Ghost Protocol lies at the intersection of the incredible and the impossible. Specifically, where The Incredibles director Brad Bird transitions from cartoons to live action for a Mission: Impossible adventure, accompanied by his most animated leading man to date: Tom Cruise. The result, if you choose to accept it, is nothing short of exhilarating.
Proving that there's plenty of gas left in this franchise's tank, Ghost Protocol begins in a Moscow prison where secret agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is extracted -- during the first of several pulse-racingly immersive set pieces -- and reintroduced to the world of international espionage. Hunt's mission? Stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), a nuclear extremist, from obtaining stolen launch codes that could initiate World War III.
Bird's guilty of easing his foot off the gas in short intervals, but most of Mission rockets forward in enthralling -- and ultimately exhausting -- fashion. Once reinstated, Hunt and computer-savvy agent Benji (Simon Pegg) infiltrate the Kremlin with help from a life-sized movie screen -- one of many inventive gadgets that would make Bond's colleague Q green with envy. The final confrontation is a gravity-defying fistfight around a towering parking garage. And the highly-publicized Burj Khalifa sequence, which finds Cruise wall-crawling along the outside of the world's tallest skyscraper, automatically becomes the high-water mark of this 15-year-old film franchise (though the escalating chase through a sand storm that immediately follows it is pretty spectacular in its own right).
While we're on the topic of age, Cruise clocks in at 49 but doesn't look a day over 30 as he bends, bounces and snaps like a rubber band from one insanely choreographed action sequence to the next. If Bird's lethal stunt maneuvers are witty feats of stunt surgery, then Cruise is the sharp tool that plunges into every single set piece with confidence and precision. Name a fledgling action star who's even close to carrying a franchise the way Cruise shoulders these Mission movies with limitless energy and immeasurable nerve. Because if you ask me, no one's even close. And Cruise doesn't look remotely interested in surrendering the title of World's Most Credible Action Hero any time soon.
Bird, for his part, kinetically paces his feature to keep up with his boundless star. Screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec have given this team -- which includes gorgeous Paula Patton and a bland Jeremy Renner -- a layered spy plot that's intricate but streamlined, complicated yet easy to follow. There's deception, though the audience is rarely deceived, and Ghost Protocol sacrifices smart for thrilling and fun (which is acceptable for well-made popcorn thrillers such as this). Go out of your way to see Bird's effort in IMAX, if you have the ability, as Robert Elswit's crisp cinematography amazes in the film's expansive international location shots.
If there's a misstep, it's in the final minutes, where Bird bridges a gap to J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III to give Hunt a happy ending before setting up his next mission. I didn't need it, though I do anticipate more Mission movies, with or without Bird at the helm. I hope he returns, becoming the first director in the series to do so. This could be the start of a productively exciting partnership between filmmaker and star. Should they reunite for additional Impossible adventures, choose to accept.
