‘Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning’ Is Here. How Will We Reckon With It?

24:58And then there are some other things. So with all that throat clearing, what did you think of Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning? two hours of throat clearing 35 minutes of exhilaration and it's it's a real shame that they had to split the two movies up you know for it's very very clear now that they had a story arc for and a villain and a beginning middle and end for one movie and then life happens especially when you're jumping out of planes all the time it got split into two and so they find themselves at a real disadvantage. They've essentially, they've written themselves into a corner and have to set up a whole new set of stakes in the second movie that are preposterous, that take too much time.

25:52And I say that preposterous even in the context of a Mission Impossible film, which is supposed to be preposterous, but these are like, I mean, there's just like a lot of nuclear codes talk in this in a way that isn't fun. And so by the time you get to a truly stunning set piece, I mean, I've seen it twice. It's the biplane, you guys. You've seen the trailer, you know, but like I cannot. Like, Jack, am I wrong? You are not wrong at all. We're completely in line. It's like, what is going on? Sean, you said to me yesterday that you don't want to see the making of the feature of that because you just want it to be magic.

26:31And I think I agree, but I am also like, like, how? What? How did they do it? So it's in, like, it's, and it's beautiful, by the way. They filmed it, you know, somewhere in South Africa that is very beautiful. And it's like the red plane, the yellow plane. It's soaring. Like, great stuff. I just had to sit through two and a half, two hours and 15 minutes of, like, not super rewarding content to get to it. Yeah, we're more or less on the same page. I think this film in particular features arguably the highest highs of the franchise. and pretty clearly the lowest lows. The first hour of the movie, I found really, really unfortunate.

27:14There were a couple of choices that were made that you could tell in the first film, obviously reintroducing the Kittredge character in Dead Reckoning. Right. That there was going to be a focus on the entirety of this franchise, the history of the Ethan Hunt character. Sure. You know, it's not that they haven't done that previously. Julia pops up in Fallout after, you know, moving on from Ethan's life. So, you know, keeping the ball rolling on characters who mattered in previous films is not entirely new, but you could sense that they were trying to sync up 30 years of this franchise together.

27:45In this film, in the first hour, it's not just that characters are coming back who we've previously seen. It's that we're seeing sequences from those older films, interspersed, intercut in a kind of frenetic fashion that reminded me of almost, it felt almost at times like it was an hour long version of the now very familiar Mission Impossible title sequence. Yes. You know, which is a cool thing that I think Macquarie in particular has done where he shows you events that are coming in the movie during the credits. But this movie, while it's trying to move the plot forward, for example, there's a prison break sequence early in the movie, which is also a callback to something that happens in an earlier Mission Impossible movie.

28:28And there's a series of these callbacks all throughout the film. But after this prison break sequence, which is pretty cool, it's kind of like a, there's a mask ripoff. Yeah, and there's like a moment of humor when Cruise is like trying to, you know, handle the standoff. Like it's not, it's not not funny. It's not the best opening set piece or the best set piece in the franchise history, but it's not bad. But it's kind of familiar territory in a good way. You're like, yeah, we're back with our friends. And that to me is like the last time that the film is having any fun. Well, so I, I remembered that as well.

28:59And so I looked at my watch this time and that happens within the first 15 minutes. And then the next action sequence, you know, give or take some, some fighting. Some hand to hand. Some hand to hand where even that is like, there's a choice for a lot of it to be shown off screen. That's like a little funny, but there's not that much action.

29:24The next action sequence is 70 minutes into the movie. That's a long way to go. And that first hour is extremely challenging, in my opinion, in part because there was a whole other movie that came before this movie that introduced to us the stakes. So I genuinely don't know whether or not that idea of showing us, reminding us of everything that had happened in the previous film, and then also, you know, front-loading that with the history of the franchise in that first hour was a studio note or something specifically that McCrory and Cruz wanted to do or felt was necessary. but it felt to me like watching a clip show of a sitcom, you know, when they would be like, oh, well we didn't have time to make one for episode 22 this year.

30:04So it's near the end of the season and we'll have one character come out and start looking at a yearbook. And then they'll remind you of all the great moments you had with this show over the years, which is just not cinematic. It's the opposite of what these movies are supposed to be. It really doesn't work to me. To me, it did feel like filler in the sense of they have a second act and they have, which is this, the submarine and they have a third, third act which is convoluted but like leads to the chase to get but basically the the movie the part one or dead reckoning yeah sorry i will not part one how dare you yeah excuse me i really mr cruz i apologize um dead reckoning ends with like almost like with a shot of the submarine underwater in a way that I don't love submarine sequences.

30:55So I'm like underwater things. So I was like, oh God, the next one's going to be all about. But so if the next, if you only have like two acts in your, like story wise, you got to figure out something to do if you have to make a whole other movie. Not great choices. I'm not going to tell this movie what it should be, but it's two hours and 49 minutes. The previous film was a little bit shorter than that. these are by far the longest Mission Impossible movies. Why did the first act need to be 70 minutes and then the second act needed to be 70 minutes? You know what I'm saying? Like there was something in the design of the story and I don't know if it's because the production was complicated and it kept getting expanded or more characters were getting added.

31:38I think we do understand that they do the stunts first and – They build around that. They build around and they write things on set. And so my husband did a piece with Macquarie for GQ. And it's a great piece about how these things get made. And there's a lot of good fallout stuff in there. I mean, I'm biased, but whatever. But there is one scene where it's like they're just they pull up like a reaction trove of just like Tom Cruise, like doing reactions in front of the mission screen. And they're like, no, we need something else. And it's just they have like hours of Tom just filming his face in different ways so that they have the range of options.

32:18It's not like that is what movie stars do and that is how franchises get made and that is smart. But it also does speak to the fact that they are sometimes searching for the images or the plot pieces that will help smooth the thing together after the fact. Yeah. I recently made reference to something that Macquarie wrote about Close Encounters on the Rewatchables last week. and I had him on this show back in 2018 for Fallout. I've read a lot of interviews with him over the years, including Zach's. I think of him really as like a samurai of movie construction. I think he's incredibly good at understanding great classical adventure films.

33:02That's like, that's his thing. He knows how, he has really admiration for like The Magnificent Seven and Bridge on the River Kwai and films like that that are in the mold of the Tom Cruise hero vehicles. and this movie just feels like it breaks so many of his rules you know especially in the first hour where he and i'm i genuinely was surprised and disappointed and i can say on the flip side of that the second act submarine sequence which i definitely liked more than you did and we can talk about it in some more detail and then that biplane sequence that you're citing is as jaw dropping and as like worth your money as anything you'll see in a movie this year like it is spectacular what they accomplish.

