10 Reasons Mission: Impossible - Fallout Is The Best Ever

The Mission: Impossible franchise has now been running for over twenty years.

Beginning back in 1996 as the Brian De Palma-directed film adaptation of the successful sixties television show, few could have predicted that the franchise would have ever had this kind of longevity. The first film was pretty solely conceived as a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise, one he also produced and hoped would open the door for a franchise.

So once the first film was a success, Mission: Impossible II was greenlit pretty quickly. While that film was a financial success, it wasn't nearly as well-regarded as its predecessor, leading many to proclaim the budding franchise already dead based on this sophomore slump.

That was 2000. It's now 2018, and not only is the franchise still going strong, it just released its best installment yet.

As Cruise, now fifty-six years old (!?!), continues to subject himself to increasingly dangerous stunt work for the sole purpose of furthering the form of cinema and audience's enjoyment, he's found a partner-in-crime who has figured out precisely how to utilize his talents. That partner would be writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, who started out as a writer who did polishes on Ghost Protocol, moved up to directing Cruise in the first Jack Reacher, and has since taken over the last two Mission: Impossible films.

With Fallout, McQuarrie and Cruise have crafted not only the best film of the franchise but also one of the best action films of the two decades since the franchise began. Here's why.

While it has become a bit of a trademark for the series to open on an insane stunt sequence, ala Ethan Hunt holding onto the side of a plane as it takes off in the first few minutes of Rogue Nation, Fallout eschews this in favor of something a bit more personal.

The first thing the viewer sees is the studio logos, which are sped up to nearly double speed and shortened for impact. This might not seem like much of a big deal but for long-time fans of the series who probably did a few rewatches in the weeks leading up to Fallout, its an immediate tone-setter.

The other key difference is the opening's length. Whereas Rogue Nation spent maybe five minutes of screen-time tops before getting to the opening credits, Fallout goes for nearly a full fifteen. And rather than putting any focus on gonzo stunts, Fallout's spotlight is solely on Ethan Hunt as a character from the very first frame.

Opening on his dream of he and Julia being remarried, only for Solomon Lane to kill them both a with a nuclear blast, it's a jarring reintroduction to Ethan's driving motivation: keeping his loved ones safe. This is reinforced in the next sequence, where Ethan has to choose between saving Luther's life or stopping the Apostles from getting the plutonium.

Then, of course, there's the wonderful final bit of the prologue, in which Benji finally gets to wear a mask and they expertly fool the nuclear weapons expert who helped the Apostles build their bombs just in time for the iconic theme to cue up over the opening credits.