Mission Impossible: Fallout is here! The sixth film of the series, Fallout arrives hot on the heels of its positively received predecessor, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. After watching the film last night, I can honestly say that this film lives up to all the hype!

This action/espionage franchise is decades old, but it continues to up the ante with each installment, both in action and drama. This is something that Fallout demonstrates from from the get-go.

The film opens as super-agent Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise) is haunted by the regrets of his past. His decades of service to his country have taken a toll on him and his psyche, and he’s had to sacrifice more than any good man should. After an early mission goes wrong, three nuclear bombs disappear and are in the hands of terrorist.

To retrieve the bombs, Ethan and his team are paired with CIA assassin August Walker (Henry Cavill). A series of events quickly puts Ethan and his team are soon put on the run from their own government. Enemies are on every side and there is nobody Ethan can trust outside of his team. Although this plot line seems to have been done in 4 of the previous 5 films, it still comes across as something fresh for the audience and the stakes seem to never have been higher.

Front the opening minutes, this film encompasses a very different tone than previous installment of the franchise. This is not just a story about saving the world or crazy stunts. It’s a story about Ethan Hunt, not as a spy but as a man. He has many monsters in his past, some real and others he has created. Now, he will have to face all of them and the price of failure will be billions of lives. Fallout is an extremely character-driven film that really gets you to understand Ethan’s mind.

As character-driven as the film is, Fallout doesn’t delve into the characters as the expense of the thrills. The action and fights possess a brutal rawness to them. The drama is on point. As far as the the stunts go, I have 5 words: halo jump and helicopter battle. These were undoubtedly the best stunts/sequences this franchise has yet presented (and yes, this is not a hyperbole). The one thing I was not expecting was the emotion. This film pulled on some heartstrings that long time fans of the franchise will surely enjoy.

As far as any critique goes, the one area I would have tweaked is the film’s opening, mainly the way that Hunt and his team lose the nuclear bombs. It seemed too easy for the terrorists to steal them and was a bit too predictable. However, after that small hiccup the film doesn’t miss a step.

With all that said, this movie gets a strong 10/10 from me!

Mission Impossible: Fallout is now in theaters. Have you seen the film? Are you planning to? Let us know in the comments below!

Ammar Habib