Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a 2018 American action spy thriller film written, produced and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It is the sixth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series, and the second film to be directed by McQuarrie following the 2015 film Rogue Nation. The cast includes Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan and Alec Baldwin, all of whom reprise their roles from previous films, along with Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby and Angela Bassett, who join the franchise. In the film, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team must track down missing plutonium stolen to carry out a plot to permanently poison the main water supply of China and India, while being monitored by a CIA agent (Cavill) after a mission goes awry.

Talks for a sixth Mission: Impossible film began prior to the release of Rogue Nation in 2015. The film was officially announced in November 2015, with McQuarrie confirming his return as writer and director, as well as producer alongside J. J. Abrams and Cruise, the seventh collaboration between the pair. Filming took place from April 2017 to March 2018, in Paris, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Norway and the United Arab Emirates.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout had its world premiere in Paris on July 12, 2018 and was released in the United States on July 27, 2018. The film was the first in the series to be released in RealD 3D, and also had an IMAX release. It was a box office success, grossing $791 million worldwide, making it the sixth highest-grossing film of 2018, Cruise's highest-grossing film to date, and the highest-grossing film in the franchise, surpassing Ghost Protocol. It received critical acclaim for its screenplay, direction, cinematography, action sequences, stunts, musical score and the performances of Cruise, Cavill, Rhames, Pegg, Ferguson and Kirby. Many critics called it the best installment in the franchise, with some regarding it as one of the greatest action films of all time.

Plot
Two years after Solomon Lane's capture, the remains of his organization The Syndicate are now a rogue terrorist group called the Apostles. IMF agent Ethan Hunt is assigned to buy three stolen plutonium cores in Berlin from "elements of the Eastern European underworld". He is joined by Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell for the mission, but the team fails when Stickell is taken hostage and Hunt's attempt to save him allows the Apostles to make off with the plutonium. The team later captures nuclear weapons expert Nils Delbruuk, who designed nuclear devices for an extremist named John Lark, in order to find Lark.

Furious at the IMF's failure to secure the plutonium, CIA Director Erica Sloane instructs Special Activities Division operative August Walker to shadow Hunt as he attempts to retrieve the plutonium. Hunt and Walker infiltrate a nightclub party in Paris where Lark is believed to be buying the cores from arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, also known as White Widow. They track a man whom they suspect to be Lark, but while attempting to subdue the suspect to assume his identity, the man is killed by MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, who intervenes in order to save Hunt. Hunt sticks to the plan and assumes the role of Lark without a disguise and escapes from the hitmen sent to kill Lark and Mitsopolis.

To secure the plutonium, Mitsopolis tasks Hunt with extracting Lane from an armoured convoy moving through Paris. She provides one of the plutonium cores as down payment. With Mitsopolis and her brother intending to use excessive force on local police, Hunt and Walker attack the convoy by alternate means, leading the police and Mitsopolis' men on a chase across Paris while Dunn and Stickell secure Lane. Faust reappears and attempts to kill Lane to prove her loyalty to MI6, but Hunt evades her and the extraction is successful. Mitsopolis instructs the team to deliver Lane to London.

At a safehouse in London, IMF Secretary Alan Hunley confronts Hunt about being the real John Lark, based on evidence doctored by Walker and passed to Sloane. Hunt denies it and incapacitates Hunley to continue the mission, leaving Walker to guard Lane. However this is a trick, with Dunn disguising himself as Lane to cause Walker to admit he is the real Lark and a member of the Apostles. The IMF inform Sloane, who sends in a CIA unit to detain everyone. However, the CIA unit has been compromised by the Apostles and Walker orders them to attack instead. Walker kills Hunley and escapes, and Hunt chases him across the city, but is unable to apprehend him. Before escaping, Walker threatens the life of Hunt's estranged wife Julia and departs for a medical camp in Kashmir with Lane.

