ACTION; 2hr 11min
STARRING: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin
Plane sailing: Cruise
From a spectacular opener in which Cruise, as agent Ethan Hunt, boards a moving plane in leaps and bounds, the fifth Mission pits Hunt against slippery terrorist network The Syndicate. A short time later, Hunt is trussed, shirtless and feisty. From which we can deduce that (a) he’s in tip-top shape and (b) he needs every shred of sinew to outwit virtually everyone. Not only is The Syndicate a hard-line worry, but thanks to killjoy CIA director Alan Hunley (Baldwin), the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) has been shut down and Hunt is now the hunted.
With his cheer squad of fellow IMF-ers (Renner, Pegg and Rhames), Hunt’s Christopher McQuarrie–directed game plan is to suss out The Syndicate before — well, you can guess the rest. Also embroiled is the cryptic Ilsa Faust (Ferguson), a resourceful dish with great legs who may or may not be trusted. In any case, isn’t not knowing half the fun? Along with international settings, ripper twists, excellent hardware and gasp-inducing stuntwork from Cruise, who famously goes nuts for this high-calibre stuff... At 131 minutes it’s a lot of spy time, but like the star at full throttle, there’s not an ounce of fat.
