So far this summer I’ve covered retrospectives and reappraisals of three major franchises with roots in nostalgia. Each of them is embarking on their fifth cinematic journey. To say that Terminator: Genisys and Vacation (2015) were coolly received would be an understatement. On the other hand, the Mission: Impossible series is in no danger of becoming antiquated and by virtue of that, Rogue Nation is an inexorably exciting entry in the spycraft subgenre.

Continuing from Ghost Protocol, the IMF has been dissolved due to the serendipitous events where a nuclear warhead narrowly clipped a skyscraper before submerging into the bosom of the ocean. Not known for their continuity, Christopher McQuarrie handsomely tweaks the conventions especially the embedded message inside a vinyl record where Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is entrapped and incapacitated within a booth.

At this point, Cruise should be top billed for his audacious stuntwork like Jackie Chan or Burt Reynolds. In this installment of his practical prowess, he sprints onto an Airbus Atlas airplane and he is bodily latched to a door while it achieves breakneck altitude. Of course, Cruise doesn’t cease there. He holds his breath for nearly six minutes in a tour-de-force underwater sequence where he must switch profile cards in a tank whilst conserving his oxygen.

While I do venerate Cruise and his unflappable enthusiasm, it borders on vainglorious ego inflation when Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) blusters about him having “no equal” to the British Prime Minister. That aside, the main chink in the armor is the villain. Outside of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian, Mission: Impossible isn’t rife with outstanding foes for Hunt. Sean Harris is certainly unsettling with his slightly strangulated voice but they can’t stifle the fact that he is a cog in a wider conspiracy.

Unfortunately, possibly due to obligations elsewhere, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames are the proverbial benchwarmers this time out with Renner mostly poker-faced in front of formal government inquiries. McQuarrie occasionally mutes the Joe Kraemer score to properly refocus on the agog claustrophobia ala the aforementioned Moroccan power station set piece.

Admittedly, newcomer Rebecca Ferguson is a gorgeous femme fatale but her pendulous loyalty is rickety. Why would anyone align themselves with her after her incessant betrayals? She is akin to Mack from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The callback to the glass booth with Solomon Lane (Harris) is clever but the conclusion is a bit listless.

Suffice it to say, Rogue Nation is another scrappy, albeit hyperextended blockbuster in Mission Impossible’s belt and I wouldn’t be opposed to the proposed sixth film. As long as the 53-year-old actor-producer Cruise is the purveyor of quality, Mission Impossible have no foreseeable end game.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE- GHOST PROTOCOL

Of the films thus far, Ghost Protocol is the most giddy and exuberant. The first film was a Tom Clancy potboiler. The second film was an operatic ballet. The third was a gritty crime drama. Part 4 is a buoyant theme park ride. The detonation in Russia is disaster porn without the guilt of Soviet Union casualties. With his background in Pixar animation, director Brad Bird can storyboard crackerjack set pieces and this fourth entry is chockfull of them.

Despite his oeuvre primarily in non-live-action endeavors, Bird doesn’t flaunt the laws of physics. It genuinely appears that Cruise narrowly dodges a photorealistic, somersaulting vehicle during a sandstorm collision. The injection of humor stems from Pegg’s asides and Brandt’s (Jeremy Renner) squeamish resolve with gravity-defying tasks like the magnetic suit gag.

In spite of early canards that Renner might be the newfangled torchbearer of the series due to the waning star power of the Cruise, Ethan is still the de facto hero and he is in full-throttle superstar mode. For all the derring-do around him, Tom Cruise must be exalted for his daredevil insistence on performing his own stunts.

He must be an adrenaline junkie and thrive on the precipice of oblivion because he looks both exhilarated and clammy as he sprawls up, down and across the Burj Hotel in Dubai without the assistance of stunt doubles or CGI. When Ethan’s epoxy gloves malfunction, it tickles the glands inside the viewers and his safety is suddenly not irrefutable. It recreates the stimulus of vertigo and Cruise is our conduit for the IMAX-scale whirligig.

Of the contraptions, the portable silk-screen is my choice for most brilliant. In the Kremlin, Ethan and Benji must surreptitiously saunter in an archive room without alerting a guard. They slowly wander down the hallway with the screen that is equipped with a 3D camera for a depth-of-field reproduction of the backdrop. It recaptures the quiescent suspense of the vault scene in De Palma’s predecessor without being a foolhardy rehash.

After the bombardment of trailers for Rogue Nation, the cliffhanger message insinuates the looming doom of the Syndicate which is a tie-in to the fifth film. For the moment though, Ghost Protocol is unique from the Bourne films because it isn’t beholden to solemnity. Bird slashes the brake line and his chapter is an irresistibly cheerful romp that doesn’t buckle under the pressure of most fourth films.

Rating: 4 out of 5