Bible Based Movie Review: Mission: Impossible

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Mission: Impossible VI

Plot Overview

The film opens with a surreal alpine wedding of Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise)—“I do”—to his ex-missus Julia (Michelle Monaghan)—“I do”—presided over by an unlikely minister: disgraced CIA op Solomon Lane (Sean Harris.) There are no wedding guests present. Lane's litany of loopy lingo prompts Hunt to demand, “Please stop!” At that he wakes up.

Belfast. A morning delivery arrives. The courier's “small talk” is like a continuation of the dream: nonsense code for verification. Ethan unwraps a copy of Homer's Odyssey. In the hollowed-out book is a video recording of his IMF (Impossible Missions Force) controller saying The Syndicate—introduced to us in “Rogue Nation”—survivors have reconstituted themselves as “The Apostles” and are seeking to obtain three Plutonium cores on the black market. This deadly material is to be used in bombs constructed by nuclear expert Nils Debruuk (Kristoffer Joner), for purposes of terrorism.

Kaboom! In a fast paced shell game of spies of questionable loyalties, the clock ends up ticking and the IMF is short a set of hands to cut the wires of two linked bombs. Anybody believe in ghosts?

Ideology

The bad boy terrorists want to use the “natural irrigation system” from a glacier to augment the destruction from their A-bomb(s), along the lines of a Carrie Stuart Parks novel: (283–4)

I pictured the towns downstream. Ahsahka, lying in the shadow of the dam. Once the massive structure collapsed, the escaping water would take out a chunk of Lewiston, still in Idaho, and Clarkston in Washington state. The torrent would spew into the Snake River. The four dams on the Snake would open to dump as much water as possible, but the sheer volume of the contents of the massive reservoir would overtake them. Then on to the Columbia River, with four more major dams. Portland, Oregon, would be a memory. Complete catastrophe.

The smart terrorist has a second bomb in play: “I didn't think the initial bombs would breach the dam. I'd hoped. But it's always good to have a backup plan. So I packed a bunch of explosives into the diversion tunnel” (Parks 287). Though, to be sure, the second bomb in “Fallout” was a failsafe backup; either would do the job alone. As in another work of fiction: “I guess it would have been a lot worse if Reactor Number Two had exploded, as well. You know, gone totally Chernobyl. But it didn't. It was only Reactor Number One that melted down and blew up” (Bohjalian 5).

“Fallout” pegs terrorists as “schoolboys hoping to shape public opinion through fear.” Their oppressive schemes did not set well with the IMF . (Eccl. 7:7) “Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.” The Apostles were the benefactors of a vaccination outpost at the foot of a glacier, earning them an easy entry of their nuclear devices whose radiation would be masked by the medical equipment. The Apostles first spread the small pox there to that end.

(Eccl. 7:8) “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” The race-to-disarm-the-bomb(s) scenes in “Fallout” are the most excruciatingly tense races ever filmed. Each of the two bombs needs two sets of hands to disarm it, coordinated with each other and with the detonator that needs to be unkeyed. And that last train has already left the station. The IMF crew just ain't got enough boots on the ground, especially when Hunt goes rabbiting after that detonator. We just want the scenes to end, one way or another, but they get milked for all they're worth. They require patient focus rather than proud impulse.

(Eccl. 7:9) “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.” CIA Director Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) was righteously angry at Hunt for a compromising decision he made early in the film, but cool heads were needed to prevail.

(Eccl. 7:10) “Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.” Ethan felt a lot of nostalgia for his ex, Julia, and the life they'd tried to make together, but the spy business conflicted with it. Now she's a haunting memory, a ghost, maybe a guardian angel, but life goes on.

Production Values

This action-packed flick, “” (2018), was directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It was written by Christopher McQuarrie based on the Mission Impossible television series created by Bruce Geller. “Fallout” picks up where “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (2015) left off. The IMF team consists of Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Ving Rhames as Luther, Simon Pegg as Benji, and Alec Baldwin as Alan Hunley, Secretary of the IMF. The casting was good on the whole. Cruise as the heroic lead did most of his own stunts irrespective of danger and age. Sean Harris was a good villain (again.) Henry Cavill was a great wild card. Pegg and Rhames were primo sidekicks.

MPAA rated it PG–13 for violence and intense sequences of action, and for brief strong language. “Fallout” predictably turned in travelogues of exotic locales, from Paris to London, Berlin, and Kashmir. The Cinematography by Rob Hardy well captures all the action with various backdrops. Lorne Balfe's percussive score works well in such an action flick.

Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation

“Fallout” is the usual franchise material, but improved as it goes along. You probably know if you like it. This installment is tops.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Absolutely amazing special effects Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.