The Tom Cruise movie
thankfully never strays into chemical or nuclear territory again.
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Mumbai 8th Aug 2015(Sana Sayed):
The first Mission
Impossible movie was
something rare an intelligent blockbuster.
The plot was dense and often, it
was hard to follow who was double crossing whom. It eventually delivered a few
iconic action scenes, turned Tom Cruise into a legitimate action hero and
grafted a franchise worth billions. None of the sequels have been as lean and
smart as the first directed by Brian de Palma and yet, they’re all entertaining
as hell.
“Ethan Hunt is the living manifestation
of destiny.” Even the CIA director, a man none too fond of the agent with the
many missions impossible under his belt, is forced to admit this in Rogue
Nation. But even living manifestations of destiny can do with a helping hand.
How about a Swedish actress resembling
Ingrid Bergman, bearing the name Ilsa, and emerging in a bikini from the pool
of a sun-kissed mansion in Casablanca? Oh yes, Tom Cruise has everything going
for him here but for a story. Rogue Nation kicks off with a bang, with the
53-year-old superstar once again doing his own stunts hanging precariously from
a military plane carrying poison gas.
It required eight takes for him to pull
that off. The film thankfully never strays into chemical or nuclear territory
again, but the evil here comes in the form of a vaguely defined ‘Syndicate’
raging against the “system” and then “trying to change it” through means that
involve randomly selected attacks, ranging from assassinating the Malawi head
of state to the World Bank secretary.
When it upgrades, it is to targeting the
chancellor of Austria. Europe, specifically London, plays a big role in the
scheme of things here, though the British are not likely to be too happy with
what they do to their prime minister. And not that Hunt, after all we know
about the man with the glasses, the masks and the upside-down hanging skills
(all deployed here), needs to go from Point A to Point B in a Mission:
Impossible.
But when a film is trying so hard to
give a context to its villain, it better not go around in circles making it
obvious someone didn’t have a clear idea where to call an end. As the film
starts, Hunt himself is looking for meaning as the CIA has managed to get his
outfit IMF (Impossible Mission Force) disbanded for not being accountable to
anyone. CIA Director Hunley (Baldwin) proceeds to make it his agency’s mission,
and not in a comfortable way, to track down Hunt, whom IMF boss Brandt (Renner)
has refused to “bring in”. Out in the cold, Hunt is captured and badly tortured
by the Syndicate’s men, led by the “bone doctor”, who totes impressive
equipment in an officious suitcase, but never really gets to show his skills.
Right on time, a mysterious Syndicate member, Ilsa (Ferguson), helps him
escape, after carefully taking off her towering heels.
The height joke,
obviously directed at Cruise’s 5.57 ft, is played at least twice more in Rogue
Nation, to admittedly good effect. So obviously, we are confused to the true
identity of Ilsa, which remains a mystery for the better part of the film. She
even comes out and talks about the blurred lines defining “the right side”.
There is an impressive scene under
water, requiring a manipulation with stored profiles and computers that’s
where Hunt plunges through a shaft head first and some crazy driving through
Morocco on motorbikes and cars.
A Vienna opera shootout is almost too
beautifully orchestrated, with curtains, thin screens, holes in walls and a
beautiful, beautiful thigh. However, McQuarrie, who has now been associated
with Cruise in several films but is directing his first Mission: Impossible,
keeps coming back to Syndicate head Lane (Harris) and his iffy motives.
It’s been 19 years since the first
Mission: Impossible, and that scene of Cruise’s life hanging by a drop of sweat
in it is still vivid in our memory. Or the first moment when a mask is pulled
off and Cruise emerges from below it. Even the last film, Ghost Protocol,
pulled off a near-impossible Burj Khalifa shot apart from giving us some
heart-popping moments of suspense through certain tight negotiations.
You will miss that in Rogue Nation,
though it ticks all the boxes, gives its woman a satisfyingly meaty presence,
and has Cruise defying age again — apart from death of course. So will there be
a Mission: Impossible 6? Play it again, Hunt.
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