The team deduces that Lane and Walker plan to detonate the two remaining nuclear weapons over the Siachen Glacier, contaminating the water supply of Pakistan, India, and China; with a third of its population affected, the world will descend into anarchy from which Lane and Walker hope a new world order will emerge. Upon arrival in Kashmir, Hunt discovers Julia and her new husband are assigned to the medical camp, an arrangement made by Walker to increase the pressure on Hunt. Lane activates a countdown on the nuclear weapons and gives the detonator to Walker who leaves in a helicopter, with Hunt in pursuit by commandeering another helicopter. Dunn, Stickell, and Faust stay behind to find the weapons on their own. Stickell finds the first bomb and works to understand its mechanism, but even with Julia volunteering her help they are unable to defuse it without the detonator. Faust and Dunn locate the second weapon and subdue Lane. After a lengthy chase, Hunt uses his helicopter to ram Walker's aircraft out of the sky. Walker fights with Hunt on the edge of a cliff and is killed. Hunt secures the detonator, allowing Stickell, Faust and Dunn to deactivate the bombs.

In the aftermath, the remaining two cores are safely recovered. Sloane hands Lane over to MI6 through Mitsopolis, with Faust earning her exoneration from the organization as a result. Hunt recovers from his injuries with Julia's help, who consoles him that he has given her the best life, despite his commitments to the IMF. Faust and the team join Hunt in celebration.

Cast

 * Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an IMF agent and leader of a team of operatives
 * Henry Cavill as August Walker / John Lark, a CIA assassin working for the Special Activities Division tasked with monitoring Ethan and his team
 * Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, an IMF agent and a member of Hunt's team
 * Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, an IMF technical field agent and a member of Hunt's team
 * Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, a former MI6 agent who allied with Hunt's team during Rogue Nation
 * Sean Harris as Solomon Lane, an anarchist mastermind who was the leader of the Syndicate during Rogue Nation
 * Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane, the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency replacing Hunley, and Walker's superior
 * Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis, a black market arms dealer also known as the White Widow
 * Michelle Monaghan as Julia Meade, a doctor and Ethan's estranged wife
 * Wes Bentley as Erik, Julia's second husband
 * Frederick Schmidt as Zola Mitsopolis, Alanna's brother and primary enforcer
 * Alec Baldwin as Alan Hunley, a former CIA Director who later became the new IMF Secretary at the end of Rogue Nation

Additionally, director Christopher McQuarrie provides his voice for Ethan's mission tape in Belfast. Liang Yang portrays the decoy John Lark, a man who was presumed to possess the alias "John Lark". Kristoffer Joner portrays Nils Delbruuk, a rogue nuclear weapons specialist. Wolf Blitzer makes a cameo appearance as himself.

Pre-production
On May 23, 2015, The Tracking Board reported that Paramount Pictures was developing a sixth Mission: Impossible film, with Tom Cruise, J. J. Abrams, David Ellison, and Dana Goldberg returning to produce, along with Don Granger and Matt Grimm as executive producers, and Elizabeth Raposo overseeing development. On July 28, 2015, Cruise confirmed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that a sixth film was already being developed, and told Jon Stewart that the filming would "probably" commence in summer 2016. On August 2, 2015, Paramount executive Rob Moore told Variety that the sequel was already in the works, stating that they were "very happy to be developing this movie with Tom," and "there has to be another movie." On November 19, 2015, it was announced that Paramount had again hired Christopher McQuarrie to write the film, while it was possible that he would also direct again, and the studio was moving fast, with plans to begin shooting in August 2016. On November 30, 2015, McQuarrie confirmed through his Twitter account that he would be back for directing duty as well, and also produce the film along with Cruise. On December 8, 2015, Showbiz411 confirmed that the fifth film's female lead, Rebecca Ferguson, would return for the sequel.

On August 19, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Paramount had halted pre-production on the film due to a dispute over salary between Cruise and the studio, as Cruise wanted to be paid equal to or more his fee for the Universal Pictures film The Mummy. On September 16, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Cruise's dispute with the studio had been resolved, and production would now begin in spring 2017. In November, Jeremy Renner—who portrayed William Brandt in the fourth and fifth films—stated that he was unsure if he would be part of the sixth film, due to scheduling conflicts with Marvel Studios' untitled Avengers film (2019). In March 2017, Renner confirmed at CinemaCon that he would not return for the sixth film.

