'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' Raises the Stakes

What makes the Mission: Impossible films so great is that they up the ante when it comes to the stunts and action but in this film, they do something that makes it better: they up the stakes for the characters.

The film opens with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) having a nightmare with his wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) and Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) from the last film, Rogue Nation. When Ethan wakes up, you get the classic tradition of Mission: Impossible, the "your mission, if you choose to accept it...." scene and it sets the whole movie up for you. After that, he goes on the mission and it goes wrong.

Right after the mission goes wrong, the movie just builds on top of itself, so it can explode with a barrage of twists and turns by the time the film gets to the second act. Holy hell, the twists and turns this movie takes causes your jaw to drop even if you see one twists coming because there is more after that! The great thing about this movie is that they really dial back on the stunts but they still give their all to it since the story is more emotional than it is compared to Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. However, when the action goes hits, the action hits harder than Henry Cavill's punches.

Rebecca Ferguson is back as Ilsa Faust and she's better than ever. Ilsa is more complex than she was in Rogue Nation but when you delve into her complexity about the mission, she isn't as complex as she is when you first see her again and you understand her motivations.

The action sequences alone are worth discussing. If you heard about Cruise injuring his ankle but not sure which scene it is, you're not alone because there are so many sequences that he does in this film from a HALO jump to a helicopter chase which is a really intense scene since Tom does the stunts himself.

The bathroom fight is easily the best hand to hand combat scene in a bathroom since 2006's Casino Royale and it's fair to say that it will be iconic. Mission: Impossible - Fallout will be the action movie to talk about for a while in the same vein as 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road, the things that made both Fury Road and Fallout so amazing is that everything the script says, the actors did it and the filmmakers didn't do quick cuts and shaky cam.

Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Jack Reacher, The Usual Suspects) returns to write and direct this film and you can tell that this film is different compared to the previous film. It has more dramatic weight since this film focuses more on the story and the action sequences aren't as larger than life like in Rogue Nation. The action is almost like a character that helps the plot of the movie and it makes you care about the characters when their lives are in danger or when there is a chase going on, you're rooting for them to catch them or get away.

The humor in this movie is nothing memorable but it does help keep the events in the movie grounded and some people may find it bothersome or annoying but some people might see it as a chance to lighten up on some moments since every other moment is supposed to make your hair stand up.

By the time this film ends, you walk out of the theater like you went on an adventure so it's possible that if you were invested in it like I was, you may feel like you have to catch your breath because there was so much going on in the movie.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout is one of the best movies of 2018 and you don't have to watch the previous films to know what's going on except for Rogue Nation but if you do that, it'll familiarize you with what's going on and how the stakes are raised in this film. However, if you go into this film with no knowledge of what happened before this film, it's possible your adrenaline may hit harder when everything kicks itself into gear.

Out of 5 stars, Mission: Impossible - Fallout gets 5/5 stars.