Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation arrived in 2015 as the fifth film in the series, with Christopher McQuarrie writing and directing. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt. The IMF is disbanded, the CIA is hunting him, and a rogue outfit called The Syndicate is the target. It runs 131 minutes.
Trailer, via Mission Impossible.
A Rogue Outfit of Ex-Government Agents
The Syndicate is the film’s best idea: an international group of rogue government agents, led by Solomon Lane, an ex-MI6 man played by Sean Harris. McQuarrie keeps the threat personal and bureaucratic at once. Alec Baldwin’s CIA director Alan Hunley convinces a Senate committee to fold the IMF into the CIA. That shutdown strands Benji Dunn and William Brandt under CIA scrutiny, and Luther Stickell quits in protest.
Turandot, a Car Bomb, and the A400
Hunt intercepts a nerve gas shipment out of Minsk. He watches a blond man in glasses kill a station operative in London before he is gassed. The Vienna State Opera sequence is staged around a performance of Turandot. Syndicate gunmen are there to kill the Chancellor of Austria. Hunt stops the hit. A car bomb kills the Chancellor anyway, and Hunley blames Hunt and Benji.
Rebecca Ferguson is the reason the film holds.
What the Film Gets Right
- Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent undercover inside The Syndicate, gives the series its first equal.
- The Vienna opera sequence, which builds tension from staging rather than cutting.
- Sean Harris, who plays Lane quiet instead of loud.
The film’s weakness is that its plot machinery sometimes outruns its people. The Syndicate is a fine frame, but the script keeps Hunt moving before the audience can sit with anyone.
| Element | Ghost Protocol (2011) | Rogue Nation (2015) |
|---|---|---|
| Position in series | Fourth installment | Fifth installment |
| Villain | Not specified here | Solomon Lane |
| New lead | Jeremy Renner | Rebecca Ferguson |
Where Rogue Nation Sits in the Series
Rogue Nation is a confident, well-built spy film that trades some warmth for precision. McQuarrie did uncredited rewrites on Ghost Protocol; here he stages a chase cleanly and keeps a team film from becoming a solo act. Ferguson’s arrival matters most. She is the piece the later films build on, and she is why this one still earns its place.
The published critical score is 7.5 out of 10, Metacritic 75/100.
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