Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has saved the world quite a bit.  Though I'm unemployed, I certainly wouldn't want to hold a position at IMF as I imagine the stress of uncovering spies, saving the world from genetically modified diseases and taking down black market arms dealers would be more than I can handle and also, I'm sure, far above what I'm qualified to do with my Communications degree from a small, liberal arts college.

Speaking of things I'm not qualified to do, I also didn't envy Brad Bird when I heard he was hired to directed Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  For one thing, I'm sure it's indescribably difficult to transition from the animated worlds of The Incredibles and Ratatouille to the live action world of big-budget action spectacles.  For another, J.J. Abrams left some big shoes to fill with the tight blend of action and emotion that he brought to Mission: Impossible III.  Luckily for us, Brad Bird is really good at his job and that helps make watching Ethan Hunt do his job in Ghost Protocol the best action film of the year. 

At the outset of the film, Ethan Hunt's job is to break out of a Serbian prison.  How he wound up there is not for me to reveal, but how he gets out is.  It involves computer hacking courtesy of Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), now promoted to a full field agent, well-timed explosives courtesy of Jane Carter (Paula Patton), a new addition to IMF who excels at kicking ass and looking good while doing it, and fellow cellmates rioting to the tune of Dean Martin's "Ain't That a Kick in the Head." 

After he's out, Ethan receives his impossible mission: infiltrate the Kremlin and secure a nuclear launch device before a Russian sociopath named Hendricks (Michael Nyqist) can follow through on his belief that mankind requires near annihilation every once in a while to get a fresh start.  Things don't exactly go as planned when A) the team finds the device has already been stolen and B) the Kremlin gets blown sky high. 

The IMF Secretary (Tom Wilkinson) informs Ethan that IMF has been implicated in the blast and the President has issued Ghost Protocol – an order disbanding and disavowing the entire department.  Ethan and his team must now continue with the mission to stop Hendricks from acquiring launch codes to use with the device.  Accompanying them is William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), the Secretary's analyst whose combat skills belie those of such an occupation.  But Brandt isn't the only team member with baggage: Ethan is still upset over the loss of his wife; Jane recently watched a fellow agent die in her arms; Benji has never actually worked in the field before.  On their own and struggling with their individual hang ups, the team must work together to prevent a nuclear holocaust. 

There were a lot of question marks around Brad Bird's hiring as director of Ghost Protocol, but similar to what Scorsese showed with Hugo, a great filmmaker is a great filmmaker no matter what the genre.  Bird's Pixar films always displayed a smoothness and seamlessness in how both actions played out and the film transitioned between moods and this is an ability he brings to Ghost Protocol.  Starting with cocksure Ethan Hunt, the entire IMF team are constantly pressing forward with a cool confidence no matter how many times chaos forces them to improvise.  Normally, it'd be tremendously uninteresting to see beautiful, talented people running around being talented and beautiful, but the balls of the Ghost Protocol script and the confidence that Bird's camera shows in flawlessly pulling off such spectacle is so awe-inspiring that we find ourselves deeply engaged in the lives of characters who, if they were real, would have absolutely nothing in common with us.

Much has already been written about the film's signature action set piece in which Tom Cruise is hanging more than 100 stories up on the Burj Khalifa as an imminent sandstorm blows in, so I'm not sure what I can add to the praise pool except to say that a filmmaker did something right to get me to watch the entire sequence literally on the edge of my seat, my palms sweating at the admittedly foolish prospect of the un-killable protagonist falling more than 100 stories to his death.  More impressive than that one sequence though, is the way that Bird masterfully crafts suspense and excitement with how and when he chooses to jump back and forth between parallel conflicts and how he also knows exactly when to bring levity to the drama and vice-versa.  None of this would matter as much if not for the great performances from his actors, including an impressively weight performance from Renner and the very welcome eye candy in Patton. 

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is the film Michael Bay always wanted to make but never had the ability to with a perfect pace, eye-popping spectacle and enough smarts to keep us engaged.  By the end, it's no longer a matter of wondering why Brad Bird felt he could direct the film, but instead one of wondering why he took so long to get here.