue Nation wasn’t quite up to par with those two, but delivered a tremendously good time starting from this: the very first scene in the film.  You have Simon Pegg freaking out in a ghillie suit while everyone on the team is screaming at him, which is a nice bit of reminding everyone of the current IMF team.  All in pursuit of getting poor Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) from OUTSIDE the giant plane he’s currently dangling off like a wind sock to INSIDE the giant plane before he becomes meat paste.  It’s Mission Impossible at its finest.
Simon Pegg in Mission Impossible Rogue Nation