Mission: Impossible – Fallout



Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a 2018 American action spy film written, produced and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It is the sixth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series, and the second film to be directed by McQuarrie after Rogue Nation (2015), making him the first person to direct more than one film in the franchise. The cast includes Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan, and Alec Baldwin, all of whom reprise their roles from previous films, while Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby join the franchise. In the film, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team must outrun a CIA agent (Cavill) tasked with monitoring them after a mission goes awry.

Talks for a sixth Mission: Impossible film began prior to the release of Rogue Nation in 2015. The film was officially announced in November 2015, with McQuarrie confirming his return as writer and director, as well as producer alongside Cruise, the sixth collaboration between the pair. Filming took place from April 2017 to March 2018, in Paris, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Norway and the United Arab Emirates.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout had its world premiere in Paris on July 12, 2018 and is scheduled to be released in the United States on July 27, 2018. It will be the first in the series to be released in release. The film received acclaim from critics, who praised its cinematography, direction, story, acting, action sequences, stunts, and musical score. Many have hailed it as the best installment in the series, with some considering it to be one of the greatest action films of all time.

Plot
At a safehouse in Belfast, Ethan Hunt receives details of a mission regarding three plutonium cores which have been stolen by a terrorist group called The Apostles, related to The Syndicate, led by John Lark. The mission takes him to Berlin where he meets up with Benji and Luther where they capture and interrogate a nuclear weapons expert who has been working with The Apostles to build three portable nuclear weapons. The weapons expert is tricked into believing the attack has occured, with fake news broadcasts reporting successful strikes on religious sites in Rome, Jerusalem and Mecca, but the mission to capture the plutonium fails when Ethan makes the choice to save Luther's life and the plutonium is stolen.

Erica Sloane, Director of the CIA, instructs Special Activities operative August Walker to shadow Hunt as he attempts to retake the plutonium at a meet with an arms dealer, The White Widow, in Paris. Hunt and Walker HALO jump into Paris, where they infiltrate a nightclub. Hunt and Walker track Lark to a bathroom where in the subsquent fight, Lark is killed by Ilsa Faust. To complete the mission, Hunt impersonates John Lark and meets The White Widow, who is revealed to be the daughter of Max, the arms dealer from the first film.

Agents of the Apostles have been sent to kill John Lark and the White Widow; with Hunt impersonating Lark, he escapes with the White Widow. In order to secure the plutonium, the White Widow tasks Hunt with securing an asset; the price of securing the plutonium is the extraction of Solomon Lane from an armoured convoy moving through Paris. Hunt receives one of the plutonium cores as a payment in kind for the mission. Hunt and his team attack the convoy and loyalties of the team are tested; Faust reveals MI6 want Solomon Lane dead, as do many other countries. A motorcycle and car chase ensues across Paris, with Hunt avoiding the White Widow's forces, the police and Faust, who has to kill Lane to fulfil her mission for MI6.

The mission to extract Lane is successful and on return to the safehouse, Walker reveals himself to be the real John Lark, in association with Lane, to the team and to Erica Sloane, who in turn instructs a shadow CIA team to take Solomon Lane. Alan Hunley, Secretary of IMF, is killed by Walker in the ensuing fight, where Walker escapes.

Hunt tracks Walker to London, which leads to a chase across the rooftops to Tate Modern, where Walker escapes to a medical camp in Kashmir, but not before threatening the life of Hunt's estranged wife, Julia. In Kashmir, Benji reveals the two remaining nuclear weapons are synchronised with each other; if one is defused, the other will detonate. However both devices can be defused as long as the countdown is running. To complete the defuse process, the fuse must also be pulled from the detonator before the countdown reaches zero, otherwise the weapon will detonate. Lane's plan for the weapons is to contaminate the water supply of Pakistan, India and China, affecting a third of the world's population.

At the medical camp, being used to disguise the radioactive signature of the devices, Walker has also engineered for Julia and her husband to be onsite to raise the stakes for Ethan. Solomon Lane activates the weapons, giving the detonator to Walker. Hunt takes off in pursuit of Walker in a helicopter leaving Benji, Luther and Ilsa on the ground to find the weapons. Luther finds the first weapon and is helped by Julia to defuse it. Benji finds the second weapon and fights with Lane, nearly being killed, before Faust rescues Benji and subdues Lane. Benji and Ilsa defuse the second weapon. Hunt and Walker engage in an aerial helicopter chase, before Hunt uses his helicopter to ram Walker's aircraft out of the sky. The two then fight on a cliff edge, where Walker is eventually killed. With only one second to go, Ethan manages to remove the fuse, successfully aborting both detonations.

