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Published 8/19/2015

What is it about covert operatives and their incessant need to be seen? The job becomes quite clear when one is being punched, kicked, and drowned in service of queen and country.

Being a spy is not for those want their efforts recognized, or even worse, for those who feel that their orders from the higher-ups should respect their personal moral foundation.

YOU HAVE BEEN RECRUITED TO RUFFLE THE FEATHERS OF THE RUFFIANS THAT WE REFUSE TO RETAIN!

Being expendable is the gamble when signing the dotted line. Collateral damage is expected. Do what most cannot and expect to live in the dust that settles.

Ethan Hunt understands his place in the mud. The Impossible Mission Force was built to pull the trigger while falling from 30,000 feet without a parachute. Yet the Syndicate, a rogue nation of former assassins disowned by their respective countries, feel the need to spread their wings on the way down. Discouraged by the lack of a safety net, they then basked in resentment against the men who sent them to their proverbial deaths.

But isn’t the lack of job security a given in the spy game? The amount of employee turnover should be a dead giveaway. Again, for whatever reason, spies always want reparations for failed operations.

And in their echoes for equality, rampant acts of terrorism trumpet around the world, culminating with blasts and bombings involving the innocent, straining the current political landscape for Ethan Hunt and the rest of the IMF.

In the most appropriate of inappropriate times, the crew is under judicial scrutiny. Led by CIA chief and lead IMF hater Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), the MAN goes after Hunt and his boys, so they go zero dark thirty, and await their chance to come back to life.

The aforementioned irony is noted, given that the “deceased” make up The Syndicate. And to their handlers’ dismay, all the dust biters are very much alive, and none more than British Secret Intelligence Service Agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson).

/tangent

Rebecca Ferguson was a shot to my gut as soon as she appeared.

WHAT A MARVEL!

Amazing look, incredible screen presence, ample physical ability, and the voice of a queen. She is stunning, and her best moments are when she is doing absolutely nothing.

Poised. Stoic. Her gaze bewitched me, and her body speaks a language known to most warm-blooded men. Any production she is a part of, I will be a grateful consumer.

Fascinating.

/end tangent

Faust is a mixed bag. A promising member of a terror squad, and the literal savior of Ethan Hunt on more than one occasion. The IMF cannot figure out where her loyalties lie, so Hunt relies on emotion rather than conscience in her regard.

But then director Christopher McQuarrie makes plot choice that I find quite peculiar: Ethan and Ilsa’s relationship remains strictly platonic.

Is this a disparaging nod to a particular British spy known for his sexual trysts and conquests? Perhaps McQuarrie wanted the audience to recognize Ethan and Ilsa as equals. And if gender parity was what he was aiming for, then he missed the target by a wide margin because Ethan couldn’t hold a candle to Ilsa in the field.

She bodied him on a motorcycle, smoked him in the information retrieval mission, saved his ass at least 3 times in the film, and she held my attention longer than Tom Cruise and his iconic smirk. She was a true force of nature (see tangent above).

I’m rambling. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a fun ride for everyone. It didn’t feel like 2 hours, which in most cases, is a good thing. Take the wife or girlfriend. Take the husband or boyfriend. Enjoy the mission.

Bonus: Video review of MI:5