Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a 2018 American action spy film written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) and is the sixth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The film stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, with a supporting cast of Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan, and Alec Baldwin. In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team seek to prevent nuclear weapon technology from reaching the Apostles, a bioterrorist offshoot of the Syndicate.
Talks for a sixth Mission: Impossible film began before the release of its predecessor in 2015. Mission: Impossible – Fallout was officially announced in November 2015, with McQuarrie confirmed to write and direct, thus becoming the first director to return to the franchise. The returns of the cast were announced soon after; Jeremy Renner, who appeared in the previous two films, confirmed his absence at CinemaCon in March 2017, due to scheduling conflicts with Avengers: Endgame (2019). Principal photography began in April 2017 and lasted until March 2018, with filming locations including Paris, New Zealand, London, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates. Production was notably put on hold for seven weeks following an injury to Cruise in August 2017.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout premiered in Paris on July 12, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on July 27. It received widespread critical acclaim with praise for its action sequences, McQuarrie's direction, screenwriting and cast performances (particularly Cruise and Cavill's); it is widely considered to be the best installment in the franchise, as well as one of the best action films of the 2010s.[4][5] The film grossed $791 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film in the franchise, the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2018, and the then-highest-grossing film of Cruise's career (until 2022's Top Gun: Maverick). A sequel, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, was released on July 12, 2023.
Plot
Two years after Solomon Lane's capture,[a] the remnants of the Syndicate have reorganized as a terrorist group known as the Apostles, having adopted a 'terror for hire' policy. They are hired by an extremist known as John Lark and are attempting to acquire three stolen plutonium cores for him to use in three nuclear bombs. IMF Agent Ethan Hunt is assigned to recover the plutonium. During a mission in Berlin, the Apostles take fellow teammate Luther Stickell hostage. Ethan chooses to save Luther, allowing the Apostles to steal the cores. The IMF team later captures Norwegian nuclear weapons expert Nils Delbruuk, whom the CIA believes is building nuclear weapons for Lark. Using a fake broadcast of teammate Benji Dunn posing as CNN's Wolf Blitzer and announcing the bombings of Rome, Jerusalem, and Mecca, they trick Delbruuk into unlocking a phone he used to communicate with Lark.
Furious at the IMF's failure to secure the plutonium, CIA Director Erika Sloane instructs Special Activities Division Agent August Walker to accompany Ethan on a mission to retrieve it. Ethan and Walker infiltrate a Paris nightclub where Lark is supposed to purchase the plutonium from the Apostles, with arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis acting as a broker. They track a man they suspect to be Lark, but after an intense fight in the men's restroom, he is killed by MI6 agent Ilsa Faust. Ethan assumes the identity of Lark and meets with Mitsopolis, but the meeting is cut short when hitmen attack the meeting. In exchange for the plutonium, Mitsopolis tasks Ethan with extracting Lane from an armored convoy moving through Paris, and provides one of the cores as a down payment.
Ethan and Walker preemptively attack the convoy to prevent Mitsopolis' brother Zola and their men from killing local police. They lead the police, Mitsopolis's men, and Faust on a chase while Benji and Luther secure Lane. Mitsopolis then instructs Ethan to deliver Lane to London. At a London safe house, IMF Secretary Hunley tells Ethan that he has received doctored evidence implicating Ethan as Lark. The team tricks Walker into admitting he is the real Lark and informs Sloane, who sends a CIA SAD unit to take everyone into custody. However, the unit has been infiltrated by the Apostles and is under Walker's command.
Walker kills Hunley, and Ethan pursues him to Tate Modern, where Walker threatens Ethan's ex-wife, Julia, before escaping by helicopter. The team, along with Ilsa, tracks Lane and Walker to a medical camp over the Siachen Glacier. Ilsa deduces that Lane is planning to detonate the nuclear bombs at the medical camp, contaminating the water supply of India, Pakistan, and China, resulting in the destruction of 1/3 of the world's population. The bombs are linked by a failsafe; any attempt to defuse one bomb without also disarming the detonator will trigger the other. Ethan discovers that Julia and her new husband, Erik, are working at the camp. Lane programs the bombs' detonator with a 15-minute countdown and gives it to Walker.
Walker takes off in a helicopter while Benji, Luther, and Ilsa try to find and defuse the nuclear weapons. Julia helps Luther disarm the first bomb, but they are unable to defuse it without the detonator. Ilsa finds the second bomb but is ambushed and subdued by Lane; Benji and Ilsa eventually overpower him. Ethan hijacks an escort helicopter and manages to ram Walker's out of the sky. The two men fight on the edge of a cliff, which ends when Ethan drops a hook attached to a helicopter on Walker and sends him falling to his death into the exploding helicopter. Ethan secures the detonator, allowing the team to deactivate the bombs. In the aftermath, Julia thanks Ethan for giving her the best life because of his commitment to the IMF. Sloane hands Lane over to MI6 through Mitsopolis, earning Ilsa her exoneration, and praises Ethan for his actions.