In the aftermath, with the remaining two cores recovered and Solomon Lane handed over to the authorities (through the White Widow), Hunt recovers from his injuries while the rest of the team joins him in victory.

Cast

 * Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an IMF agent who is on the run with his team after failing to capture Solomon Lane during a mission
 * Henry Cavill as August Walker, a CIA assassin working for the Special Activities Division tasked with monitoring Ethan and his team
 * Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, an IMF agent and a member of Hunt's team
 * Simon Pegg as Benjamin "Benji" Dunn, an IMF technical field agent and a member of Hunt's team
 * Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, a former MI6 agent who joined Hunt's team during Rogue Nation
 * Sean Harris as Solomon Lane, an anarchist mastermind who was the leader of the Syndicate during Rogue Nation
 * Angela Bassett as Erica Sloane, the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency replacing Hunley, and Walker's superior
 * Michelle Monaghan as Julia Meade-Hunt, Ethan's wife
 * Alec Baldwin as Alan Hunley, a former CIA Director who later became the new IMF Secretary at the end of Rogue Nation
 * Vanessa Kirby as White Widow, a black market arms dealer, and the daughter of Max from the first film
 * Wes Bentley as Patrick
 * Frederick Schmidt as Zola

Pre-production
On May 23, 2015, The Tracking Board reported that Paramount Pictures was developing a sixth Mission: Impossible film with Tom Cruise, J. J. Abrams for Bad Robot, and RealD 3D, and will also have an IMAX David Ellison and Dana Goldberg returning to produce the film for Skydance Media, along with Don Granger and Matt Grimm executive producing and Elizabeth Raposo overseeing development. On July 28, 2015, Cruise confirmed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that a sixth film was already being developed, and he told Jon Stewart that the shooting of the film would start in summer 2016. Later on August 2, 2015, Paramount's executive Rob Moore told Variety that the sequel was already in works, stating that they were "very happy to be developing this movie with Tom," and "there has to be another movie." On November 19, 2015, it was announced that Paramount had again hired Christopher McQuarrie to write the film while it was possible that he would also direct the film, and the studio was moving fast with plans for shooting to start in August 2016. On November 30, 2015, McQuarrie confirmed through his Twitter account that he would be back for directing duty as well, and would also produce the film along with Cruise. On December 8, 2015, Showbiz411 confirmed that the fifth film's female lead, Rebecca Ferguson, would be returning for the sequel.

On August 19, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Paramount had halted pre-production on the film due to dispute over salary between Cruise and the studio, which Cruise wanted to get equal or more what he was being paid by Universal Studios for the film The Mummy. On September 16, THR confirmed that Cruise's dispute over salary with the studio had been resolved and the production would now begin in Spring 2017. In November, Jeremy Renner—who portrayed William Brandt in Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation—stated that he was unsure if he would be part of the sixth film, due to scheduling conflicts with Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War (2018). He later confirmed in March 2017 at CinemaCon that he will not return for the sixth film.

In February, McQuarrie revealed that the film would include more backstory to Hunt's personal life. On June 13, 2017, Michelle Monaghan was announced to return as Ethan Hunt's wife Julia Meade.

Filming
Filming was slated to start in Paris on April 10. Other locations include the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Norway. Filming officially began on April 8, 2017. Some of the filming was also taking place in New Zealand in July 2017. The municipality of Forsand in Norway allowed the closing of Preikestolen for a time in autumn for the film's shoot; only crew members and cast were allowed to approach the mountain for nine consecutive days. They also were allowed up to 50 helicopter landings per day.

In August 2017, Cruise injured his right leg on the London set during filming. Following his accident, the studio announced it would halt the production for at least nine weeks in order for Cruise's broken ankle and other injuries to heal, but released a statement saying that they would be keeping the July 2018 release date for the film. Filming resumed in early October 2017, with Tom Cruise spotted on set seven weeks after his initial injury, and two weeks earlier than initially planned. Reshoots for Cavill's Justice League coincided with the schedule for Fallout, for which he had grown a mustache which he was contracted to keep while filming, so Justice League's VFX team was forced to use special effects to digitally remove it in post-production. The injury resulted in costs of around $80 million for the studio, because they had to pay the cast and crew for the eight-week hiatus so they wouldn't take another job. However, the injury and subsequent costs were offset by insurance, and did not end up counting against the film's final budget.

