When audiences last checked in with superspy Ethan Hunt at the conclusion of Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, he had successfully faked his own wife’s death in order to infiltrate the Kremlin. Or, as members of the Impossible Missions Force call it, Tuesday. The next film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, newly announced as Rogue Nation, will add a few new faces into the mix for an adventure the likes of which not even Ethan Hunt had imagined. One of those new faces belongs to Alec Baldwin, who plays a CIA chief only too eager to disband IMF as a paramilitary force beyond the government’s control. He couldn’t make his move at worse time, either. As IMF faces its greatest threat of all (federal bureaucracy, the only truly impossible mission!), an organization called The Syndicate emerges from the shadows to cause a little global chaos.
Even though news of yet another M:I film may sound like more of the same, Rogue Nation marks a big shift for the franchise. Brad Bird, the director who turned Ghost Protocol into a success with critics and the box office alike, has stepped down to make room for Christopher McQuarrie. The newly appointed director is no stranger to collaborations with Tom Cruise, having co-written Edge of Tomorrow—a good sign!—and directed 2012’s Jack Reacher—a less-good sign! For more information on your mission, should you choose to accept it, watch the trailer below:
The trail of the tape
Title: Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Screenwriter: Drew Pearce, Will Staples
Cast: Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg
Release date: July 31, 2015
The entire trailer in one line of dialogue: “We’ve never met before, right?”
The entire trailer in one screengrab:
The film certainly looks thrilling, but McQuarrie and the franchise at large seem to have painted themselves into a corner with Rogue Nation. As Ethan Hunt, Cruise has held for dear life onto the edges of many different things: moving cars, trains, cliffs, what have you. But M:I has taken it up several notches and places our hero on the side of a jet during liftoff, with a very real Tom Cruise (the star famously insists on doing his own stunts) clinging to conveniently placed handholds. Now that Hunt has proven himself capable of hanging onto aircraft while aloft, there’s only one place for McQuarrie to take the franchise. The sixth installment in the series (which, we’re guessing, will be titled something like Mission: Impossible — Phantom Attack Squad) will have no choice but to launch Hunt into space on the side of a rocketship. The only zone left for the M:I series to conquer lies in the great beyond, and if that means that Ethan Hunt’s gonna hitch a bare-handed ride through the outer layers of our planet’s stratosphere, that’d be a pretty fun shark to jump. Because Cruise’s face is the money-maker that puts cheeks in seats, he’d obviously have to make the trip to space sans helmet. As if the petty laws of physics pose a real threat to Ethan ‘Jetclinger’ Hunt.