Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

“The IMF has been disavowed!” No matter how many times you hear that phrase, the IMF will eventually pull off something amazing to reinstate itself. Rogue Nation is the newest example of it and possibly the last joy ride for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). According to the rumors, the plan is to pass the baton to Ethan Hunt’s sole apprentice, William Brandt played by Jeremy Renner. Surely, at this point I can neither confirm nor deny about the rumor.

Mission Impossible is an adaptation of the television series with the same name by Bruce Gellar aired during 1966-73 but since then its adaptation has seen several twists and turns with various directors and writers experimenting with their own intellect. Mission Impossible is and has been the pet project of Tom Cruise to deliver what James Bond couldn’t. However, the closest competition to the James Bond franchise is indeed Rogue Nation. The entire credit for making it possible should be given to Christopher McQuarrie and nonetheless, Tom Cruise.

Although Tom Cruise did try everything he could with his stunts to keep us at the edge of the seats in the previous installments as well but that missing piece was eventually filled by his current director, Christopher McQuarrie. He delivered what Tom Cruise had been begging for long from his previous writers and directors to integrate action stunts with the plot. Christopher McQuarrie is known for some of our favorites such as The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, Jack Reacher, and Edge of Tomorrow. So there was never a scope for disappointment. The only concern was the run-time of the movie which is about two hours and thirteen minutes long. Coming from a Hindi cinema background some would definitely enjoy the long thrill.

The plot is actually simple to understand where Ethan Hunt is all about revealing the identity of an anti-IMF organization, The Syndicate. Unknowingly enough, he had to took help from a former MI6 agent, Ilsa Faust played by Rebecca Ferguson. And that happened because William Brandt was assigned the job of the field operations director and Benji Dunn played by Simon Pegg for desk operations after the repercussions of the Kremlin attack in the Ghost Protocol.

Christopher McQuarrie cleverly mixed the plot of Mission Impossible with the action of Mission Impossible: II. But this would only be possible with a handful of good actors. And so he brought the cast of the Ghost Protocol. And we all know what it turned out to be. The Rogue Nation became the sole installment to be able to give a tough competition to the James Bond franchise. I hope some of the British reviewers would disagree here owing to their loyalty to James Bond.

The only problem that I have with the Rogue Nation is the casting of the actor Sean Harris for the role of Solomon Lane. He never looked threatening enough for Ethan Hunt. Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell also did a cameo for the screen which wasn’t useful for the movie at all. Jeremy Renner as William Brandt was only utilized for his one liner. Although Simon Pegg did make an impression. But the entire focus of the movie was Rebecca Ferguson. She did perform most of her own stunts which makes it equally appealing along with Tom Cruise. The chemistry between them was explored extremely well to the point where we can expect a sixth installment and we might expect to see Ethan Hunt passing the baton to his sole apprentice, Jeremy Renner.