On January 25, 2018, the title was revealed to be Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Filming concluded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on March 25, 2018. The production in the UAE included filming of a High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) jump scene with Cruise. The scene required Cruise and the crew training on a ground-based vertical wind tunnel, and then using a C-17 military aircraft to make over one hundred jumps from around 25000 ft to end up with three takes that McQuarrie wanted for the film. As the scene was to be set near sunset, they could only make one jump a day to try to get each shot.

Soundtrack
The musical score for Mission Impossible – Fallout was composed by Lorne Balfe. Balfe was confirmed by McQuarrie to be the composer for the film in April 2018, replacing the previous composer Joe Kraemer.

The score has been applauded by some critics for being "action-packed" and its balance between heaviness and moody reveries; some also considered it being to "Nolan-esque", comparing it to scores by Hans Zimmer. The score implements the use of percussion, snares and bongos to create a jaunty staccato momentum.

The digital album was released through Paramount Music on July 14, 2018. The physical soundtrack will be released later in the month by La-La Land Records.

Release
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is scheduled to be released in the United states on July 27, 2018, by Paramount Pictures in RealD 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D. The first trailer was released on February 4, 2018, during Super Bowl LII, and a second one on May 16, 2018. The film premiered in Paris on July 12, 2018.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, Mission: Impossible – Fallout will be released alongside Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, and is projected to gross $48–65 million from 4,350 theaters in its opening weekend. In other territories, the film is projected to debut $75–80 million from 36 countries, for an estimated total global opening of around $135 million.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10, making it the best-reviewed entry of the series to date. The website's critical consensus reads, "Fast, sleek, and fun, Mission: Impossible – Fallout lives up to the 'impossible' part of its name by setting yet another high mark for insane set pieces in a franchise full of them." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Variety's Peter Debruge called the film the series' most exciting installment to date, saying, "McQuarrie clearly believes in creating coherent set pieces: His combat scenes are tense, muscular, and clean, shot and edited in such a way that the spatial geography makes sense." David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of "A" and called it one of the best action films ever made, writing "He's only Tom Cruise because nobody else is willing to be — or maybe he's only Tom Cruise so that nobody else has to be. Either way, Fallout is the film he's always promised us, and it is worth the wait." Entertainment Weekly Chris Nashawaty also gave the film an "A" grade, commenting on Cruise that "He’s still Hollywood’s hungriest movie star", with the film getting "better, twistier and more deliriously fun with each installment".

George Simpson of The Express complimented "the action is brutal and gut-punching, the pacing heart-pumping and the stakes so high it's gasp-inducing at times" adding, "Fallout is an improvement on all the previous films' failings, drawing together all the best aspects of them; simultaneously giving off that classic vibe of the original while never being afraid to continually evolve", and gave the film five out of five stars. The Telegraph Tim Robey summed up the film as "spectacular and eye-popping" deeming it "the blockbuster of the summer" with "a pleasingly sinuous plot" and calling the film and its series a "Bond-like franchise", also rating the film five out of five stars.

Robert Abele of TheWrap described Cruise as an "evergreen movie star with the daredevil heart of a stuntman" and that he "puts every ounce of effort he can into the long, hard work of maintaining a blockbuster franchise". The Hollywood Reporter Todd McCarthy praised the director Christopher McQuarrie, saying that with Mission: Impossible - Fallout he "tops what he did with Cruise three years ago", and also singled out Vanessa Kirby for playing her character with "a mix of elegance and frisky abandon". Screen Daily Tim Grierson wrote "Tom Cruise is on fighting form in this thrilling franchise topper" and that he’s "ageless, riveting and seemingly unstoppable," further adding that "the sixth film in the series is among the most outstanding, delivering a near-exhausting amount of stupendous action sequences paired with deft character drama and the requisite life-or-death stakes."

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, saying "there isn't as much [humor] in the dialogue as before" but, it added: "Crashes and petrolhead spills are what this franchise is reasonably expected to deliver. And this is what it cheerfully does."