DESPERATE TIMES. DESPERATE MEASURES. 

As the IMF is about to be shut down by the government, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) goes on the lam from the CIA and tries to prove the existence of a vast criminal network.

The fifth chapter in the franchise reunites Cruise with his Jack Reacher director; opening with a knockout sequence where Cruise performs a stunt hanging from a plane that takes off, the movie tells its traditional spy story with confidence and throws us into one breathless action scene after the other.

Packed with thrills and laughs, the highlight being a dive into an underwater turbine tank, the movie only has a few lulls in its second half. Cruise is in top form and Rebecca Ferguson alluring as a potential friend or foe.

2015-U.S. 131 min. Color. Widescreen. Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Cast: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Jeremy Renner (William Brandt), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Tom Hollander, Jens Hultén, Alec Baldwin. 

Trivia: Co-produced by Cruise and J.J. Abrams. Jessica Chastain was allegedly considered for a role. Followed by Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018).

Last word: “When Tom first suggested it to me, I was terrified. I had worked on Ghost Protocol behind the scenes and saw how difficult and massive it was, and I’d worked on other big movies as an on-set script doctor and producer and seen how challenging they can be. I also know how daunting the script development process on these kinds of movies can be, so my natural inclination was to run.” (McQuarrie, Film Comment)