Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Christopher McQuarrie/Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Simon McBurney, Alec Baldwin and Tom Hollander

One might expect a movie franchise like Mission Impossible to be staggering about and sputtering after its many iterations over a twenty-year span. Every installment has taken its sweet time making its way to the silver screen. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is only the fifth incarnation in what's become a very durable and very dependable action series. Like The Fast and the Furious films, which simply refuse to become dull and formulaic, Mission Impossible has remained a thrilling heart-thumper and shows no signs of slowing down (or coming to any foreseeable end). Director Christopher McQuarrie, the helmsman of the very unfortunate Jack Reacher, redeems himself with this latest MI film, which is aided considerably by a tight script and of course, the considerable charms of the IMF, or the Impossible Missions Force, as it is commonly known in the films.

Tom Cruise reprises his role as IMF's super operative Ethan Hunt, who, when the story begins, is knee-deep in a mission. As a cargo plane loaded with chemical weapons makes its way down a runway, Hunt manages to run onto the wing before hanging from the side door. IMF's computer whiz, Benji Dunn (the highly entertaining Simon Pegg) tries desperately to hack the plane's computer to open the side door before Hunt is undone by altitude and ferocious wind-currents. That the sequence was accomplished without CGI and a stunt double is truly amazing. Whether one feels Tom Cruise has taken leave of his senses for attempting a dangerous stunt for the sake of authenticity or dedicated professionalism, the fact remains; the scene is truly spectacular.

Meanwhile, the CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), appeals vigorously to a government committee for the IMF's dismantling; believing the covert group has gone rogue. The IMF's subsequent outlaw status makes Hunt a fugitive, which prompts a CIA, seize and capture operation. While Hunt is on the run, his key colleagues in the IMF; Dunn and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) lay low as CIA employees; providing their colleague valuable intelligence. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), the other member of Hunt's group is virtually incommunicado; keeping his whereabouts secret.

While the CIA searches for Hunt, he is captured by a shadowy organization known as The Syndicate; a network of spies responsible for terrorist acts worldwide. Their leader, Solomon Lane (a delightfully sinister Sean Harris), is a former British intelligence operative who believes his organization can right the wrongs of the world by overturning the status quo. The Syndicate has few qualms about killing and doing so en masse to satisfy their amoral agenda.

Lane's thugs manage to capture Hunt, who is well aware of the Syndicate's destructive aims. While Hunt is tied up in a cell, a Syndicate butcher known as Janik Vinter (Jens Hulten) administers a beating before unveiling his array of tools meant to inflict painful and potentially lethal wounds. Before Vinter can begin, a woman working with The Syndicate helps Hunt to free himself before they escape together. Before he can learn her identity, she runs off while Hunt dodges bullets en route to his own freedom.

In time, with the help of Dunn, who plays video games at his desk in a London CIA field office when his supervisor isn't around, Hunt learns about a Syndicate operation targeting the Austrian Chancellor.

An exciting cat and mouse sequence in the Vienna Opera House finds Hunt and Dunn trying to find Syndicate operatives who are planning an assassination of the Austrian Chancellor. Hunt uncovers a tangle of would-be snipers. Among them is the woman who helped Hunt escape. Though she helped Hunt before, her actions always seem to be at cross-purposes with the IMF team. When the attempt on the Chancellor succeeds, Hunt and Dunn are aware that their presence will only incriminate them, which necessitates a hasty escape abetted by none other than the mysterious woman. Hunt learns she was actually trying to save the Chancellor and when questioned further, he learns she is Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) a erstwhile member of MI6, who has joined The Syndicate in order to stop Lane.

Hunt, Dunn and Faust learn Lane is interested in obtaining encrypted information held in a digital vault in Morocco, inside a maximum security complex. Hunt and company discover the information they need is securely stored inside a water tank, which is accessible only by a dangerous dive and a formidable swim, which involves holding one's breath under water for several minutes. The sensitive and highly sophisticated alarm systems, which are triggered by the presence of metal, disqualify the use of oxygen tanks, which would compromise the mission. The break-in comes with its own perils, which hardly end with Hunt's harrowing dive into the water tank and his near drowning but with a hair-raising motorcycle chase through Moroccan hills.

Not long after, when Brandt and Stickell join Hunt and Dunn, the group learns the information they've stolen can only be accessed by the British Prime-Minister's retinal-scan, palm print and voice-recognition, which presents one more "impossible" mission they must accomplish. The contents of the stolen disc are of vital importance to The Syndicate but also to Hunt and the IMF. The data on the disc would prove the existence of the Syndicate, which Hunley and the CIA dismiss as a fiction crafted by Hunt.

Showdowns are inevitable and though we don't doubt the various outcomes, it is deliriously entertaining to watch the plot unfold.

One of the wonders of MI: Rogue Nation is Tom Cruise. How a 53-year-old man can manage the stunts and run about if he were still in his mid-thirties is mind-blowing but he does it all with dazzle. Rebecca Ferguson holds her own, engaging in intricately choreographed fight scenes without sacrificing her onscreen sex appeal.
Sean Harris makes an excellent, spy-movie villain. His whispery, raspy voice is a nice touch and his fashion sense is classic movie-bad guy couture; very impeccable and highly stylish.

I think the addition of Simon Pegg to the MI films has proven to be one of the best casting moves in the series. Pegg's natural, comedic flair compliments Cruise's tough-guy, onscreen persona. His levity also keeps the film from becoming mired in earnestness and self-seriousness.
McQuarrie demonstrates he can direct an action film; keeping its pace kinetic and action white-hot. Jack Reacher left much for he and Cruise to atone for.

