Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

The Mission: Impossible franchise is unique among action films in that it is less focused on overall mythology than it is on simply delivering a new and exciting movie experience each and every time out. As a result, each Mission: Impossible film is more or less a director’s showcase, and each filmmaker has more or less been able to implement their style on the basic big-budget spy formula. Brian DePalma crafted a nifty little thriller in the original, John Woo admirably swung and missed with the sequel, and J.J. Abrams made his directorial debut with the energetic and fun Mission: Impossible III. Now the director’s chair goes to Pixar veteran Brad Bird, who is making his live-action debut. In his time in animation, he helmed such vibrant films as The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Now, with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, he has made as close to a perfect blockbuster film as you could possibly imagine. Over the course of 132 minutes, Bird packs in so many memorable action sequences that it almost seems unfair to other movies. With Ghost Protocol, Bird makes a startlingly assured film that would suggest he’s got a long and fruitful live-action career ahead of him.

The plot, which of course is little more than a clothesline on which to hang the setpieces, is pretty darn simple and easy to follow. (Part of the brilliance of Ghost Protocol is that it refuses to let anything get in the way of what matters: pure excitement.) It’s pretty standard stuff: Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is caught in the middle of a plot that includes nuclear launch codes, the Russians, satellites, World War III, etc. After a series of explosive misunderstandings, the whole of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF, for the layman) is disavowed. Hunt and his team (Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner) are left to their own devices in their quest to stop the villainous nuclear strategist Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist). This involves trips to such exotic locales as Budapest, Moscow, Dubai and Mumbai, with confrontations in various locations and at various altitudes.

The film’s centerpiece is undoubtedly a sequence that takes place inside (and outside) the Burj Khalifa in Dubia. For those unaware, this is the tallest building in the world, and Bird makes you fully aware of this with every last shot. The key to a great action movie is not necessarily plausibility in and of itself, but rather whether what we’re looking at seems like it’s actually happening. One of the reasons Fast Five was so unexpectedly awesome is because Justin Lin made the extra effort to shoot what he could practically and thus give each stunt and action sequence some weight and consequence. There’s an actual feeling of danger; something not normally felt in a world with CGI and green screen. Ghost Protocol more or less adopts this same mentality, particularly in this Burj Khalifa sequence. When you watch the film, you realize that this is actually Tom Cruise actually climbing around on the exterior of the actual Burj Khalifa. That gives the film a sense of realism and threat that only increases the excitement. Obviously, Tom Cruise isn’t going to actually fall from two miles in the air. If he did, we likely wouldn’t be watching a movie about it. But at least it feels like he might. It’s for this reason I recommend that you see the film on the largest theatrical screen possible. I do not have an IMAX theater near my current location, but I did see the film in Cinemark XD, and that alone made a world of difference.

As has always been the case with the Mission: Impossible films, there isn’t a whole lot to these people as characters. Sure, there are love interests—including Hunt’s wife, introduced in Abrams’ film—but they all more or less work to serve the plot in which they have been placed by the screenplay. But the Mission: Impossible films get away with this more often than not because they’re made by filmmakers that are able to pull off some truly breathtaking sequences. And as far as pure action directors go, Bird may be the best guy they’ve ever had in the director’s chair. (Again: this is his first live action feature. A terrifying thought.) He turns each and every last scene into a spectacle without breaking a sweat, and it’s energetic without ever resorting to unnecessary slow motion or editorial tricks. Bird simply shoots and cuts his action in such a way that it comes out coherent, smooth and ultimately enthralling.

Almost nothing in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is wholly unexpected; while each film has adapted to the style of its director, they all still hit more or less the same beats. When you go to watch an installment in this franchise, you know you’re going to get chases, cool stunts, sleek gadgets, and Tom Cruise with either very long or very short hair. The lone question is how well all the chaos is pulled off, and the Mission: Impossible series has out of nowhere become one of the most reliable thrill rides in Hollywood. (Only Woo’s film fails more than it succeeds.) But as far as pure blockbuster bliss goes, Ghost Protocol is darn near flawless. Bird pulls off setpiece after setpiece with such grace and aptitude that every other action director in Hollywood suddenly seems like a slouch by comparison.

Grade: A-, just because you have to have a bit more substance than a Mission: Impossible movie to get the full ‘A.’ Doesn’t make it any less awesome.