33:40And you can almost sort of forgive them writing the movie around those events, but not totally. Yeah, it's just, I found myself losing focus a few times when they were, you know, when they're doing all the nonsense exposition, there still is that a little bit of like in-jokiness. And there are several like, so like, that's the plan. Like, wait, you're telling me that this is the plan? and they like kind of know but it's never as funny as in fallout when like henry cavill's like what is it like hope is a plan yeah you must be new here yeah um but but then even some of the it's like filler is the only word that i can use for it where like i and and they're cutting between like people hitting each other in different circumstances and i was just kind of like oh okay, this feels real shaggy.

34:33I still wish, like, it just is so clear to me it was one movie, you know? And it, like, could have been a, like, tightly McQuarrie-structured movie. Or maybe not tightly, but at least more of the shit we like. Well, it's ultimately a five-and-a-half-hour movie. Yeah. And in that way, it kind of makes it feel a little bit more like episodic TV with the biggest budget of all time. Right. And it's just a drag. It doesn't mean that there's not, it's not worth seeing. It doesn't mean that it's not significantly better than most action movies. It's just that the bar for this franchise is very high. And it does not meet the bar.

35:07No. It is still fun. I saw it with a paying crowd as opposed to the press screening. And people were hooting and hollering and laughing at the jokes. And some of the absurdity and the things that are played a little bit for laughs, they were more willing to give in to than the critics. So I had a good time. It's fun. If you're going to go see it, go see it on the biggest screen possible. Absolutely. It is worth seeing in the IMAX format. Yeah, but I have a lot of nitpicks. I know this isn't the rewatchables, but I have some questions I would like answered. I do as well. I mean, I think the set pieces are the things that are easy to say.

35:44This is what makes this movie special. There are a handful of moments. particularly the biggest gasp that the movie got out of me was the transition from the aircraft carrier to the helicopter to jumping into the Bering Sea. Which comes in the second act of the movie after Cruz's character convinces the president of the United States. Angela Bassett. Angela Bassett. Congratulations, Madam President. Who was formerly the director of the CIA, which I guess George H.W. Bush was as well. But I was like, in 2025, would the director of the CIA be the president? I'm not sure if I could see that, but maybe I'm wrong.

36:22The aircraft carrier was the George H.W. Bush that he commandeers. I just think that there's a little bit more skepticism of those institutions. I completely agree with you. Just a small note. I mean, we're also introduced to her cabinet, for lack of a better term. Really like her defense department. Sure. It's like, I haven't seen their credentials, you know, but I have some questions about their strategy. A lot of hitters in there though. Colt McCallany, Nick Offerman Janet McTeer Charles Parnell he was in the last one but yeah it's like there's some real strong actors given 1.7 lines of dialogue in this movie so anyway he convinces them that he's the only one who can accomplish this extraordinary feat which when described in the movie you're like this plan makes no sense it makes an Avengers movie look insane it does because it's all about they just have to outthink the entity but only Ethan understands how to outthink the entity.

37:18And they're just keeping like, no, the entity wants us to do this, so I have to do that. And the entity just wants to do exactly what Ethan thinks that they should do. And if they don't, then all of the world's nuclear missiles are going to be set up simultaneously. Yes. I don't know if you were a Seinfeld fan, but, you know, Costanza-ing is a thing where George Costanza realizes one day if he just does the opposite of every impulse he has, that he will have a great life. And in fact, it does go amazingly well for him for a stretch of time. And he kind of pulls a Costanza in the movie by out thinking the entity.

37:53But the things that he has to do to accomplish this are ludicrous. And also, this is fresher in my mind. I'm sorry. But so he only has three days to do it because somehow we don't know how they know. But we know that exactly in exactly three days is how long it will take the entity to take control of the entire world's nuclear stockpile. if Ethan doesn't get there first. So there's a giant countdown clock to three days because they understand enough about the entity to know its timelines, but not enough how to stop it. Also, last thing, when he is giving this speech - That's really bad writing.

38:29When he is giving this speech before he jumps into the sea, when he's like, this is our only option, and there are three days left, half of the world's nuclear stockpiles are already under control by the entity. The other half, including the US, which is the largest, our TBD, we are still only at DEFCON 3. And I gotta tell you, everyone but the U.S. is down by day two, and it's still only DEFCON 2. And it is only when the U.S. missiles are no longer available that we are at DEFCON 1. And I don't think that's an accurate representation of the DEFCON system. I lived through the 2000s, you know? I don't have enough data on hand to confirm that supposition, but I think you're probably right.

39:19Okay, thanks. You know, obviously it's an action movie. It's ridiculous. We can, you know, say, ah, well, this is an event movie, whatever. Like, the rules are always a little bit ridiculous. Even in Mission Impossible, there are all of these bold proclamations made about what could happen. But they're so specific. And they spend so much time, and they want you to take this seriously. And also, once you're showing us pictures of the nuclear missiles of every country that has them, there's a tonal thing that's not quite funny enough for me to just be like, oh, okay, well, you guys are just being ridiculous.

39:53I'm with you. So then I'm worried about DEFCONs. No, to me, this is a challenge of the movie because on the one hand, when he does jump into the ocean and is miraculously safe. You like hooted. I was like, whoo! Like, this is like, this is movies, man. You were just like, yo! I was like, that was awesome. The way they shoot it, the way that Cruz is clearly shooting himself, like flying into the ocean. Just the energy of the action filmmaking that they can accomplish in this movie is fucking awesome. And we're going to nitpick the movie to death. but there are a few things that they pull off that just get me so jazzed about movies but everything leading up to it and then everything in the aftermath of it Well, not everything in the aftermath of it because then you wind up on the USS Ohio with one Trammell Tillman Yeah, I think the way that he's saved is extremely unlikely the frogmen on the submarine float up just in time before he freezes to death in the Bering Sea I don't care because even that's a cool shot where they like show up one by one and you don't know if they're friendly.

40:54It is cool. You know, there's some cool, are they, they're Navy officers in the submarine, correct? I mean, I would think so. So the Naval officers say them, one of which is Katie O 'Brien, last seen in Love Lies Bleeding. She's awesome in this movie. And Tramiel Tillman is the commander of the submarine. I know you don't watch Severance, but he is, in my opinion, the best part of Severance. And when he showed up in this movie, I was like, this is gonna be good. Several people in our screening also cheered as soon as he showed up. He's just a terrific actor and somebody who can like immediately, he reminds me of like old, not in the same way, but like when Joe Pantoliano would show up in a movie and you'd be like, we're about to have a fun scene here.

41:27Like it's the same thing with Tillman. And he's one of the only characters in the whole film, in my opinion, that has that old mission, impossible feeling of like, what's this fucking Ethan Hunt guy doing? You know, like that thing of like, everyone's like, what's this guy's deal? Yeah, but it's funny. And his delivery is very arch and amusing. Somehow he has chemistry with Cruz. He does. So does Katie O 'Brien. Like they are actually interacting with each other. And he's, he gets to both like be in on it. You know, he says like, if you want to poke the bear, then you came to the right place. While also just like absolutely casting doubt on every single thing in a funny way.

