There's an action sequence in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol that rivals much of what has been done with the genre since it began. I won't reveal much about it, except that it involves the recently constructed Burj Khalifa hotel in Dubai (now the tallest building in the world), Tom Cruise, and a pair of hi-tech climbing gloves that are of questionable working condition.
It's a masterful scene, in its setup and in its delivery, not the least because it uses the increasingly destructible Tom Cruise to its advantage. Excepting Brian De Palma's breathtakingly weird original, this is the first film in the Mission series to consider the physical weaknesses of the characters, most prominently Cruise's Ethan Hunt. Rather like Clint Eastwood in his later work, Cruise (who also produced) doesn't try to avoid the fact that he's no longer an invincible twentysomething hotshot. While the second film (by John Woo) had him dueling with motorcycles and casually scaling mountains, and the third (by J.J. Abrams) had him exploding with furious anger at the kidnapping of his fiancee, this one reminds us that he's no Superman and mines his vulnerability for quite a bit of tension. That Cruise did most of his own stunts only drives that tension further.
Ethan Hunt, just freed from a Russian prison, teams up with the computer whiz Benji (Simon Pegg) and the resourceful agent Jane (Paula Patton) to intercept the theft of Russian nuclear codes by a madman (Michael Nyqvist). As can be expected, things go wrong, and the team finds itself cut off, without any government help; the "Ghost Protocol" of the title refers to the condition under which all agents are disavowed. This leaves the team short of the time and tools they need to finish the job. Their forced improvisation in several tight spots is one of the joys of the film; while many action films are on autopilot, this one is always on its feet.
Jeremy Renner, who turns up at the midpoint as an IMF "analyst," seems to be slumming after his celebrated turn in The Hurt Locker, but has a good chemistry with the other players. He does a good job of appearing to be in over his head, but still able to save the day in a pinch. After many complex, emotionally disturbed roles, this one must be a bit of a break for Renner, and it's good to see him having fun with it.
Director Brad Bird, whose live-action debut this is, proves himself adept at building multifaceted action scenes and seeing them through. He choreographs the film with the same daring glee that he brought to The Incredibles, throwing obstacle after obstacle in the characters' way. His background in animation appears to have influenced his style greatly; there's even one bit of tactical misdirection early on that I swear must have been stolen from Wile E. Coyote.
There's also very limited use of CGI, as far as I can see. Much of the action is done the old-fashioned way: with stuntmen, stunt drivers, and clever editing.
Bird and writers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec also wisely leave out the insufferable romantic sub-plot that brought down Mission: Impossible II and III. Like the first film, Ghost Protocol knows that the sexiness is in the spy intrigue, not in the romance, and that Ethan Hunt is not a romantic lead but rather Hollywood's sexiest workaholic. Though there is a sufficient emotional background, in order to give the characters depth, for the most part the kissy-kissy stuff is checked at the door.
Pegg is delightful as the kind of agent who can gain complete control of a prison's electronic locks in a few seconds, but still looks awkward firing a gun. Patton is a likable second-gun to Cruise, and has a great scene where she seduces a buffoonish Indian tycoon (the inimitable Anil Kapoor) to try to get the codes to a satellite his company owns. "Lost" alum Josh Holloway turns up as a very Sawyer-esque IMF agent. Nyqvist, of the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, makes for a fairly bland villain, but the movie doesn't depend on his menace particularly heavily.
Still, this is Cruise's show. Though he's supplied with a stronger-than-usual supporting cast (to boost the film's box office after several Cruise-led disappointments), he earns the movie for himself and is on his way to ditching the couch-jumping idiot persona and rediscovering the respectable Tom Cruise, who's a good and hard-working actor. Ghost Protocol is the best American action film in a long time.
*** 1/2 out of ****
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