Early on in this movie, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) receives the specs of his new mission from a little screen that pops out of a pay telephone somewhere in Russia. At the end we hear the now famous line, "This message will self destruct in 5 seconds," followed by a timer appearing on the screen. Hunt hangs up the phone, the screen retracts within, he starts to walk away and... nothing happens. Hunt turns back to the payphone and hits it, the oldest standby for making faulty gadgets work. And of course it works here, producing a sizzling sound and a puff of smoke from within the phone. This moment is very funny, one of many great laugh-out-loud moments in the film; but it is also the first in a long series of malfunctions with the tech used by the agents. Of course these malfunctions lead to some serious problems, and it's up to Hunt and his crew to resolve these problems personally. A theme has emerged: in the heat of the moment, you must rely on the people you trust to get the job done.
This is just one of many smaller themes running beneath the surface of this movie, and one of the many reasons I loved it so much! Director Brad Bird, arguably one of the greatest animation directors working today (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant), has delivered his first live-action movie with as much humor, as much pulse pounding, kinetic action, and as much intelligence as he puts into animation, if not quite as much heart. Among the spectacular action set-pieces presented here is a chase through an enormous dust storm, a fight through several levels of an automated parking structure, and an attempt to scale and then descend a portion of the world's tallest building that, of course, does not go quite as planned. This last scene is an excellent reminder that the depth of 3D is not required for a movie to induce an enormous sense of vertigo. I should also make note that the movie is shot and edited in a very clean and straightforward way, and makes no use of the rapid editing and shaking, wobbly camera work that some directors (I'm looking at you, Tony Scott) seem to think is required for action. This is a breath of fresh air.
The cast is superb. Cruise has been playing this character for something like 12 years now, so he slips into it like a glove. Paula Patton is sexy and seductive, but can kick ass with the best of them, and carries a touch of grief with her through most of the movie (for reasons that become very clear in the early moments). Simon Peg is Simon Peg, and for the purposes of his role as tech man and first time field agent Benji Dunn, he need not be more; this man is living, walking comic relief. Jeremy Renner, as seems to be becoming his trademark, is better than he needs to be. As William Brandt he is burdoned by guilt over a secret he is carrying, and in some ways the slow revelation of who he is and why he's so burdoned is the very element that elevates this from really good movie to great movie. It's a touch of that heart that Bird brings in such abundance to his animated features. (Incidentally, Renner's character will take over the series once Cruise decides to step down.) And Michael Nyqvist, probably best known for playing the Daniel Craig role in the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and its sequels, plays Kurt Hendricks, the very best kind of villian. No mad schemes of power or wealth for him, rather a pure and righteous belief that what he's doing is the right thing. He not only seems ready to die for this belief but it looks to me as if he expects to.
I didn't care for the first Mission Impossible; I found it unnecesserily convoluted and more than a little silly. But every one that has come has improved upon the last. And here, now , with the fourth in the series, we have not only the best Mission yet, but also very likely the best straight-up action movie of 2011.
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