42:08Like he's funny. He has comedic timing. He really does. And he is on that submarine so that he can basically get like insta-training to deep sea dive so that he can, now that he's in possession of the cruciform key, unlock the power of the entity. And then I guess the idea is to destroy it, right? To make it inoperable for anyone so that no one can have control of it. Yeah, because Luther made him a poison pill. We didn't even talk about, I mean. This is a, okay, I'm sorry. We went too far. This was a huge sin in my opinion. The way that they edited the storyline of Luther and Luther's death and the way that Gabriel set Luther up to be killed and drew Ethan Hunt into this, which happens in the first act.

42:48I forgot about this. I apologize. But they edited it in a way where they show you an aspect of it and then they go back to what really happens and then they go forward again to Luther's death. And I don't know why that was better than just showing it to us in a linear fashion. I don't know why that sequence was chopped up because this is complicated in the world of Mission Impossible, but the most meaningful emotional relationship that Ethan Hunt has in his life is with Luther. That is his best friend. That is the guy who's been his road dog in all of these movies. Ving Rhames is Team TC for life.

43:21And they kill this character, which I think is honestly a good choice. I have no problem with it. I wanted Chewbacca killed in The Last Jedi, or The Last Skywalker. You said it, not me. But I think that those making choices like that in movies can be very powerful because it shows you real stakes. And if you're like, this is the last one, we're making big choices. We're not letting people survive this stuff. It could be done well. It just wasn't done well in this movie. But before he dies, he does make this poison pill. Right. Right. Which then Gabriel steals so that getting to Gabriel can, you know, be part of the tension of the movie as well.

43:57And then Tom Cruise has to like run through London really fast. I guess he has to run through London really fast to get to Ving Rhames. When I said that there was no action for the first 70 minutes besides the prison break. There was some running. If you count running, which it's not a sports thing, maybe it's action to you. I did get a little emotional when he ran under Big Ben. But, yeah, that sucks. So he has a poison pill. Gabriel has a poison pill, and Cruz needs to retrieve access to the entity and then draw out Gabriel so that he can get the poison pill from him. Right. That's essentially the plan.

44:30So here's another thing. The keys, it turns out, are useless. I mean, that's fine. A MacGuffin's a MacGuffin. But like, come on, guys, what are we doing? Well, what do you mean by being useless? Well, it turns out that the Russians also have one. Right. So whatever. I mean, I guess Ethan still needs it to open the place, but it's like. It wasn't this rare object that we thought it was. I don't think it's useless. I think it has value for Ethan when he eventually gets to the submarine. And he does get to this submarine. and this is the second biggest of the dramatic set pieces in the movie right there's some shooting in between there is some sled dogs yeah i mean the other thing we should mention is is like there's an attempt on ethan's life when he's on the submarine by a zealot who believes that the entity should take power and that there we see on news reports that there are people around the world who have turned their lives over in a kind of q anon or jim jones fashion to the all-seeing power of the entity.

45:35The other thing to note about that sequence is that Tom Cruise defends himself and does the hand-to-hand fight in Boxer Briefs, which is not the only time he will do an action sequence in Boxer Briefs in this film. I would say it's at least 15 % of the movie. I'm just going to be honest. He looks good. I have no notes. He's in his 60s. It's fine. I'm sure a lot went into that or whatever. It's just a pure costuming choice that it is just like his boxer briefs for like a very long period of time it's the same thing as him being shirtless and jack reacher for like six minutes you know why is this happening but now it's 10 years later and he's still doing the same thing he typically looks very very um real inside of these fight sequences inside of these action sequences like obviously he is notorious for doing a lot of his own stunts or at least partially a lot of his own stunts but he is just very credible as a man in his 60s.

46:35I'm 20 years younger than him and I'm dying. So I give him credit for that. The whole subsequence when he does actually become a deep sea diver, there's a couple of incredible moments where a submarine flies past him. It's quite scary and really, really well done. And then the film moves into like a different kind of state where the music stops and we are submerged literally inside of this flooded submarine, which is sliding down the shelf of the sea, the bottom of the sea. I really enjoyed this. I think this may be a slightly divisive sequence because it is quite quiet and it lacks the kind of like daring do thrum of the best of Mission Impossible.

47:23this is a film and a series that is very indebted to James Cameron and a movie about AI a la Skynet from Terminator and then submarines and the underworld under the world of the abyss it's just a lot of Cameronian influence going on maybe a little bit too much for my liking but I did think that the way that they orchestrated the scene it's another thing where I'm just like I don't know how they did this I have no idea what they shot inside of how they made that tank look the way that it did, how Cruz spent all of that time underwater is very obviously him doing all of the swimming through the sequence.

47:58Yeah, he's definitely diving, yeah. There's something kind of extraordinary about it, but the quiet approach will lead to some people, I think, thinking it's boring. And it is also wordless, and I, obviously, because he's just by himself underwater and he's focused on breathing, and then I think it's almost, it's over 10 minutes. It might be close to 15 minutes long. I found it a little boring. I am not a fan of the underwater sequences. I just kind of always feel like I'm watching someone like get their scuba diving license. And that's great for them. But there are parts of it that I, like you, I'm like, how did you do this?

48:36It does look very real. But it's long. I mean, that's just the thing. It's a little too long. It is very long. Eventually he is successful. How deep do you think the ocean is, by the way? I have no idea. Because they say he's going 500 feet, which is like going to kill him. But 500 feet doesn't seem that deep to me. So I just Googled it. It's 12 ,000 feet is how deep the ocean is. But he's only going 500 feet. Yeah. So the bottom of the Bering Sea is 500 feet? He's at 500 feet. Don't they say that, Jack? Back me up. They do. Yeah. Well, that explains how he's able to survive. Because that's the one thing that I found quite confusing.

49:14Well. If you were at the bottom of the ocean and your suit has been torn from your body as it is near the end of this sequence. Yeah, again, that's boxer briefs number two. The boxer briefs stay on, though. Google also says the Bering Sea is 12 ,000 feet deep, so. Well, I mean, it is on the ledge, as Sean noted. Like, it hit one part and, like, is going to keep sliding further. But they say 500 feet deep. He's just on a sandbar there, 500 feet deep. And they're like, you can't at that depth. And they're saying this is, like, extraordinarily low for a diver. And you go any lower, your survival chances decrease by the second.

49:48The other thing they say is that, and this was just a good life tip, when you're ascending back to the water, you have to breathe out continuously or else your lungs will explode. So that is one thing we learned from Mission Impossible Final Reckoning. That will be helpful when you are deep sea diving in the Bering Sea in the near future. Obviously, it's extraordinarily cold there, and most of it is also covered in sheets of ice. And so... They've got a chainsaw. The suit is torn. He somehow finds a space where he can be saved by a chainsaw and then is CPR'd back to life in a, what is the tent called that he needs to enter?

