Mission Impossible: Fallout

Tom Cruise and his superspy alter-ego, Ethan Hunt, are still taking missions 22 years after Mission Impossible made its big screen debut. For the sixth mission, Fallout, the franchise's revolving director's chair sits stationary as Christopher McQuarrie returns from the last film, Rogue Nation.

This time, Hunt and his fellow spies Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickwell (Ving Rhames) are hunting the supervillain John Lark. Lark and the Apostles, remnants of the last film's The Syndicate, want some nuclear cores to make weapons with. Our heroes try and fail to stop them at first. But they can try again in Paris. That's where the arms dealer The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) is to sell the cores to Lark. CIA director Sloane (Angela Bassett) sends the brutish August Walker (Henry Cavill) to make sure the mission works.

The mission mostly works. But the White Widow wants our heroes to extract The Syndicate's Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) in exchange for one core. They do. The Apostles have already made weapons with the other two. Our heroes have to find the weapons and disarm them. It gets complicated when Hunt is suspected of being Lark. Hunt has to find the real man and save his ex-wife, Julia, from the nuclear attack.

McQuarrie's screenplay gives plenty of insane stunts for Cruise to do. There's his HALO jump during a lighting storm. A lengthy car chase in Paris. And a helicopter chase for the climax. Of course, there are plenty of writing stunts McQuarrie pulls masterfully, like how Hunt tricks an Apostle scientist (Kristoffer Joner) into giving his secrets. A few plot details might flyby during the film's 144 minutes. It's especially so if you're not familiar with the entire film series. Those are minor compared to Sloane's decision to act like an obstructive bureaucrat at the worst possible time.

All the action and drama is paced nicely by editor Eddie Hamilton. The cinematography of Rob Hardy makes the movie worthy of the big screen. The HALO jump looks and sounds great. Hunt and Walker's tag-team against a Lark decoy is a memorably brutal fight. The climactic rush to stop the bombs is a thrilling set piece. It helps that Lorne Balfe's score emphasizes the action spectacularly.

I wouldn't know if Mission Impossible: Fallout is the best of the series or one of the best sequels ever. But it is one of the best films this summer. Its action scenes are sure to be icons in the genre. Its cast of characters (especially Pegg) make the long run time worthwhile. See it at any price in the largest screen available.