Calculate how old you were when you watched the first Mission: Impossible film. For nearly 30 years, Tom Cruise has been running, hanging off planes, jumping off trains, giving chase on bikes, scaling cliffs, jumping off bikes after jumping off cliffs… And Ethan Hunt is back, one last time (salt, salt), doing everything, everywhere, all at once, this time in tiny black briefs, over three hours of the movie’s run-time. (It’s long, but you won’t hear me complaining.)
ICYMI for the last 29 years, a little refresher going back to the events of 1996 tries to underscore the “final” in the title—dead/gone love interests and sidekicks, the big fireworks, well-conditioned hair, et al—but in my head I’m keeping things open-ended.
Here’s what stuck from my second-day-first-show viewing of the film. (Spoilers ahead, so head to The Nod only if you choose to accept.)