50:26It's a hyperbaric chamber, right? Or something like that. They call it something different. It's the pressurization. Yeah. Oh, I'm getting thumbs up from Jack. Yeah, there we go. See, I know all about sea technology. It's super dumb to be like, this is not realistic in a Mission Impossible movie, but I'm like, what the fuck? It does look like a tent that you buy at REI. Like kind of a fashion one, you know? It's chiquer than, you know, it's, but... Where did they get that? Simon Pegg just made that? No, no, he has it in a box. And he's like, our plan is that we have to get this box to wherever Tom Cruise tells us to.

51:02To these coordinates. And then when Hayley Atwell and her friend pull up the dog sled, And if they show it, they're like the... But it really does look like some sort of device that you order on Amazon to help your toddler get through a five-hour flight, you know? It does. You've just reminded me of the concurrent action happening alongside of the subsequence, which is that the rest of the team, which includes Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell's character, Grace, and Paris, Pom Clemente's character. Who's very funny in this. She retains some of the humor that is otherwise missing from the movie. She also arrives at the home of a man named Don Lowe, who people will recognize as the original kind of quant designer of the security system at Langley from the very first film.

51:52And that space that Hunt is able to breach, which then leads to Don Lowe being reassigned to this Arctic nowhere. To a listening station. A listening station, yes, which is what many people are doing at home right now. They're sitting in their listening station, quietly listening to us speak about the film. And Don Lowe's up there and he fell in love. He met a gal and a woman native to the area. And they spent some time falling in love and they built a life together. Sorry, just local woman falls in love. Pretty much how they pitch it to you. Yeah, but they seem to have a nice connection. They seem very happy.

52:31And their house is lovely. Yes, it is. They've made a nice little life for themselves in the middle of goddamn nowhere. and he seems very happy about it. And he, of course, is a person. Too many dogs. A lot of dogs. A lot of dogs. He's been keeping up on the technologies of the world. He's got a lot of info on floppy disks hidden in his house. This movie is fucking weird. But he has information that everyone wants. And also the Russians are there. Yes, the Russians want this information. The Americans want this information. We do have this potential nuclear holocaust coming. And so access to the entity and power over these circumstances is much desired.

53:08And so there's a big fight. That home catches fire. There's some hand-to-hand combat, some people throwing bookshelves on each other. Eventually, Grace is able to escape thanks to Don Lowe's wife and her sled dogs. Grace and Don Lowe's wife are sent out separately with the codes. Yes. Because he memorized them. Yes. The coordinates for... For where the... For where Cruz will land. Yeah, but they're actually not the coordinates. They're the coordinates. exactly halfway across the ocean. 180 degrees. In case the Russians were listening. That was stupid. Which is fine. You know what I realized? We also didn't even talk about Hannah Waddingham.

53:48No. Not my favorite performance in the film. I think that I could have done that. You know? And next time you need a steely American, consider casting someone who knows how to do an American accent. That's all. And I do. Are you saying that you don't feel that women should be commanders of aircraft carriers? I think I should be. Okay. That would probably go really well for all of us. Eventually, Grace does meet up and she revives Hunt. And then the plan continues apace where Hunt draws in Gabriel and they have a confrontation in South Africa. And then they go on a chase. And then that leads to the biplane finale.

54:30Yeah, but there's all this other stuff about another bomb that Gabriel's going to set off that then everybody else has to defuse because they got to give them something to do. And then like Pom's got to do surgery on Simon Pegg and, you know, on Benji, excuse me. So it still is incredibly complicated. I'm not sure I understand everything. Also, Angela Bassett has to decide to save the world in her own way. She does. She also has a son. Yeah. Who is in the military. And whatever decision she makes will also affect him and the entire world. We're trying to get a little bit of emotional gravity around the president, which I don't think we needed necessarily in this movie.

55:09But it's nice that Angela Bassett's character has a son. The big finale is extraordinary. As you said, it is like top tier stunt filmmaking. The final 20 minutes of the movie, I just sat beside you, my mouth wide open. So was I. And it was honestly, the reaction is like, what are they doing? How is he doing that? And now, you know, I still wish the hair were shorter, but I do understand why his hair is longer now. It's so that when Tom Cruise is literally hanging off a biplane, as the plane is flying, the wind rushing flattens his hair in such a way that you know, oh, he really is actually flying.

55:48He's on the plane. Yeah. His skin is moving in a way that suggests they timed whatever treatments just so, so they would be flexible enough to be moved by the wind. He is just on the plane. It's funny. In a movie where we have 100 nitpicks about our inability to suspend disbelief during this sequence, I was like, I think he might die. I think he might die. I think maybe they're going to show us the film. Everything we've been seeing of him in the last two weeks must be recorded because this seems impossible to me. Pardon the pun. I know that there's that Matt Damon anecdote about having dinner with Tom Cruise.

56:24And they talk about, you know, the insurance guys said no. And so Matt Damon said, like, oh, well, like, well, so what'd you do? And Tom Cruise goes, well, I found other insurance guys. But, like, who is saying? Like, is it insured? It can't be. Like, how are they guaranteeing his safety? Like, what is? When you get to the end of the movie, when, in fact, he does survive, when, in fact, he does defeat Gabriel, he literally punches him out while holding onto the side of the plane and pulls him out of the plane. Right. And he dies a very grisly death. And he successfully lands the plane. no he doesn't land the plane he jumps out yes you're right with the parachute yes and then the parachute bursts into flames and that got a real gasp like oh my god in our so did he just land hard or was there a backup shoot uh Jack it's kind of a backup shoot there's a backup shoot they don't really show you much of the backup shoot they also don't really show you him finding the original shoot and that's one of the last things Gabriel says to him is like I have the parachute haha and then you know he meets his end and then yeah then the next time you see Tom Cruise, he's managed to find the shoot.

57:30It's a little rickety in the storytelling. Anyhow, he does land. He does encounter Briggs, the Shea Wiggum character we have not mentioned. Oh my God, that's the worst part. Not Shea Wiggum. He's wonderful. The reveal of Briggs, which is that in fact, his name is Phelps, Jim Phelps, perhaps Jim Phelps Jr. He is the son. Just like your dad. Of the John Voight character from the original Mission Impossible, a man who betrays Ethan in that film. and it feels like a completely unnecessary callback to the first film because it's not really carried through in any meaningful way. We don't really see Phelps other than in South Africa, a bit later in the movie.

58:11He's presented as the potential, the sort of like the bad guy's good guy, sort of like the military operation, the FBI, the CIA, the person who is working to bring in Hunt from the American side. But he doesn't play a significant role in the movie until you get to the end where he pulls a gun on Ethan at the very end. Right. And you think, oh my God, are they going to shoot Ethan Hunt in the last two minutes of this movie? And then he extends a handshake. And extends a handshake. Yeah. Could have used more Shea Wiggum in the movie, if I'm being honest. He was good in the beginning. I felt bad that he got saddled into that plot stuff.

