Set at the Vienna State Opera, with Turandot in full swing (Nessun Dorma, folks!), three separate hitmen (and woman), plus Ethan, plus Benji, slink about backstage (and through much of the set and rigging) to either carry out or prevent the assassination of the Austrian Chancellor. Storytelling that is preposterous (a badge of honour for the IMF series) but never incoherent. The plot rests on the scaffolding of three distinct acts, each one an intricately coordinated set-piece located in a city centre, all escalating into furies of high anxiety and real-world stunt work. Which decodes as being really complicated in simple ways (or vice versa). This, ladies and gentleman, is a Mission: Impossible movie. No silly-arse Limp Bizkit remix, just Lalo Schifrin’s shimmering ’60s vibe like a burst of electricity. Indeed, if there is a sure signal that McQuarrie knows exactly what he is about, it is the theme tune. No need for backstories, real-world relevance or, worse still, irony. Set up the dilemma, throw in the characters and watch them try to figure it out. Resisting the vogue for narrative sprawl, and the bad habits of former Missions, this is a thriller that aspires only to be a great thriller. Latest director Christopher McQuarrie has decided the only way forward for the unflagging spy franchise is the direct pleasures of old-fashioned genre entertainment. It’s what the rather splendid Rogue Nation keeps reminding us - we’re at the movies, it is supposed to be exciting. So, what exactly is Benji’s point? Right now, care of the flat-out thrill mustered by this latest Cruise vehicle, our hearts are just about hanging on in there too. Besides which, the ridiculously sexy Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) - of no fixed moral compass - is making off with a drive containing crucial “red box” data that could bring down The Syndicate, thus preventing war and exonerating the IMF, who have been disavowed by the American government thanks to the wheedling of the dastardly CIA (as played by Alec Baldwin). This is, after all, what he does for a living.
“A minute ago you were dead.” Naturally, a barely conscious Hunt is about to do just that: grab the wheel and commence a high-speed chase, comprised of an about-to-be-trashed Beamer and about a dozen enemy motorbikes, through the back streets of Casablanca having recently been defibrillated back into possession of a heartbeat. “Are you sure, you’re okay to drive?” enquires Benji Dunn (still played with barely supressed gulps of panic by Simon Pegg) to his best friend and indefatigable superspy, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise).
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