In February, McQuarrie revealed that the film would include more backstory to Ethan Hunt's personal life. On June 13, 2017, Michelle Monaghan was announced to return as Ethan Hunt's wife Julia Meade-Hunt.

Filming
Filming was slated to start in Paris on April 10, 2017. Other locations include the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Norway. Filming officially began on April 8. Some of the filming also took place in New Zealand in July 2017. The municipality of Forsand in Norway allowed the closing of Preikestolen for a time in autumn for the film's shoot; only crew members and cast were allowed to approach the mountain for nine consecutive days. They also were allowed up to 50 helicopter landings per day. The scenes set in Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir were shot in New Zealand. Director Christopher McQuarrie said that he wanted the climax of the film to be set in a more "politically complex" location than New Zealand, so he chose to set this sequence in Kashmir.

In August 2017, Cruise injured his right leg on the London set during filming. Following the accident, the studio announced it would halt production for at least nine weeks in order for Cruise's broken ankle and other injuries to heal, but released a statement saying that they would be keeping the July 2018 release date for the film. The injury resulted in a cost of around $80 million for the studio, because they had to pay the cast and crew for the eight-week hiatus so they would not take another job. However, the injury and subsequent costs were offset by insurance, and did not count against the film's final budget. Filming resumed in early October 2017, with Cruise spotted on the set seven weeks after his initial injury, and two weeks earlier than initially planned.

Reshoots for Cavill's Justice League coincided with the schedule for Fallout, for which he had grown a mustache which he was contracted to keep while filming. While McQuarrie initially gave the producers of Justice League permission to have Cavill shave the mustache in exchange for the $3 million it would cost to shut down production on Fallout and then digitally fill the mustache in, executives from Paramount rejected the idea. Justice League's VFX team was then forced to use special effects to digitally remove the mustache in post-production.

On January 25, 2018, the title was revealed to be Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Filming concluded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on March 25, 2018. Production in the UAE included filming of a High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) jump scene with Cruise. The scene required Cruise and the crew to train on a ground-based vertical wind tunnel, and then use a C-17 military aircraft to make over one hundred jumps from around 25000 ft to end up with three takes that McQuarrie wanted for the film. As the scene was to be set near sunset, they could only make one jump a day to try to get each shot. One of the biggest challenges for the visual effects team was replacing the Abu Dhabi desert with Paris, which is where the jump takes place in the film. Artists re-created the Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées using reference imagery, Lidar scans and photogrammetry from drone footage that was taken above the building.

Soundtrack
The musical score for Mission: Impossible – Fallout was composed by Lorne Balfe. Balfe was confirmed by McQuarrie to be the composer for the film in April 2017, replacing the previous composer Joe Kraemer.

The score has been praised by many critics, calling it an epic and inspiring score, with some powerful themes which are balanced with softer more sentimental themes; some also considered it being too "Nolan-esque", comparing it to scores by Hans Zimmer (particularly The Dark Knight Rises). The score implements the use of percussion, snares and bongos to create a jaunty staccato momentum.

The digital album was released through Paramount Music on July 14, 2018. The physical soundtrack was released later in the month by La-La Land Records.

Release
Mission: Impossible – Fallout was released in the United States and Canada on July 27, 2018, by Paramount in RealD 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D, and August 31, 2018 in China. The film premiered in Paris on July 12, 2018.

The first trailer was released on February 4, 2018, during Super Bowl LII, and a second one on May 16, 2018. Marketing spent a total of $140 million on global promotion and advertisements. The film was released in India with some edits to exclude any mention of Indian state of jammu and Kashmir.

Home media
Mission: Impossible – Fallout was released for digital download on November 20, 2018 and will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray on December 4, 2018. The digital and Blu-ray releases include behind-the-scenes featurettes, a deleted scenes montage, an isolated score and three commentary tracks.

Box office
Mission: Impossible – Fallout grossed $220.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $570.9 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $791 million, against a production budget of $178 million.