58:46I still don't know what I was supposed to learn from it. Can we talk about Angela Lassett's plan to save most of the world? Sure. and all these people are like okay so you just have to bomb everyone else and set up set off like hundreds or thousands of nuclear weapons and also sacrifice one American city that's the one that is a little curious and in order in order like that's our only plan yeah and then when she finally you know bless Angela Bassett Madam President she says at the last moment she covers the button she's not doing it and then she makes one phone call they take all the missiles offline and then everything's okay Leader 3 I don't know.

59:28I just, I don't understand. I would get some new advisors. They all want her to... Well, let's just talk it out. What city do you think they were going to target there? They never say. Kansas City? No, I think... Salt Lake? No, I think it has to be like a major... Like a tier two city in America. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, too bad. Sorry. Yeah. It's tough. That's what the Knicks did. I mean, what else is on the board here? Seattle? Is that on the board? Dallas? Dallas? Oh, Dallas. I mean, that's a hugely populous area. Isn't Dallas the fourth biggest city in America? Like, are we talking that big?

1:00:05But less strategically valuable. That seems to be what's notable about this. I'm sure the people of Dallas right now are like, will you shut the fuck up? It's really fucked up. But like, no one even ever explains. There's no discussion. There's no like, there's like, well, clearly you'll just have to bomb everyone else. You'll have to like, just bomb all the nuclear, all the other nuclear arsenals. like why how would the entity not know that was happening i mean that well because he hasn't gotten to the end of the third day yet you know so they they know their timeline you remember in uh dead reckoning when the entity is at that club and he's just like

1:00:46yeah you know like he's hanging out at that party like he's there or she's there frankly we don't wait we didn't talk about the entity coffin okay you know another thing that was like clearly written at the last minute where it was like, don't go inside of this chamber. Right. Which is how he communicates. With the entity. It will change you. By the way, I meant to tell you that I was the voice of the entity. I'm really proud of my work in that film. That sucked. It was really not good. I think what it was meant to do in part was not just to be an exposition delivery system to Ethan in the movie, but also to explain how Gabriel had gone completely mad because Isai Morales' character in this movie is not this kind of steely, all-knowing, you know, agent of fortune as he is in the first film.

1:01:30He is a lunatic. Right. It's a completely different character the way that he's playing it, especially in the final sequence. It's like, this guy's nuts. And I guess what Pam Clemente's character tells, what Paris tells Ethan is like, don't go in there, it will change you. Right. And I guess maybe forced exposure to the entity has made Gabriel go nuts? Well, that seems to be true of all the followers, you know, that there's something. But Gabriel does also think that he's going to control the entity. He does. Because that's the other thing here. Stupid man. Very stupid man. Okay, here's some things that are missing from this movie that are not really missing from other Mission Impossible movies.

1:02:07This movie is not sexy at all. No. Well, I think they're trying to have like a little like CPR, like when it comes back to life. That's romantic. Well, it's like very hazy also. And there's like a deep breath that if you would like to, you know, you know, what do they call an orgasm in French? Like a little death. So, there you go. Sure. That's a rather elegant portrayal. But it's not sexy. I agree. It's not sexy. You know, this is a franchise that has hosted like Paula Patton exploding into that gala or Lea Seydoux in that hotel room. You know, this is the white widow in Vanessa Kirby removing the knife from the side of her garter.

1:02:47like I mean this is like one of the sexiest franchises this is Ilsa Faust emerging from the pool in the one piece and you're like oh my god Rebecca Ferguson Tom Cruise is in his boxer briefs for at least 15 % I of this movie I do agree I thought that Hayley Atwell's ski parka was very fetching and the praise ski looks were great but like she is completely bundled up because they're in the tundra I don't mind saying Hayley Atwell smoking hot why is she in a parka this whole movie listen she is like my wife if I had a wife I'm with you it's it's a it's an unusual choice for a franchise that is sort of you know and the original tv series too that there's something it's a spy show there's it's it's in a sort of post bondian storytelling so to remove a lot of those factors obviously the stakes of the story are high that shouldn't interfere with that and the other thing which is just that the sense of humor is just not there you know even in dead reckoning which is a little bit more serious and has all this ai stuff that you weren't crazy about the first time around has the submarine stuff.

1:03:46But it has the Rome sequence. It has Rome. It has the car chase. It has that Buster Keaton style slapstick comedy that Cruise really excels at. You know, we forget that Grace's character is a pickpocket and they have that great handcuff sequence where they're switching arms and switching seats. There's all this kind of the close-up magic and the flirting. There's none of that in this movie. No. And it's a mistake, I think. I think it is actually against the brand of what has made these films so successful. So I find that very disappointing. Agree. The other thing that I found was kind of missing ultimately is a very unusual sense of self-awareness.

1:04:23In the last couple of Macquarie films with Cruise, we'd been hearing increasingly about the messianic nature of Ethan Hunt. He is, quote, the living manifestation of destiny. Which felt ridiculous, but very knowing. Right. Sort of, maybe not tongue in cheek, but with a sense of like we're doing something with this guy here. You come along on the ride with us because this is going to be a crazy story. And in this movie, it has kind of curdled fully into self-serious Messiah complex. And it's happening at a time when Cruise has fully become the avatar of movie savior. He's the guy who brought the theaters back with Top Gun Maverick.

1:05:12He's the guy who goes to see Sinners and goes to see Tenet in the movie theater and takes a selfie afterwards and says, I want everyone to succeed at the movie theater. The entity is clearly in some ways a metaphor for the algorithmic streaming revolution and the difference between human experience and communal experience of the movies and sitting at home alone and letting a machine dictate to you what you should enjoy. these two things are mapped so hard onto each other that it's a little hard to enjoy it now for me yeah and i know i'm like really deep in the tank on the cruise mythology as you are but the balance was off on this one when it came to all that stuff for me personally i completely agree it just the movie's seriousness in general and self-seriousness and belief that we need to see lots of pictures of all of the different missiles a lot of times getting ready to go and even there are a few premonitions of disaster to come where Macquarie, and I thought they were very upsetting and effective, but they filmed and included random sequences of the world ending just to bum you out.

1:06:33It's not light on its feet. It's not like this is a this is this is silly. There is no sense of the ridiculousness about the movie generally. And so then that does mean that it can't like wink to you or it doesn't really let give Tom Cruise an opportunity to be funny also, which brings out some of or counterbalances some of the messianic stuff. I think also again it just really uniquely doesn't make sense in a way that you start asking questions rather than just being like yeah yeah well Ethan has to do it I mean this movie he's just been like hiding out in a hotel room for four months with the key it's a great note like okay he's the most wanted man on earth and it just but also like he got the key and then he's just like, well, I'll just chill out.

