Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Premise: The fifth film in the series. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the rest of the IMF team work to expose an international terrorist group known as The Syndicate.
What Works: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation was co-written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, a regular collaborator with Tom Cruise. McQuarrie co-wrote and produced 2008’s Valkyrie and 2017’s The Mummy and directed 2012’s Jack Reacher. McQuarrie’s filmmaking style is workmanlike but he shares a cinematic sensibility with Cruise and demonstrates an understanding of how to use the actor on screen. Among the strengths of the Mission: Impossible series—and much of Tom Cruise’s filmography—has been its kineticism and physicality. Digital tools were probably used to create some of Rogue Nation’s sequences but the action and stunts have a decidedly non-digital feel. The realistic style and scale make the action much more exciting than a lot of digital heavy comic book films. Rogue Nation introduces The Syndicate, a criminal organization (originally seen in the Mission: Impossible television series) led by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), a former MI6 agent who has turned nihilistic. The Syndicate and Solomon Lane make an interesting foil to the IMF and Ethan Hunt; they both operate in the shadows but Lane has become so disillusioned that he’d rather destroy civilization while Hunt defends it. Between them is Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), an MI6 agent who has gone undercover. Faust is one of the most interesting characters in the series and she makes a great counterpart to Hunt.
What Doesn’t: By the fifth installment, the Mission: Impossible series had established itself as one of the great action franchises in the history of the genre but by this point the pressure to deliver on its own reputation starts wearing on the filmmaking. Rogue Nation is entertaining and delivers what audiences expect but it’s also stuck in those expectations. The film is dogged by the sense that we’ve seen this all before. Once again, an electronic document is up for grabs and must be kept out of the wrong hands. The national security establishment believes Ethan Hunt is the bad guy and he’s disavowed. Even the impressive underwater sequence is basically a retread of the CIA heist from the first Mission: Impossible. The story feels perfunctory, a framework for the set pieces. There’s no intrigue or ambiguity and Rogue Nation does not advance the characters the way the two previous films did. The stakes are generally vague. The Syndicate is out to do bad things but there are no tangible consequences if Ethan Hunt and his team fail. By the film’s end there is little sense of anything won or lost.
Disc extras: The 4K release includes a commentary track and featurettes.
Bottom Line: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is a competent action picture and it makes for a fun two hours. But it’s also an example of a franchise creatively stalling. An awful lot of moments from the earlier movies are repeated and not necessarily done any better.
Episode: #554 (August 9, 2015); Revised #1049 (May 25, 2025)