This review isn’t about deep thoughts on Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. That’s mostly because there aren’t really any to be had. Every Mission: Impossible
movie hits the same notes: death-defying acts, near-misses,
international intrigue. If you like those things, you’ll like this
movie. That’s all you need to know. No, this review is all about the
heart and soul of Rogue Nation, which is the bromance between
Tom Cruise’s super-agent Ethan Hunt and Simon Pegg’s regular-agent Benji
Dunn. (We’re sure people are cooking up names for this duo as we
speak.) The recent run of Mission movies have largely been posse
cuts in which a group of IMF agents pulls off yet another impossible
mission. But following the events of Ghost Protocol, after which Ethan fittingly ghosted, the band is definitely not back together. Hunt’s on the lam, CIA director Hunley (Alec Baldwin) is after the
IMF and
Hunt, Luther (Ving Rhames) is semi-retired, Benji is stuck at a desk,
and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) is in D.C. trying to keep the Senate
from shutting the whole operation down. So they need a new reason to bring them back to the fold. And that
reason (Ethan’s desire to bring down the super-secret Syndicate) fully
swings into gear when Ehtan calls on Benji for help with a covert op.
Benji, now very aware Ethan is a wanted man, refuses to leave him behind
when the job is done—and thus begins the sweetest I-love-you-man caper
you’ll see this summer. Well, they might be tied with the Science Bros. in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, but those dudes fought a lot. For some reason, it wasn’t obvious in Mission: Impossible III or Ghost Protocol
just how much chemistry Cruise and Pegg have, but it’s far more
apparent in this installment. (Team-building exercises since the last
movie, maybe?) If they were police officers and not choosers of missions
impossible, Rogue Nation could’ve easily been a buddy-cop
movie. With less slapstick. Have you seen that bit in the trailer where
the two are flying through the air and Ethan asks Benji if he has his
seatbelt on? The whole movie is like that. But funnier. And more dramatic. With even more crashing cars. In the Mission flicks Cruise is part of an ensemble, but
outside of the franchise he’s more often than not a Leading Man. Pegg,
on the other hand, has had years of making movies with Nick Frost (from Shaun of the Dead to their voice work on The Boxtrolls). He knows how to play off of someone, and Pegg himself has said that Cruise “inspires you to do your best work.”
(He also claims that Cruise inspired him to do his own stunts in that
flying-car scene.) Somehow this combination has caused a perfect
alchemy, and it’s the kind of relationship this franchise needed. A lot of cool action-movie things happen in Rogue Nation,
but they’re mostly MacGuffins meant to set up setpieces and/or witty
banter. (This is still at least partly a J.J. Abrams joint. Note that
there’s also a rabbit’s foot in this film—likely a sight-gag for those who remember M:I III.) Pegg recently said that he’d be down for
a Benji Dunn spin-off movie. That’ll probably never happen—but if it
does, he’d better be able to bring along his wingman Tom Cruise.
