Mission Impossible: A Retrospective

by Cláudio Alves

Jumping from mountaintop into the silver screen, a death dive flight through alpine air, Tom Cruise crashes cinemas with another chapter in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Inspired by the hit 60s TV show, the movies have long ago severed whatever connection they might have had with their origin, transforming into what's best described as America's answer to the James Bond flicks. But that's a hollow description as  different directors have brought distinct visions, and Ethan Hunt has so constantly changed that he's more fluid idea than character.

For the star at the center of it all, the Mission: Impossible pictures have been a chance to experiment with how far the human body can go as a tool for action entertainment. Near suicidal in their fervor, these Cruise vehicles celebrate cinema at its most muscular and obstinately analog, a scream into the darkening sky that keeps the CG night at bay. For a cinephile intent on re-watching all the movies before watching Dead Reckoning - Part One, the movie series is an enticing study of shifting priorities and tones. So, here we go, from the Hollywood of 1996 to our present crisis against AI, reconsidered as a man's mission to save Humanity by killing the man-made God…

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Mission Accomplished: Ranking the Mission Impossible Series

By Spencer Coile 

Anytime the latest entry in an action movie franchise is released, it is celebrated as 'the best' in the series. No film series has better exemplified this than the Mission Impossible franchise. What makes this series particularly special is that it set the standard for filmed reboots of classic television shows. It may not have been the first, but it certainly is the most consistent. Perhaps most importantly, it knows when to take a break. 

The release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a clever reminder in the age of comic book adaptations arriving every month that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) will always be there to save the day. But how exactly has the series evolved over time? And is Fallout actually the best in the series thus far?

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Review: "Mission: Impossible - Fallout"

by Chris Feil

There’s a new installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise on the block, but by now these films might best be referred to by their birth name, Tom Cruise Hangs Off Of Things. You may be aware by now that there will be stunts and Tom Cruise will be risking his life for your enjoyment. Likely in the air somehow. Mission: Impossible - Fallout provides him with plentiful airborne opportunities.

This time, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt deals with the immediate ramifications of Rogue Nation’s Syndicate, the global crime organization led by the now captured Solomon Lane. The dismantling has led to The Apostles, an offshoot terrorist organization that Hunt must prevent from stealing plutonium to be used for multiple nuclear weapons set for simultaneous explosion. Returning for the laughs are his cohorts played by Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, and a new mustachioed face: Henry Cavill as a somewhat unwilling CIA agent assigned to their unit to also keep a close eye on Hunt. Rebecca Ferguson’s British agent Ilsa Faust returns with a mission of her own that may or may not stand in opposition to Hunt’s.

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