1:07:26I'm not really sure what to do about it, you know, because like on the one hand, you know, the destruction of the entire world. On the other hand, people say we really need the internet. So I'll just, I'm going to be a neutral party. Like what are we, it's - It's a devil's bargain. And you know, sometimes I got to look at Instagram. I don't know what to say. If we need to be annihilated because of that, so be it. There's just a lot of Blu-ray boutique sellers on Instagram that I need to look at. If it's doing too much and being too earnest, but there isn't any like escape valve of, of humor or, you know, absurdity.

1:08:00They're just, there's one mask thing in this movie as opposed to like 4 ,000. Even the ridiculous gadgets are all about different ways to use AI to end the world or save the world. And really like, they're not gadgets. They're just like a bunch of like laser, you know, what are the drives? What are, what are they called? The floppy disks? No, no, no, the ones that you know oh the one where they capture the entity in well sure but like what is the usb sticks oh yeah well there's one where it's like it's a hyper terabyte mega drive i didn't even know this could exist but luther created one i actually love that stuff that's to me that's mission impossible i like exactly and i like the idea of like hayley atwell the world's greatest pickpocket yeah point oh oh oh one second to grab it out she grabbed it that's great yeah that's great but even like the luther making like the special device that will capture that whatever is shrouded in him also, you know, dismantling a nuclear bomb that's going to ruin London but is going to kill him.

1:08:58It's just like... Yeah, only the underground tunnels that will be destroyed, not the entirety of London because of his dismantling. Yeah. Yeah, this is a flawed movie with incredible moments and frustrating lows. It's really fun to talk about. It is, it is. There's just a lot to it. And, you know, like, First Mission Impossible is one hour and 50 minutes. Two is two hours and three minutes. Three is two hours and six minutes. Four is two hours and 13 minutes. Five is two hours and 11 minutes. Six is two hours and 27 minutes. Seven is two hours and 43 minutes. And eight is two hours and 49 minutes.

1:09:33This is something that is happening at movies. That this kind of length bloat is happening. Now, I love a good long movie. A movie that is, I love Killers of the Flower Moon. I wanted that movie to be as fulsome as possible. I think if you need that much space to tell a grand story, I completely respect that. This is not that. No. Because of the shambolic nature of construction, you can kind of just feel them tacking eight, seven, four minutes into sequences that have no flow and no rhythm. And so that pacing that you were talking about just hamstrings this movie. Or are clearly filmed after the fact, you know, in one.

1:10:15Yes, reshoot city. Right, yes. And you can almost pick out like, oh, interesting. Okay, this one, this one. Like, I wondered, this scene where early on in the first act, when Erica, Madam President, I'm not on a first name, but it's with her. Yes, yes. is like she ultimately decides in this movie to send ethan off on its way but the way that it's shot it's like they're in the war room with her defense department of great tv actors and um how dare you call janet mct i know i'm sorry i was just it's all the boys as you know you got your nick offerman you got your hold mcleanney you've got your holt is i mean this is an icon of masculine cinema.

1:11:04They're all... We've just seen the man in the amateur. They're great. Okay. But you understand my point. Yes. And so, the scene ends with her being like, you know, lock him up or whatever and then it cuts to two soldiers leading him outside and it's revealed that she's like on a helicopter waiting for him. But I was like, oh, there was definitely a version of this movie where she puts him in prison and he like actually is and because of the way it's shot and the way that, you know what I mean? Yes. And when you can see that level of - It's possible that that was an alternative route for the story.

1:11:38Of PC-ness. No, I think that's a good call. Yeah. I had another issue I wanted to chat with you about, which is Greg Tarzan Davis' character, Degas, who was Briggs' partner in the first film. Okay. But joins Ethan's side, throws away his career in the CIA to join the impossible mission force, which I don't know what their benefits are like. Like, I don't know if that was a good call. Does it come with a vehicle? Like, I'm really not sure. But he is now joined up with this ragtag group of international criminals and fugitives because he believes Ethan is right. Like, I know this keeps happening in these movies where people are like, I'm on your team.

1:12:16But at least they're all IMF and, like, they seemingly went through a training program of some kind. This guy is just like, absolutely. I'm a hired gun for you, Ethan. Whatever you need. I will definitely put my life in danger over and over again. Stay back here and help the couple dismantle yet another random bomb that we got to pull out and cut the right strings on at the right time. He's like, I've befriended Don Lowe and we will die together if necessary. And then they did. Very curious movie. What else haven't we covered off on? I mean, I've brought a lot of my takes to you. They don't let Hayley Atwell cook enough.

1:12:50Not at all. they don't really use locations that you know I mean I understand that like the water tank is a location or whatever but the first hour give or take some running through London is just people in rooms or in bunkers really or in helicopters or in submarines you're right to know too that this is a lot of TV actors which I I really have nothing against Tramiel Tillman or Henry Cherney or Holt or Hannah Waddingham. I think they're all talented. But they're not Rebecca Ferguson. You know what I mean? It's true. They're not Vanessa Kirby. Yeah. The movie's missing some juice. And it is missing all the grand locations.

1:13:38And the Burj Khalifa or the Palais Royale, which I never really got confirmation on what happens there. The center of Rome. Yeah. This is like... We're in a cave in South Africa. We're at the bottom of the Bering Sea. Right. And we're in, you know, an underground bunker in London. Right. And the biplane exterior stuff is all outside. And in Zach's piece, Macquarie says that they had trouble finding, like, governments that would let them do the biplane in, like, their actual country. I think they got turned down a couple times. So that is beautiful. But otherwise, it is just, it doesn't have that kind of globetrotting vibe that is a fun part of Mission Impossible.

1:14:22I'm not saying that we should be the czars of Mission Impossible because we don't really know what we're talking about. But like we do know what we're talking about. And there's just a few checkpoints that I feel like you kind of need to hit with these films. And this one very curiously avoids or evades them. Let me ask you one more question. Okay. Okay, so the entity, which is AI that, you know, can ruin all of us. Yes. Just winds up in a little glow box. Yeah, that's right. And they just hang on to it. And then they just like bring it to the center of London. Yeah. It's like when they caught Jafar in the lamp at the end of Aladdin.

1:14:56And it's just like, somebody's going to rub that lamp. Jafar's going to come back. And then Jafar returned in Aladdin 2. You know, we have not had enough fishing training as a society to like someone is going to put that little drive in their computer. You know, it's leading me to my next conversation. OK, which is, is this the last Mission Impossible movie? I said the minute they actually announced the stunt Oscar, I was like, they got to do another one to get Cruz's Oscar. And I know you think he'll be like, no, it's just the guys. But I actually think that he will accept it with his team. Well, there obviously is a remarkable stunt design team that works on all these movies and crews more so than most stars, maybe more so than any star, is at the forefront of participating and helping the design and obviously participating at a high level in the execution of it.