I thought this might be the last Mission Impossible installment but the film and the filmmakers seemed to have avoided any conspicuous closure, which means we may see more in the future. Or will we? I guess that all depends on whether Cruise can meet the physical demands. But based on his physique, which looks as toned and muscled as everybody else's in the movie, he may be playing Ethan Hunt well into his 80s'.

MI: Rogue Nation is a treat. In a year where Liam Neeson's tough guys have put audiences to sleep and other actors have joined the CIA-trained-bad-ass bandwagon, Cruise's Ethan Hunt outclasses the amateurs by kicking tail convincingly. His character belongs on the super-spy Mt. Olympus, with Jason Bourne and 007.

At last, we have a summer thriller that actually features thrills, rather than just incoherent mayhem. I guess we'll have to wait and see if we see more of the IMF. More wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Or at least another round.

'71

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Yann Demange/Starring: Jack O'Connell, Sam Reid, Sean Harris, Martin McCann, Killian Scott, Charlie Murphy and Barry Keoghan

Yann Demange makes his directorial debut with '71; a tough, harrowing, brutal and sometimes nail-biting drama that takes place in war-torn Belfast in 1971. Demange and screenwriter Gregory Burke weave a byzantine plot where allegiances are sometimes ambiguous and agendas murky as the combustible atmosphere of Protestant and Catholic Ireland is made more so with the presence of British troops.

Jack O'Connell (served with a better script and director than the Unbroken debacle), plays new British army recruit Gary Hook, whose unit is assigned duty in the troubled streets of Belfast. Innocent and untested, Hook learns he is to participate in dangerous house searches and to weigh further on his unfortunate assignment, the operation is to take place in the most soldier-unfriendly neighborhood; an area known to be an IRA stronghold.

It also doesn't help that his commanding officer; a greenhorn in his own right, eschews riot gear in favor of less threatening berets.

Joining the troops in their operation is a Protestant police force, who pursue their objectives with a more brutal modus operandi and a three-man, shadowy, plainclothes unit who conduct their own clandestine warfare on the Catholic population.

Demange effectively sets a mood of tension as the pounding drumbeat in the score keeps the audience on edge.

As we watch Hook sit at the rear of the truck transporting his unit, we see the anxiety and fear in his face. When the troops disembark, they watch a group of kids target the unit with vegetables and garbage. The soldiers take it all in stride and laugh as one kid exposes his bare bottom. But the situation darkens, for the women in the neighborhood begin banging trashcan lids on the sidewalk to alert everyone to the troops presence. And what began in a somewhat humorous manner with mooning kids quickly becomes an agitated scene as a shouting crowd approaches the soldiers; quickly becoming belligerent. As the police unit threatens a family with violence for supposedly keeping weapons in their apartment, Hook's commanding officer orders him to assist in the house search but instead finds himself the object of a police officer's angry scorn.

When he returns to the street, he finds the mob has already started punching and kicking at the soldiers and pelting them with stones. When a kid captures a downed soldier's rifle, he sprints away from the mob. Hook gives chase and is followed by a comrade for support. But the situation suddenly becomes ugly and frightening as the two men suddenly find themselves surrounded and savagely beaten. Worse still, the two soldiers are abandoned by their comrades when their unit drives back to base. When a woman humanely intervenes in the assault, a young tough, Paul Haggerty (Martin McCann, from the Oscar Nominated short Boogaloo and Graham) accosts the two soldiers; shooting Hook's friend in the head, killing him instantly. Before Hook suffers the same fate, he runs from the gun-wielding tough, while others join the chase. After desperately eluding his predators, he manages to find a temporary hiding place but in doing so, he also finds himself alone in hostile territory.

The film maintains a heightened sense of fear as numerous parties; some benign, others not at all, take an interest to Hook's status. And as Hook tries to make his way back to his unit, the story becomes a web of conflicts and warring parties with opposing agendas. Internal strife and a power struggle leave an IRA cell at odds with their leader while the plainclothes military operatives prove to be a complicated group as well, as their contempt for the soldiers is commensurate to their disdain for their IRA enemies.

And as Hook finds himself in the unlikeliest of places. he often finds his alleged enemies--Irish-Catholic residents--aren't beyond compassion--sometimes at the risk of endangering themselves. I don't know that I've ever seen a film about the conflict in Northern Ireland that was sympathetic to both sides. We see that kindness isn't peculiar to one side or the other. But we see that malevolence is also a multilateral trait; the plainclothesmen and the group of vicious, IRA youths serve as the darker elements of the conflict.

Demange, for being a freshmen feature-maker, already shows a remarkable instinct for suspense; keeping all narrative threads tight and exciting.

I particularly liked O'Connell's performance as the beleaguered Hook, as well as Sean Harris as the chilling Captain Sandy Browning; whose mere gaze is enough to unnerve the viewer. Killian Scott and Martin McCann are also terrific--and scary--as the leaders of the rogue IRA faction who hunt Hook with single-minded fury.

I've grown accustomed to seeing one-sided narratives about the Irish struggle; films like The Wind That Shakes the Barley, In the Name of the Father, Hunger and Michael Collins often portray the British (not without just cause) as unyielding, single-minded antagonists. '71 is a refreshing departure from what's come before.

It's also welcome relief from the mediocre sludge of the season.