Has there ever been a title as baldly ironic as Mission: Impossible? When each and every member of the audience plants their haunches down for another film in the popular action franchise, they know full well that the allegedly “impossible” mission will be made all-too-possible by Tom Cruise’s superspy Ethan Hunt and his trusty stable of supporting players. The added em-dash in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation doubles down on the absurdity of calling such a mission “impossible,” as a new pair of dark-secret-super-cool words will undoubtedly follow the original banner whenever the inevitable sixth installment air-drops into theaters a few years from now. But then, you can’t go calling the movie Mission: Obviously They’ll Get Out Of This One Alive, We’ve Got Franchising Dollars To Protect Here, Come On.
The first trailer for the upcoming fifth installment of the Mission: Impossible series laid out the stakes for this newest operation, which have never been higher: dismantle a rogue nation of terrorists bent on destroying the Impossible Missions Force and spreading chaos throughout the globe. Alec Baldwin makes a welcome addition as a furious government official (he’s been playing a lot of those lately, huh) who tries to dissolve the IMF as an unchecked paramilitary organization. He’s the one on the impossible mission! Doesn’t he know Tom Cruise has too much earning power for the IMF to be disbanded? Bear witness to the unkillable man’s latest feats of derring-do in the new 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, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson
Release date: July 31, 2015
The entire trailer in one line of dialogue: “Are you okay to drive? A minute ago, you were dead!”
The entire trailer in one screengrab:
Oh, and Ethan Hunt’s still holding fast to the side of that plane. Keep on plane-clingin’, little guy. Hang in there! This news post will self-destruct in five seconds.