Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation opens with the plane-jacking heavily advertised in the… advertisements. It’s a sequence that really serves no point except to one-up the daredevil stunt work in the last impossible mission– and to upstage The Dark Knight Rises for best plane monologue. And the rest of Rogue Nation neither works nor tries to exceed this moment. It’s a deliberate front-loading as a 5th installment going that takes the series on a slight reroute.

It’s not long after our reintroduction to the IMF crew when one of its members, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) is summoned by the court to call for his agency’s actions in the last installment, Ghost Protocol. A word is thrown around to describe the events in that mission: Wanton. It’s a criticism that the film and its characters alike take to heart; this time around, the action is stealthier and the damage less collateral. Rogue Nation progresses with a stronger taste for espionage than any of its predecessors next to the 1996 original.

Mission: Impossible has always been a weird one as far as film series go. Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has had adventures for nearly two decades now, but his adventures have a degree of stylistic variance– Brian DePalma’s intrigue, followed by John Woo’s (badly-dated) post-Matrix action, and then the Bad Robot era of the franchise that has arguably produced the sharpest films so far, meanwhile subtly transforming them into something with the spirit of a TV show. Which makes sense, since this was a TV show once. Take the opening credits, for instance– a nice touch to see each of the actors as their names appear, just like in a show’s opening reel. Each film has a different director, too; this time Jack Reacher‘s Christopher McQuarrie goes into the field.

Cruise shows unreal acrobatic grace despite being over 50, and with the same determined demeanor he’s offered the screen since the 80’s.

 

This chronological phenomenon contributes to the episodic feel of the M:I series thus far. But Rogue Nation, while not necessarily the best of them all, is absolutely the most coalesced film thus far. It is the most comfortable in its own shoes as a sequel, and carries with it a real sense of continuity and confidence.

A lot of this, you might guess, revolves around Tom Cruise himself. Despite whatever you’ve read or thought of the man, whenever Cruise has appeared in a film lately, be it within this franchise or outside of it as in last year’s overlooked Edge of Tomorrow / Live, Die, Repeat, he’s there to put aside differences with you and show you what a movie star is supposed to be like. Cruise shows unreal acrobatic grace despite being over 50, and with the same determined demeanor he’s offered the screen since the 80’s. It probably helps that Chris McQuarrie is a natural confidant of Cruise, both having worked on Reacher together.

The supporting cast is game as well, especially their newest member played by Rebecca Ferguson. She’s a multiple agent that projects the face of a classic actress by the way of Black Widow. While Ghost Protocol‘s Paula Patton is missed, Ferguson’s mysterious and sometimes ruthless character nullifies the somewhat chauvinistic edge of the last Cruise-McQuarrie collaboration. Returning cast Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Jeremy Renner also acquit themselves admirably. Alec Baldwin plays a CIA head honcho-dummy that will have audiences feeling like Kim-Jong Il at the end of Team America.

The Mission: Impossible series shows no signs of decay or even stagnation. It is rivaled only by the Fast & Furious franchise as the ultimate Hollywood series in terms of longevity and endurance with critics and audiences alike.

Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation is now playing in theaters everywhere.