7 Things Parents Should Know about Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Michael Foust Christian Headlines Contributor
- Updated Jul 27, 2018
Ethan Hunt has been given an assignment – if he chooses to accept it – that literally could save humanity.
It seems the same terrorists who intentionally created and spread a smallpox virus overseas now are trying to purchase three cases of plutonium that they’ll use to make three nuclear bombs. Their mission: destroy the planet and start humanity all over again. It’s like Noah and the flood, but with evil intentions.
“There’s never been a peace without great suffering,” one of them says in a manifesto.
Hunt’s goal is to obtain the plutonium before the terrorists get it. That sounds easy for a smart guy like Ethan Hunt, but when the wrong person dies and his plan fails, he is forced to make a drastic decision: infiltrate the terrorist network and pretend to be one of the bad guys – a murderous leader named John Lark.
Can Hunt fool the terrorists into believing he is Lark … and save the world in time, too?
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About the Film
The film Mission: Impossible – Fallout (PG-13) opens this weekend, starring Tom Cruise as Hunt, Simon Pegg as his sidekick Benji, Ving Rhames as his other sidekick Luther, Henry Cavill as CIA assassin August Walker, and Alec Baldwin as government official Alan Hunley.
It is the sixth movie in the Mission: Impossible film series that began in 1996 and tells the story of an agent (Hunt) who works for a U.S. government crime-fighting body, the Impossible Missions Force (IMF).
Here is what parents need to know:
Warning: minor spoilers ahead!
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1. It has tons of violence.
I entered the theater hoping the film would be OK for my 10-year-old son, but after about 30 minutes, I knew it wasn’t. There’s more violence than he’s ever seen in a superhero or science fiction film. We see Hunt and a few other guys get into a lengthy bathroom brawl; it ends with someone shot and killed in the face. (We don’t see the shot, but we see a pool of blood.) Brawls and gunfights, in fact, take place every few minutes. In one daydream sequence, we see terrorists mow down a dozen or more police, including one at point-blank range. Stabbings are common, too. Hunt and another woman escape from a party by using knives to kill a few bad guys. Later, a man nearly drowns, trapped in a vehicle. We hear discussion of a bad guy killing Hunt’s wife to make him cooperate. One scene in the film’s final minutes involves two strangulations – a bad guy dying and a good guy hanging from a rope. (One of them survives.)
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2. It has a moderate amount of coarse language.
I counted about 33 words: s—t (7), h-ll (7), SOB (4), d—n (4), OMG (3), misuse of “God” (2), misuse of “Jesus” (2), a— (2), f-word (1) and misuse of “Jesus Christ” (1). The film continues the disturbing trend of writers inserting one or two f-bombs into a PG-13 film – just to be edgy. (Multiple f-words bump a film into R-rated territory.)
3. It contains no sexuality.
But honestly, there’s no time for it. Hunt is chasing terrorists the entire movie. The film contains one brief kiss, and nothing more.
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4. It is a summer thrill-ride.
Fallout is like most other Mission: Impossible films – a two-hour-plus chase scene interrupted by a pretty good plot. Hunt and his companions are either chasing or being chased through city streets. (First Paris, and then London.) He rides a motorcycle down an alley, down a one-way street (the wrong way), and through a crowd. He runs through a funeral (he apologizes), a corporate office (jumping out of a window) and on top of a London landmark. He escapes (and gets the bad guy) when all hope seems lost. Of course, you already knew that.
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5. It upholds the value of life.
Ethan Hunt would be a good subject for an ethics class. Given a choice between rescuing one person and saving a million lives, he’ll try his darndest to do both. Early in the film, it gets him in trouble. But later in the movie, his life-affirming ethic wins a few fans. His desire never to see an innocent person or a friend die is a major theme. As one person in the movie says, the world needs people “who care about the one life as much as they care about the millions.” For families who watch the film, it’s worth discussing.
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6. It has an interesting marriage angle.
Spoiler ahead! We learn that Ethan and his wife separated with the sole purpose of keeping her alive. That is, they separated and she went into hiding so the terrorists wouldn’t find and kill her. Later in the movie, Ethan bumps into her – and her new husband.
7. It stretches believability.
Yes, even for a Mission: Impossible movie. During one stretch, they packed more into a 15-minute timeframe – trying to defuse a bomb -- than is possible for an entire day. But I’m not complaining too much. It was fun to watch.
Entertainment rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Family-friendly rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.
Rated PG-13 for violence and intense sequences of action, and for brief strong language.
Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com
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