1:15:46The story, you know, he doesn't die. So it is not final in that way, say the way that No Time to Die was. But it does feel like the end. And... I'm cynical enough to know that if there's money there, that they'll come back. But the movies that he has been talking about in the press recently that he is looking to explore again. Obviously, he's got this new film coming with Iñárritu next year. I think Top Gun 3 is very much on the table. There's another critical sequel that he was talking about. I can't recall what it was. Do you remember this? Tom Cruise sequels. No, I was too focused on him eating two buckets of popcorn at every movie.

1:16:27Now, some people have been mocking his popcorn eating style because he kind of tends to throw it. I support that. I think a violent popcorn consumption is fine by me. Days of Thunder. Days of Thunder, yes. Hot on the heels of F1. Which also is F1, but that's fine. I do feel that Two Buckets is a lot of popcorn. Yes, agreed. And doesn't correspond to the physique that we saw displayed prominently in Mission Impossible, Final Reckoning. popcorn unbuttered and unsalted. Sure. Not that bad for you. That's true. But like at the, you know, I don't know if you can get the calorie control. You're looking for it.

1:17:04Your local Cineplex. I like to get a little Molly water on mine. Oh, really? Yeah. And then you and the editor just like,

1:17:14such a strange movie. It's such a, it's such an interesting, but it's fun. I don't care. It is fun. It is. I just, you mentioned the high and the low of my experience. Yeah. Coming off that Knicks win of game four, and there was also a Mets walk-off win that night, and it was when the Mets were sort of peaking, and they've actually had a bit of a downturn since that moment. They got swept in the Subway Series against the Yankees. They lost two of three. That's not true. They won one game. They won one of three. Sorry, Jack. Jack just woke up. And they also just lost two of three in Boston. They're on the downslope.

1:17:49Knicks obviously getting crucified publicly, which is painful to watch. Right. it was it would have been hard for for a movie to live up to the high that i felt watching that next game so i will i want to see the movie again i said as you as soon as we went out i was like i need to see that again i kind of need to see it in a different headspace and it does seem like the second time that you saw it that you enjoyed it more in part because of the crowd that you saw it with definitely um and it still left you scratching your head yeah i mean i was definitely confused but like i i think it's fun to talk about why the entity is just like trapped in a little Tamagotchi, you know?

1:18:23Did you have Tamagotchis growing up? I was getting a little old. Jack, Tamagotchi, yes, no? Nope. Okay, do you know what that is? Nope. Okay, it was a little creature. So it was like, help me describe it. It was like... It was a little electronic device. It was like this big, yeah, sort of like golf ball. Just for those of you that don't have a visual, Jack's just like nodding at us. I can only see his eyes like TJ Echelberg style, like through the window. Okay. So it was a little electronic Tamagotchi thing, right, Jack? No, it's just like toy thing. And I guess it was like a tiny video game where you had to keep the being, the little animal alien robot being not really sure on Tamagotchi lore alive.

1:19:12And it would poop a lot and you had to clean up its poop. But you were just like pressing two or three buttons. And it went with you wherever you were. And so if you were six, you were quite devoted to it. And it beeped at annoying times. And then there was a whole thing of, could you take your Tamagotchi to school? But then your Tamagotchi, which no, but then your Tamagotchi was going to die. Real phenomenon. So now you guys just have real video games. Congratulations. This has been Amanda's Toy Corner. So yeah, the entity is in a Tamagotchi. when we saw Dead Reckoning you were more down on it than I was.

1:19:46I liked it. Yeah. In fact I gave it four stars out of five. On Letterboxd. On Letterboxd yeah. I had a lot of fun with it. It is genuinely really fun but I like AI AI is. That's what I was going to say. That was your issue was ultimately like I don't think the entity is a good villain for this franchise. We had a discussion about the quality of the villains on the Tom Cruise movie draft. Sure. There was a lot of Owen Davian I think came about the winner, the Philip Seymour Hoffman character, but Sean Harris' character, Simon Lane, much admired for his thoughts on anarchy. And I don't know if the White Widow ultimately nets out as a villain.

1:20:23It kind of seems like she does. Her absence was felt deeply in this film for me, in part because I knew that she filmed stuff for it and they didn't put it in. Yeah, I don't remember what happens to the White Widow at the end of... She's on the train and she makes the deal with Kittredge and then she's just gone. Right. Because she's been doubled by Haley Atwell. And she's also a CIA... agent operative. Yeah. So, now having seen the film, I actually think the entity is still a good idea. I don't actually think that's the problem. I think everything with the entity in this movie is overwrought.

1:20:57But it is a good way to threaten the world. Yeah, but again, the stakes are, just unplug it. And that's literally what they do. They just unplug it. And unfortunately, that's not how AI works. Because I've seen the Terminators. They unplug both the vault that's in under... Where is, like, all the servers, you know? Another thing where I'm like, what is this place? Is this a real place? These servers that can never, never be destructed that are ruining our environment. But then they also just unplug the U.S.'s missiles. I'm like, it's fine. It's not ideal. Okay, well, as we get to the end of this discussion...

1:21:36Okay. We need to update our Mission Impossible rankings. Okay. Okay. Now, I've revisited some of these movies in the year and in two years since Dead Reckoning. Not all of them. We, I think, quite famously had Mission Impossible 2 as our least favorite. Yeah. Now, many of the real heads are putting Final Reckoning near the bottom. I think that's probably the case. I think so, too. So, I would keep, I still prefer this movie to 2. I do as well. There is stuff in 2 that I quite enjoy. obviously the throwing motorcycles at each other stuff is pretty extraordinary. John Woo stuff. There's, you know, we've got doves flying in the air.

1:22:16And there is something hanging from the cliff in the opening sequence, which is awesome. It's sick, but it's a very flawed. Now is, is the final reckoning the second worst mission impossible movie? It might be. Bob's not here for mission impossible three, nor Chris, nor Chris, nor Bill. Yeah. That was, he was just jumping on the back. he doesn't really believe that he hasn't seen Mission Impossible 3 in 15 years he was really funny though I loved Bill it was great so what well 3 has Philip Seymour Hoffman and this has a Tamagotchi so I think I'm with you I think Final Reckoning goes to 7 I think you all all of the three heads need to look yourself and your visual standards in the mirror but shame on these people trying to tell me that it doesn't look like TV come on guys get the fuck out of here so then Mission Impossible 3 would be 6 yes now does that mean that Dead Reckoning goes to 5 a film you just drafted in the Tom Cruise movie draft yeah well that was that was strategy my guy that was desperation I'm aware I'm aware newsflash I don't think either of us won that draft so that's yeah that's 5 so then and I would say that 3 and Dead Reckoning I prefer Dead Reckoning personally I think it's superior I think the scale the scope the sense of humor the Haleot well the Rome yeah I do as well so then Vanessa Kirby yes we're down pretty clearly Venice you know even though what they did to Rebecca Ferguson in Venice is unspeakable you know there's something really really really great though about that scene it's I understand why they did it it's really it's very good but I again we've really felt her absence in this I just want to go back to it really quickly, though.

