Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Not Very 'Secret' Agents
Ben Cottingham| 04th August 2015
Photo credit: Facebook
Before the title fools you my dear reader, I loved ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ but, as I will soon elaborate upon, the members of the Impossible Mission Force (yes, that’s why it’s called Mission Impossible!) don’t do a very good job of staying secret!
Anyway, let’s get started shall we? From start to finish Mr Cruise and co. take us on one hell of a trip. From Minsk to Casablanca there are car-chases, gun fights, explosions, lock picking, knives, fists and countless spy-gadgets; enough to put a certain double-O agent to shame… All of these fantastic spy tropes occur as The Syndicate, a group of rogue secret agents, attempt to overthrow governments and regimes across the globe, with only the IMF to stop them. Lead as ever by Ethan Hunt (Cruise). Now let me make it clear, I’m not a huge fan of Tom Cruise as an actor, or an individual, but I feel compelled to doff my metaphorical cap to him for his impressive, if not reckless, stunts in ‘Rogue Nation’. The biggest of these is, of course, his hanging on to the outside of a plane during take off, and ascending to 5,000 feet, which was a personal highlight of the film for me! So begrudgingly I suppose I have to give it to the 53-year-old.
This said, for my personal taste there was one man who towered above him (apologies for the height joke Mr Cruise), and that was one of my favourite funny actors, the one and only Simon Pegg. Yes, that Simon Pegg. Having stepped into the shoes of techy/gadget-man Benji Dunn in 2011’s ‘Ghost Protocol’ he once again steps up to the plate for what I would argue to be the second (or third) lead role in the film. My favourite scene is reminiscent of the ‘plan’ in Shaun of the Dead, which I hope you’re all familiar with. In this scene in ‘Rogue Nation’ Benji imagines various tactics to break into a secure computer lab! I’m not going to be able to do the scene any justice, so please go and watch it yourselves!
As for the plot, Rogue Nation ducks and dives and rolls all over the place at a breakneck speed, but still manages to retain a good sense of flow and direction. In a spy film it’s bloomin’ easy to lose track (I’m looking at you Tinker, Tailor…) and Rogue Nation dodges this bullet in a way I’ve not seen in a long time. On the topic of plot, this rich narrative is generously scattered with in-your-face-action and explosions which fall just below Michael Bay levels of craziness. The franchise rightly prides itself on its large set-piece action scenes, like the plane stunt I mentioned earlier, and these help to both give the audience a break from the double-double-crossing plot, and to draw the ‘oohs and ahhs’ we seek when watching any film.
All in all ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ was a cracker of a film, and even though our team of spies did more shooting and driving and exploding than spying per se, I would argue that the film matches previous entries in the series, if not overtaking them! And despite my distaste of a certain lead actor, I had a great time seeing it, and I think you all will too!
