The Mission: Impossible franchise might be over for good. After eight movies and almost 30 years, it feels like the kind of franchise that’s difficult to summarize. It was different things at different times, and that’s precisely what made it so interesting.
10 years ago, the franchise made its most significant pivot with Mission: Impossible —Rogue Nation. This was the first of four films that Christopher McQuarrie would direct. It signaled a change in how much of the cast from one movie might show up in the next. Even more importantly, Rogue Nation is the most fun film in the entire franchise. It might even be its best. Here’s what makes it so good.
Rebecca Ferguson, Rebecca Ferguson, Rebecca Ferguson
Never has a star emerged more fully formed than Rebecca Ferguson does in this movie. Every Mission: Impossible had a female lead; some of them were quite good. Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust was the first character who felt like Ethan Hunt’s equal, maybe even his superior. Of course, it certainly didn’t hurt that she served a much more central role in the plot than many of Ethan’s other compatriots.
Because it’s incredibly difficult to know for sure what side she’s on from the moment she enters the movie, she’s keeping both the audience and Ethan on their toes. These movies are at their best when Ferguson crushes her performance. There’s a reason she’s become the queen of science fiction in the years since.
It has one of the most impressive sequences in the franchise
When you think of great Mission: Impossible sequences, you likely think of Tom Cruise climbing the Burj Khalifa or hanging off a biplane. What’s remarkable about Rogue Nation, though, is that while it has a couple of remarkable sequences (including an invigorating motorcycle chase), the movie’s most memorable set piece is constructed like a ramped-up Hitchcock thriller. The opera house sequence, where we meet Ilsa for the first time, is told from multiple competing points of view as you begin to realize all the different players involved in the scene and all the divergent reasons that they’ve descended on the same location.
The fact that it builds to something comprehensible feels like a miracle in and of itself. This sequence is the best one in a movie filled with impressive scenes. It was a clear signal that McQuarrie would be bringing something distinct to the table.
Rogue Nation might have the best ensemble cast
Even if you set aside Ferguson (which this franchise learned you should never do), Rogue Nation might still have the most complete ensemble cast. Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames are part of every late-stage movie, but they’re both excellent here, and they’re joined by Jeremy Renner’s Brandt and Alec Baldwin’s CIA director.
That cast has no weak links and makes for a movie where every character is fun to watch. Everyone plays well off of each other. Renner, in particular, is great in his two installments, making you wish that he was a part of the rest of the franchise.
It lets Tom Cruise be funny
Ethan Hunt is a difficult character to read partially because he represents a stand-in for Cruise. In Rogue Nation, we get the chance to see Cruise exercise his comedic chops, which is often when these movies are at their best. There’s a moment where Cruise tries and fails to jump over the hood of the car.
It’s a reminder that Cruise wants to entertain above all else. He wants to look cool, sure, but he also loves Chaplin and Keaton and knows when to design a stunt so that he looks amazing and when to design one so that he looks like an utter fool.
It’s the first movie that seems to have an idea of what these movies are about
First and foremost, every installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise is designed to entertain. These are blockbusters through and through, meaning their ultimate goal is to be exciting and worth the price of admission. Rogue Nation, though, begins to tease out another idea at the core of these movies.
The finale of Rogue Nation forces Ethan to make a choice. The film’s villain, Solomon Lane, has kidnapped Pegg’s Benji, and Ethan has to either turn over data that will allow Lane to fund his terrorist activities or let his teammate and friend die. For all of the physical dominance that Cruise asserts as Ethan Hunt, these are the impossible missions at the center of these movies. Over and over again, Ethan is given a choice between saving one life and saving everyone, and over and over, he refuses to make that choice. Instead, he does things that are truly impossible.
In this case, that involves memorizing a long string of numbers so that Solomon cannot make him turn over anything. Ethan becomes the desirable object, changing Lane’s calculation. This incomprehensible feat is all internal, and all Cruise can do is use a steely glare to convince you that he’s memorized hundreds of digits. What’s crucial, though, is that you believe that Ethan would do it if it meant saving a life.
This notion, that Ethan refuses to sacrifice anyone, is core to the rest of the Mission: Impossible franchise, even if it’s never particularly heavy-handed. This idea starts in earnest in Rogue Nation, which weaves together all the fun of this franchise with a design that feels just a little bit weighty.
You can watch Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation on Paramount Plus.
