Movie Review - Mission: Impossible -
Ghost Protocol (2011) (PG-13)
You Should Choose to Accept It
I've seen all the previous Mission: Impossible films, and while I do recall liking them to varying degrees,
I'm hard pressed to say that I remember anything about their plots, characters, stunts, special effects, or
even their casts. What I do remember, obviously, is that they all starred Tom Cruise. With Mission:
Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Pixar veteran Brad Bird not only makes his live-action directorial debut, he's
also eager to have you forget the first three entries in the series entirely. He succeeds. This is a fun,
thoroughly entertaining, immensely satisfying spy/action thriller. It actually makes an effort with an
engaging plot, clever dialogue, pulse-pounding stunts, great special effects, and well-developed
characters. It even has just the right amount of humor. If there's anything a movie like this shouldn't do,
it's take itself too seriously.
But it also shouldn't be so silly that it becomes a self-congratulatory form of parody. Ghost Protocol shows
a clear awareness of the spy-movie formula, utilizing such clichés as frequent travel, exotic locations,
high-tech gadgets and gizmos, impossible stunt work, foreign madmen, nuclear codes, and a scheme to
create chaos and war on a global scale. It also makes no apologies for being preposterous, as evidenced
by the outlandish displays of technology and numerous scenes of destruction and death-defying escapes.
And yet, never once does anyone stop to wink at us slyly. Bird gives audiences what they want without
insulting their intelligence. For the first time in what seems like ages, I didn't ask any questions; I just sat
back and let the story happen.
Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, an agent for the aptly named Impossible Missions Force (IMF). After being
sprung from a Moscow prison, he joins fellow agents Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji Dunn (Simon
Pegg) on a mission to infiltrate the Kremlin and gather files on a person of interest codenamed Cobalt, a
name somehow tied to the death of another IMF agent in Budapest. But wait a minute. Did I say infiltrate
the Kremlin? To describe this feat would only spoil the fun. Let's just say that this kick starts a chain
reaction that leads Hunt and his team around the world. The first stop is Dubai, where Hunt is forced to
scale the Burj Khalifa using nothing but specialized sticky gloves. In case you don't know, the Burj Khalifa
is the world's tallest building, standing at just over 2,700 feet tall. I've never been acrophobic, although I'd
be lying if I said that seeing Hunt hundreds of stories high clinging to glass panes didn't make my heart
race.
On two floors of the tower, two separate meetings will simultaneously take place. Both are in regards to
making an exchange. They each involve people who are either pretending to be someone else or are not
wise to the fact that they're being deceived. Here's an example of timing so precise, performances so
nuanced, and editing so skillful that the scenes never fail to generate suspense. But mere descriptions
can hardly do them justice. The same applies to a surprisingly spectacular car chase, which happens in
the middle of a sandstorm. Perhaps we're too accustomed to always seeing the cars in movies like this.
And speaking of cars, there's a superbly choreographed showdown in an automated parking garage in
Mumbai, where vehicles are lifted and lowered into place via a concrete elevator. There's a lot of jumping,
falling, punching, and precarious dangling.
Upping the stakes for these agents is the fact that they're being shadowed by an unknown operative, who
successfully got them blamed for a catastrophic explosion in Moscow - which, consequently, has the
Russians believing the Americans have initiated an act of war. This calculated move results in the IMF
being dismantled from the inside out under a covert operation known as Ghost Protocol. If Hunt and his
team are to track down Cobalt and prevent nuclear war, they will have to do it completely on their own.
Their actions will not be officially sanctioned by the American government, but then again, even those in
power know that a few rules need to be bent in desperate situations.
Along for the ride is William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), an IMF analyst with remarkably good fighting skills.
How he came to be a part of Hunt's team, I leave for you to discover. The same goes for the secrets he's
keeping from Hunt. What I liked about this character is that he addresses many of the questions
audiences are likely to ask themselves. Exactly how does one think of using a dead body and a lit flare to
dodge underwater gunfire? Or of wearing a metal suit under your clothes so that you can jump twenty-five
feet into a concrete cylinder, be caught mid fall by a magnetized rover vehicle before being shredded by a
giant fan, and be dragged floating through a massive computer core? Or of wearing a special contact lens
that can take pictures when you blink twice? You've got to love this. Mission: Impossible - Ghost
Protocol is a mission you should choose to accept.