


It’s the image most closely associated with the first era of the “M:I” franchise: A close-cropped, bespectacled Ethan Hunt hangs mere inches above a floor best described as “not really suitable to be a floor anyway,” attempting to hack a computer by way of some massive floppy discs.
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Bird’s film is the “Mission Impossible” franchise as a series of one-upping, expertly realized action scenes, and that’s the franchise at its best (see “Fallout,” below). Bird’s action scenes are their own symphonies, each with a distinct melody and a breathless climax. A hand-to-hand fight between Lea Seydoux and Paula Patton has the feel of an action ballet, while Tom Cruise’s iconic scaling of the Burj Khalifa has a building tension that erupts in staccato bursts of adrenaline.
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Abrams brought the “Mission: Impossible” franchise closer to Bond territory with the third installment, but it’s really Brad Bird who proved once and for all what a “Mission Impossible” movie can be with “Ghost Protocol.” Bird, the master animator behind “The Iron Giant” and “The Incredibles,” made his live-action filmmaking debut on the sequel, and used his animator’s brain to turn the series’ already famous action set pieces into true works of art. “Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol” (2011) The entry also gets bonus points for its opera fist fight scene, which remains one of the best set pieces in the franchise. In his hands, “Mission: Impossible” went more old-fashioned. McQuarrie replaced Bird’s cartoonishness with a more classical approach that recalled everything from Alfred Hitchcock to James Bond. McQuarrie’s approach results in the most tightly constructed entry in the franchise, which makes “Rogue Nation” a refreshing blast that doesn’t quite reach the unpredictable thrills of the best “Mission: Impossible” movies.

Ferguson was a breathe of fresh air five films into the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, as was writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. The Swedish actress’ breakout performance as undercover MI6 agent Isla Faust gave the franchise a hugely refreshing female voice, one that goes toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise in terms of kicking ass and magnetic screen charisma. “Rogue Nation” is a standout entry for one main reason: Rebecca Ferguson. The same is true about the film’s opening stunt, which sees Ethan dangling off a massive rock wall (for…fun?), another nutty sequence that was very cool at the time, and then rendered moot by a franchise hellbent on making every film bigger and crazier, even if it involves making earlier stunts look paltry by comparison (in this case, the Burj Khalifa climb in “Ghost Protocol,” still one of the best things to happen in any action movie of the last decade). The film isn’t entirely without a few other merits, of course, and a motorcycle chase involving Ethan and Dougray Scott as the evil Ambrose is a Woo classic (light on the doves, though), though it would eventually get bested by another “M:I” film anyway (“Rogue Nation”). She’s the most Bond Girl-esque among Ethan’s love interests, but she’s also a genuinely interesting character: a thief turned spy who has a good heart and a better poker face, though all that is pushed aside to set her up as a love interest for Ethan, one we will never, ever see again. At least there’s Thandie Newton, cool as a cucumber and dangerous as any other double-crossing career criminal the “M:I” movies has lavished attention on before discarding by the time the next movie comes along. McQuarrie would reunite with Cruise and the majority of the cast to direct the 2018 sequel, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, marking the first time in the film series that a director would helm two installments in the franchise.One way to put in a pin a potentially viable franchise is to do whatever the hell it was that John Woo did for his 2000 entry into the series, a mishmash of early aughts action film tropes, from rogue viruses to something involving evil stock options - in short, a big stew of boring narrative ideas executed poorly. The 2015 sequel was directed by Christopher McQuarrie ( Jack Reacher) and the cast included Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Rebecca Ferguson. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, who is determined to take down the Syndicate, a rogue international crime organization committed to destroying the IMF. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is the fifth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series.
