Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015) review

The ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise has been one of the rare film franchises that has actually gotten better and better as the series has gone on. It started off solidly enough in 1996 with the Brian De Palma-directed ‘Mission Impossible’, which still holds up quite well even after almost two decades. But then the series took a major stumble in 2000 with John Woo’s ‘Mission Impossible II’, as Woo, despite being one of the most famous action directors in the world at the time, proved to be the wrong choice for director, making the film feel more like a Bond film than a ‘Mission Impossible’ film. Thankfully, ‘franchise savior’ J.J. Abrams redeemed the franchise when he made his directorial debut with the third ‘Mission Impossible’ film in 2006 as he brought back the series’ fast-paced tone that had been severely lacking in the second film. But little did we know that the series would get even better in 2011 when Brad Bird made his live-action directorial debut with ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’. Not only did that film feature some of the series’ best action sequences to date but it also greatly excelled in placing greater emphasis on the one major aspect of the franchise that had defined it since its days as a TV series in the 60’s; the team dynamic of the main IMF team. Whereas earlier films placed more emphasis on Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt, sometimes to the detriment of his co-stars, ‘Ghost Protocol’ did a far greater job at balancing out the roles of Ethan’s teammates and giving them solid character development, resulting in the series’ best group of leads to date.

For the fifth film in the franchise, ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’, directing duties go to Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote the screenplay for the film and co-wrote the story with Drew Pearce. While McQuarrie’s directorial resume has been fairly short prior to directing this film, with only two films to his name, he does have the benefit of being one of Tom Cruise’s most frequent collaborators in recent years, having worked on the screenplays for ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and directing Cruise in 2012’s ‘Jack Reacher’ (he also wrote the highly-acclaimed crime drama ‘The Usual Suspects’ for Bryan Singer, who would go on to direct Cruise in ‘Valkyrie’, in 1995). So clearly McQuarrie was a solid choice to take on a ‘Mission Impossible’ film and because of it, ‘Rogue Nation’ is another Grade-A entry in this long-running franchise that has now been around for almost two whole decades. While I don’t know if I can go as far as say that it is ‘better’ than ‘Ghost Protocol’, namely due to it going back a bit on one of the best aspects of its predecessor, ‘Rogue Nation’ delivers exactly what you’ve come to expect from this franchise; impressive, tension-filled action sequences and a fast-paced story that is full of twists and turns. All of this results in what is easily one of the best blockbusters of the year that continues the resurgence of the ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise.

At the end of ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) received a mission brief about ‘the Syndicate’, a rogue organization full of trained operatives, like the IMF, that have been behind a series of attacks all over the world. As ‘Rogue Nation’ begins, Ethan has been spending the last year trying to prove the Syndicate’s existence with little success. To make matters worse, as a result of all of the IMF’s actions in previous films, the government has the IMF disbanded. Around this time, Ethan finally gets a lead on the Syndicate when he has a run-in with the organization’s leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). But due to the IMF’s disbandment and him being branded as a fugitive by the CIA, Ethan is forced to go rogue, along with his IMF teammates Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), as well as a new ally in Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a disavowed MI6 agent working with the Syndicate, in order to take down Solomon Lane and the Syndicate before they can take down the IMF. 

Just like with previous entries in the franchise, ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ greatly delivers in terms of its action sequences. Of course there is the famous moment featured in the trailer, which actually serves as the opening sequence of the film, where Ethan Hunt hangs onto the side of a military aircraft as it takes off. But then you also have some other exceptional action sequences, from Ethan’s dive into a secure underwater server without the use of any oxygen tanks to a tense fight sequence inside a Vienna Opera House. And of course these sequences are even more effective due to their practical execution that once again shows that Tom Cruise is quite the badass due to him always doing his own stunts. Each ‘Mission Impossible’ director has brought something different to the franchise, from Brad Bird’s comic sensibilities to J.J. Abrams’ modern-day action aesthetic. In the case of McQuarrie, I’d say his biggest strength as director is in regards to how well he stages the film’s action sequences that in turn result in solid build-up, with the aforementioned Opera House sequence being the prime example of this. Like Brad Bird before him, McQuarrie does an excellent job in establishing solid suspense through both the action sequences and the overall plot. And because of both the latter and the film’s solid screenplay full of the usual twists and turns that one would expect from a film of this genre, I was fully invested in this film from beginning to end.

