Monday night Tinseltown’s elite all gathered for the New York City premiere of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. In the movie, he steps back into the role of Ethan Hunt, now a target of the Central Intelligence Agency after the shutdown of the International Monetary Fund. Like the weekly skein, McQuarrie and Co. present us with a puzzle box of such complexity that we in the audience are utterly mystified as to how our heroes will figure their way out of it. Was it talent, work, or dumb luck? One has Ethan and his allies doing the requisite complex, beat-the-clock heist of sensitive information, while another is a heart-pounding high-speed chase that follows.
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That goes for gears and gadgets, of which Rogue Nation has an abundance.
“M:I – Rogue Nation” reunites Mr. Cruise with writer-director Christopher McQuarrie from 2012’s “Jack Reacher”, filmed in Pittsburgh. (Parents: here’s a chance to get some opera into your kids’ summer – sort of like hiding the broccoli in the brownie mix.).
The rest of the cast doesn’t get a lot to do, bar a nicely beefed up role for Simon Pegg’s Benji.
He’s got some help in the form of a group players who really throw themselves into the stunts, Cruise is the most obvious example but kudos as well to the talented stunt team who pulled everything off without grievous bodily harm. Paramount has been highlighting the fact that Cruise has done most of his own stunts in the movie, including a scene on the outside of an airplane as it is taking off.
Why is Hunt on the wing?
Since the interview was Cruise’s last appearance on The Daily Show while Jon Stewart is the host, it seemed he wanted to mark the occasion by announcing another sequel and that “We’re starting to work on it now”.
We soon learn that the International Monetary Fund is being disbanded, and the timing is bad.
Romance is not in the cards here, only a diabolical death as Hunt is gassed and captured by the nefarious Syndicate kingpin Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). Overall, “Rogue Nation” is a damn good time.
Hunt soon finds himself chained to a ceiling in a London dungeon.
“The best thing about Rebecca is she makes Ilsa deadly without making her brutal”, says McQuarrie. And it’s impossible to deny that this knowledge adds to the fun. He escapes the computer screen only to land at the ground zero of peril. Tom Cruise looks naturally terrified as he’s hanging off the side of that plane, obvious reasons for that aside, but McQuarrie captures that fear even with the single, wide-shot.
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Actor Jeremy Renner is busier more than ever after just finishing up with “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and now starring in another action-packed film, “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation“.