1:24:08It's the alleyway fight between Paris and Hunt where he doesn't kill her and he bangs the lead pipe against the brick wall and lets her live, which then was a good storytelling choice because it lets Paris kind of glide through the story in a meaningful way. And then that leads to that bridge sequence when they fight and they have that knife battle, which is just incredibly elegant action filmmaking. Now, obviously, a lot of people were not happy with Rebecca Ferguson's death. some deemed it fridging. I'm not sure if it can be fridging when like the character is not even, her name is not uttered in this film.

1:24:37She's not even, neither she nor the White Widow come up at all in this new movie. Nevertheless, you're right, she was missed. Number four, there's been some discussion about whether ghost protocol is underrated in the aftermath of our draft. Okay. Because it went so late, Bill got to get it pretty late. Yeah, but that's... We obviously did him a big favor on that one. Yeah, that's people kissing up to Bill, which is fine. Yeah. is so Rogue Nation I realize I don't really remember very much about Rogue Nation even though I've seen it recently Chris kept asking me is that the one Rogue Nation the one where they bomb the Kremlin it's not that is actually in Ghost Protocol oh okay and then Ghost Protocol I mean Rogue Nation he's hanging on the plane is that where there's also like an extended underwater sequence there is yeah it's not big circular yeah see and I'm like I don't I find that boring so I I'm okay with Oh, you're going to, so you want to put Rogue Nation at four.

1:25:33Well, I'm just saying, like Burj Khalifa. The Rogue Nation's introduction of Ilsa Faust. Well, oh yeah, when she's like in the desert and just, I mean, that's good. I was just doing some fake punches. That's how I fight. I don't think I feel very strongly, honestly. I'll let you make the call. You want Rogue Nation to be four? Well, so Ghost Protocol is Burj Khalifa. Jeremy Renner. Bombing the Kremlin, Jeremy Renner. Lea Seydoux. Paula Patton and Lea Seydoux. so that's powerful Brad Bird is the director I find the plotting of that movie not great and Bird's Kali a little overrated it is iconic but the scene itself is fine blue is glue red is dead is really good it is good okay I'll let you have that that means Ghost Protocol Ghost 3 I believe last time we landed on the original Mission Impossible is 2 behind Fallout we did is that still true I have not re-watched the original in some time even though it is a very, it's a big one for me.

1:26:31And you did get it in our draft. I did. I, I do, I do think it's still true. I mean, we, we also just kind of have to stand by our own internal logic of like, I mean, but knowing what you know now about Don Lowe, I thought that the Don Lowe is the only callback that I actually didn't really mind. I didn't mind it either. I thought there was a whole thing where they tried to retrofit three in where apparently what Ethan was stealing, the rabbit's foot was actually this code that created the entity, which like, whatever, you know? So that was kind of a low for me. That, that plus the, you know, Shay Wiggum stuff, Shay Wiggum innocent, uh, makes me, I don't know.

1:27:13It didn't work. Mission impossible one and all of the Don Lowe stuff I liked. And they like use effectively, but I still just think in terms of like pure action. It's fallout. Yeah. Okay. Well, here are our official rankings. Okay. we wrap up this conversation. Number eight is Mission Impossible 2. I'm sorry to John Woo. It's just a fact. Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning is seven. Yeah. Mission Impossible 3 is six. Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning, no longer part one, is five. Mission Impossible Rogue Nation is four. Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol is three. Mission Impossible from 1996 is two.

1:27:49Mission Impossible Fallout is number one. So this series won't be back. So they say. Paramount is now owned by Skydance and David Ellison. That finally went through? No. Because they saved? No, it didn't go through. They caved and everything? Well, it seems like it's going to happen. I mean, it definitely seems like they're going to. It feels like we're recording this on Thursday night before Memorial Day, and it seems like we'll find out tomorrow. Certainly feels in play. Now, obviously, Skydance is a participant in the Mission Impossible movies. In fact, this is among the most successful things that they've ever done.

1:28:19It's kind of like bringing this series back in a big way and Macquarie being a big part of that. so I'm not ruling out nine happening do you think he would ever pass the baton it was the aborted baton pass with Renner yeah so we dodged a bullet in my opinion in that one I listen I'm I'm glad that we got fallout you know I'm glad that we have this moment with Tom Cruise I don't think it was like his proudest moment uh in snatching it back yeah so I was like it was a little oh boy this is this is desperate yeah I don't think he will. Interesting. Maybe he just recruits, you know, in the same way with Maverick.

1:29:01I guess he'll hand it off. Maybe he'll hand it off to like several people all at once. It never works. But it doesn't work. It never works. So, no, he's not going to let another guy be the guy. Come on. The extraordinary balance of giving credit to everyone else and the psychotic, wonderful ego that powers these movies. It's very, very unique. Anything else you want to share? I had fun. Okay. And this was fun. Do you think that the people listening at home enjoyed this? Or do you think they just like didn't like the movie? Near as I can tell they never do. Okay. And yet the show continues apace.

1:29:35So I appreciate those, the silent majority of listeners who really love this show and don't share any feedback about that. Thank you to our producer, Jack Sanders, for his work on this episode. I hope people have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. we have not said the words Lilo and Stitch yet on this episode that is the other major film that is opening this weekend and I suspect will absolutely destroy Mission Impossible at the box office based on the early projections next week on the show on Memorial Day we will unveil our latest 25 for 25 installment no clues for that one okay and then on Wednesday we will have seen Lilo and Stitch I'm not sure if I have a whole episode on Lilo and Stitch in me but I wonder if there is something to be said about the children's entertainment right now.

1:30:24Yes, we can do that. But also, what about friendship? And friendship, of course. So do you think people are going to see it? This is the new Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd comedy. They have been seeing it. In small doses. In very small doses, but it does go wider. Did you see it? I did see it. Oh, okay. So I'm ready. Okay. Well, then we'll talk about friendship. So if people can see friendship, they should see it. Do you think friendship and Lilo and Stitch were well-matched? Well, I haven't seen Lilo and Stitch yet, but in a way, Have you not seen the animated film? I have. And I was just about to say it's about unlikely friends who are perhaps struggling to fit in in the world around them and find each other and then get up to stuff.

1:31:04Does that remind you of anyone? Yeah. I mean, I saw Friendship while you were on your golf trip. So that's, I have thought a lot about that. The pinnacle of male loneliness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Amidst the pinnacle of male loneliness. Yeah. Thank you for listening to the show. We'll see you guys next week. Thanks for trusting us one last time.