However, there is one thing about this film that is a little disappointing to me coming off of ‘Ghost Protocol’ and that is that it backtracks a bit on one of the greatest things about its immediate predecessor; the team dynamic. Despite being series regulars, Brandt and Luther are mostly ignored for the first half of the film, sidelined away from the action while the film focuses more on Ethan Hunt. While the film does attempt to further develop Ethan as a character through what could’ve been an interesting plot-point of him possibly being deranged in thinking that the Syndicate is real, at the end of the day it doesn’t really go anywhere and is actually rather pointless given the fact that he is ultimately shown to be right. Thankfully Simon Pegg isn’t underused early on like Renner and Rhames as Benji is right there with Ethan for most of the film’s first half. Plus, Brandt and Luther eventually end up rejoining them for the second half of the film so it’s not like ‘Mission Impossible II’ where Rhames and John Polson were completely underused due to a greater focus on Ethan Hunt. And when the four are all together, their camaraderie with one another is just as strong as it was in previous films. But then you have the biggest standout of the entire film in Rebecca Ferguson as female lead Ilsa. Described by some as the ‘female Ethan Hunt’ of the film, Ferguson more than holds her own against Cruise and is quite frankly the most interesting character in the entire film, an agent forced to work for the Syndicate so that she wouldn’t risk being killed by them.  

When it comes to villains, the ‘Mission Impossible’ films have admittedly had some lackluster foes for Ethan Hunt and his team to face. The most notorious case of this has been with ‘Ghost Protocol’. It may be a masterpiece but its single downfall is that it had the series’ weakest villain to date, but like with most of the MCU films, I didn’t think it was that big of an issue due to how well-written the main characters were. Before this film’s release, the series’ greatest villain had been Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian from ‘Mission Impossible III’. But even then that was more due to Hoffman’s excellent performance in the role and not because of the writing. In other words, he was more of an intimidating foe than he was a well-written one as a result of that film’s action-heavy pacing. So as far as ‘Mission Impossible’ villains are concerned, Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane is the series’ best villain to date in terms of the writing. Compared to Hendricks, the villain from ‘Ghost Protocol’, Lane has a much more substantial role in the film as the main villain and has a greater presence that can be felt throughout the entire film. He proves to be a solid foil to Ethan Hunt and is sort of like the Joker in how he always manages to be one step ahead of Ethan and his team. And for the record this is all without him ever really partaking in any of the film’s action sequences.

I’ll admit that I’m a little disappointed that the team dynamic that had been handled to such great effect in ‘Ghost Protocol’ wasn’t managed as well here to the point where two of the main leads don’t get anything major to do until the film’s second half. That’s why at the end of the day I feel that ‘Ghost Protocol’ is still the best film in the series, even if this film does have the advantage of having a much stronger villain. But that doesn’t mean that ‘Rogue Nation’ is a bad film… far from it. It still very much succeeds in delivering on what you have come to expect from this franchise; amazing action sequences, solid tension (primarily thanks to the action sequences), and an overall fast-paced tone. Director Christopher McQuarrie does an excellent job as director, primarily due to how well he sets up the film’s action sequences. So thanks to McQuarrie’s solid direction, an excellent ensemble cast, and a solid screenplay/story that kept me engrossed from beginning to end, ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ is another excellent installment of a franchise that has only gotten better and better over the years. It really is quite impressive how far this series has come from its early days, especially after the second film could’ve potentially killed the franchise due to it being, well, pretty damn mediocre. But thanks to its last three films, the ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise has now become one of the best, if not the best, action film franchises around.  

Rating: 4.5/5