In his Guardian review for Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, filmmaker Jonathan Romney writes that even after completing its fifth instalment, the blockbuster film-franchise leaves him pining for the “mathematical cool” of what was admittedly a “rigorously formulaic” original television series in the 1960s and ‘70s. The film adaptation, although equally formulaic, projects a more scintillating notion of the inner workings of intelligence organisations. Clever infusions of clumsily conceived scripts with high-octane drama, preposterously inventive technology, Hollywood’s exotic notions of the rest of the world, and archetypically attractive superstar leads in deliciously extravagant disaster settings, produce the certifiable box office successes of the Mission: Impossible series.

Considering the fantastical nature of every other element of these films, it is indeed ironic that Tom Cruise famously performs his own stunts for the Mission: Impossible franchise, due to a supposed fixation with authenticity. In the latest release, he astounds by hanging off the door of an airborne military aircraft, diving off a 120 foot ledge, and simultaneously holding his breath and dodging a rotating crane in a deep underwater vault. Although each of these scenes did prompt me to cross my fingers tight, none was as breathtaking as the Burj Khalifa stunt that Cruise pulls off in the previous instalment, Ghost Protocol.

Rogue Nation picks off on the note that Ghost Protocol concludes. It chronicles the adventures that Ethan Hunt and his team of IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agents undertake in order to first unveil, and then eradicate, the maliciously enigmatic ‘Syndicate’ — a group of lapsed government intelligence personnel who are already presumed dead. Hunt and his associates, Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) must unite for this perilous quest without the resources of the IMF, which is denounced, disbanded, and absorbed into the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) at the behest of CIA Director Alan Hunley (introducing Alec Baldwin into the franchise).

Tom Cruise, once again, convinces the audience of the ultimate physical and moral invincibility of Ethan Hunt with élan. He exudes the unrelenting confidence of an idealistic bastion of humanity with utmost sincerity, allowing the audience to gleefully overlook, and even marvel at, the spectacularly destructive consequences of his many pursuits.  Pegg and Stickell reprise their roles as the quintessential sidekicks. While Pegg is able to deliver some one-liners, which are delightful and hackneyed in equal measure, adeptly, Stickell’s role is, in spite of his veteran presence in the series, too insignificant to affect an impact.

Brandt’s genuine predicament, as he finds his loyalties divided between his former IMF associates and the CIA, could have provided, for Renner, the ideal opportunity to arrest the audience’s attention and build apprehension with his every move. However, the show is stolen by Eva Faust, another morally ambiguous character, who is portrayed with utmost sophistication by Swedish actress, Rebecca Ferguson. Faust’s elegant entry into an exquisitely executed scene at the Vienna State Opera presages her towering presence throughout the narrative. Her uncertain allegiance is so convincing that the audience, which is made to be emotionally invested in her from the onset (much like Ethan Hunt — his marital status remains a matter of concern), never finds itself trusting her completely. Yet, as a woman who is fierce in her intelligence and sophisticated in combat, she has aptly been distinguished, by critics and audiences alike, as one of the best conceived female characters in this category of filmmaking. For this, we must be grateful to writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, in spite of his inability to raise the franchise above expectations.

Equally riveting is Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane, who captures perfectly the tenor of a textbook super-villain by balancing his raspy intonations with poker expressions. I only wish that the writers, or even the actor, had worked the dynamic of Lane’s questionable former nobility as a member of the British Intelligence, to bring to his character that disturbing vulnerability, which made Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight so viciously iconic.

One of my greatest grievances against Hollywood filmmakers is their incessant penchant for portraying the global east in an archaically generalised image.  A simple ‘google search’ of Casablanca (the ‘exotic’ foreign sight of the team’s exhilarating adventure) would suffice to show that Morocco’s principal port city is, in reality, a teeming metropolis; not the dune-covered bazaar town that has been depicted in the film. It is thus ironic that, in the same week that ‘Humans of New York’s’ Brandon Stanton garners widespread appreciation for his meticulous effort to debunk western-media-propagated myths about the global east (i.e. Pakistan), another creative venture attains both critical approval and millions at the box-office (from countries including Pakistan) for reinforcing the same, ignorant clichés that Americans and other Hollywood-goers have been subjected to for decades. Although we could choose to condone the unapologetic ignorance of such films as mere ‘popcorn entertainment,’ it is actually crucial for consumers of popular media to question the stereotypes that are being sold to us in the guise of news, and worse still, entertainment.