In the United States and Canada, this film was released alongside Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, and was projected to gross $48–65 million in its opening weekend, with some estimates going as high as $75 million. It opened in 4,386 theaters, the most ever for the franchise and the seventh-widest release all-time. The film made $6 million from Thursday night previews (including $1 million from IMAX screenings), the highest of the series, a record for Cruise, and a 66% increase from Rogue Nation's $4 million. It went on to debut to $61.2 million, the best of the series and the second-highest of Cruise's career. It made $35 million in its second weekend to remain in first, and marked the best sophomore frame of the franchise. The film made $20 million in its third weekend, finishing second behind newcomer The Meg.

In other territories, the film was projected to debut to $75–80 million from 36 countries, for an estimated total global opening of around $135 million. It made $15 million on its first day, including $2.8 million in South Korea. The film ended up overperforming, debuting to $92 million overseas for a worldwide total of $153.5 million. Its largest markets were South Korea ($24.9 million), the United Kingdom ($9.5 million) and India ($8.2 million). By its third weekend of release, the largest markets outside the US were: South Korea ($46.4 million), the UK ($22.4 million), India ($13.5 million), Taiwan ($11.9 million), Mexico ($10.8 million), Brazil ($9.6 million) and the UAE ($6.4 million).

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Fast, sleek, and fun, Mission: Impossible – Fallout lives up to the "impossible" part of its name by setting yet another high mark for insane set pieces in a franchise full of them." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on 60 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 84% overall positive score and a 65% "definite recommend," while CinemaScore reported filmgoers gave it an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, the highest-ever for the series.

Variety's Peter Debruge called the film the series's most exciting installment to date, saying, "McQuarrie clearly believes in creating coherent set pieces: His combat scenes are tense, muscular, and clean, shot and edited in such a way that the spatial geography makes sense." David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of "A" and called it one of the best action films ever, writing "He's only Tom Cruise because nobody else is willing to be — or maybe he's only Tom Cruise so that nobody else has to be. Either way, Fallout is the film he's always promised us, and it is worth the wait." Entertainment Weekly Chris Nashawaty also gave the film an "A" grade, commenting on Cruise that "He’s still Hollywood’s hungriest movie star", with the series getting "better, twistier and more deliriously fun with each installment". George Simpson of The Express complimented "the action is brutal and gut-punching, the pacing heart-pumping and the stakes so high it's gasp-inducing at times," adding, "Fallout is an improvement on all the previous films' failings, drawing together all the best aspects of them; simultaneously giving off that classic vibe of the original while never being afraid to continually evolve;" he gave the film five out of five stars. The Telegraph Tim Robey summed up the film as "spectacular and eye-popping," deeming it "the blockbuster of the summer" with "a pleasingly sinuous plot," and calling the film and its series a "Bond-like franchise"; he also rated the film five out of five stars.

Robert Abele of TheWrap described Cruise as an "evergreen movie star with the daredevil heart of a stuntman" and that he "puts every ounce of effort he can into the long, hard work of maintaining a blockbuster franchise." The Hollywood Reporter Todd McCarthy praised director Christopher McQuarrie, saying that with Mission: Impossible - Fallout he "tops what he did with Cruise three years ago," and also singled out Vanessa Kirby for playing her character with "a mix of elegance and frisky abandon." J.R. Kinnard of PopMatters wrote, "Though it lacks the gritty humanity of something like George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Mission: Impossible – Fallout is no less impressive in its dedication to character-driven action and practical special effects. It's a dazzling, non-stop thriller that's sure to become an instant action classic." Screen Daily Tim Grierson wrote "Tom Cruise is on fighting form in this thrilling franchise topper... [he is] ageless, riveting and seemingly unstoppable," further adding that "the sixth film in the series is among the most outstanding, delivering a near-exhausting amount of stupendous action sequences paired with deft character drama and the requisite life-or-death stakes." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, saying "there isn't as much [humor] in the dialogue as before," but added, "Crashes and petrolhead spills are what this franchise is reasonably expected to deliver. And this is what it cheerfully does."

Sight & Sound Nick Pinkerton wrote "A strong contender for the most consistently cinematic franchise of the last 25 years, the Mission: Impossible films also offer a case study in the idea of the actor as auteur, with Tom Cruise continuing to present himself as a fearless screen immortal in Fallout."