It was only a few week ago that director Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation dropped its first trailer online for the world to see, and it immediately made us hungry to see a hell of a lot more from it. Unfortunately, we’re still counting down the days until the movie makes its way into theaters this summer, but the good news is that today we got a very special extended look at the film that only makes us anticipate it more.
The annual theater owners convention known as CinemaCon has begun in Las Vegas, and this morning Paramount Pictures found itself positioned as the first studio presentation of the event – showing off some fantastic footage from a number of movies on their 2015-2016 slate. The real showstopper at the end of it all, however, was a brand new preview of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, with Tom Cruise himself coming on stage alongside Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson to introduce two very cool scenes from the upcoming blockbuster.
The first sequence began with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) slowly waking up after being unconscious, and finding himself in what appears to be a dingy basement. He discovers that both his hands have been cuffed around a tall metal pole, and that his feet have been shackled together – with a key on the floor across the room. As he is regaining his bearings, a woman - who we will eventually come to know as Isla (Rebecca Ferguson) – walks into the room with a bag, and without acknowledging Ethan, moves over to a table where she starts to unpack a series of vials and syringes. Once she is done, she takes off her high-heels and puts them on the table, and as she is rolling up her sleeves, the door behind her once again opens, and in walks a small group of some intimidating-looking men.
The alpha of the group, speaking in a foreign language that’s subtitles, asks Ethan, "What are you doing here?" to which our hero gives no response. Suddenly, the interrogator begins to deal some serious body blows to Ethan - so hard that one of the other men has to remind the alpha that they aren’t supposed to kill him. The man throwing punches explains that he simply wants to see what the IMF agent is made of. Ethan then begins to talk and identifies the man who has assaulted him as Victor, a torturer also known as The Bone Doctor who was said to be officially dead three years ago. He then takes this moment to slyly hit on Ilsa, complimenting her shoes.
As it turns out, Victor has a kit of his own, and after opening it on a table, he pulls out a very scary-looking metal mallet. Ilsa explains that they are merely supposed to try and break Ethan – to which Victor retorts that Ethan is too strong to break. He continues to throw punches into the manacled adversary, and during a reprieve Ethan suggests that Ilsa leave – which Victor agrees with. It’s at this time that she begins to move towards Ethan – and silently reveals that she has the keys to the agent’s cuffs, and is actually an ally.
Mustering all of his strength and pushing his back against the pole, Ethan then lifts his feet off the ground and kicks Victor squarely in the chest – not only throwing the villain across the room, but also causing him to hit his head against a pipe and get knocked out. Ilsa tosses Ethan the keys, and then proceeds to start beating on the other men in the room. Our hero discovers that he can’t actually reach the lock in his cuffs with the key, so he actually finds a way to shimmy up the pole with his arms and back and successfully gets over the top. He joins Ilsa in the fight, and ultimately are successful in both freeing Ethan from his chains and neutralizing all of the enemies. Exhausted, Ethan turns to his new adversary and says, "We’ve never met one another, right?" Unfortunately, this moment is broken up as two guards outside the door begin knocking to check if everything is all right.
In the second clip shown – which takes place later in the movie in Morocco – Ethan has just been revived from a near-death experience, and finds himself hopping in a silver BMW with Benji (Simon Pegg) to chase down Ilsa – who is speeding away on a motorcycle. Simultaneously, Luther (Ving Rhames) and Brandt (Jeremy Renner) are revealed to be paired up together looking for Ethan, Benji and Ilsa in the North African nation.
Thanks to the fact that he nearly just died, Ethan appears to be a little frazzled, and shows this off by driving down a flight of stairs mere moments after getting in the car with Benji. Because of this risky maneuver, they are able to keep up with Ilsa, but soon find that they are not alone in the chase, as they are joined by a gang of armed dudes on motorcycles. As the group makes a hard turn, Ethan and Benji’s car actually winds up smacking right into the vehicle behind driven by Luther and Brandt. They exchange awkward and quick pleasantries before Ethan is able to drive off – and then Brandt comically criticizes his partner for his choice of a 4x4 vehicle and its uselessness in a high-speed pursuit.
Catching up with Ethan and Benji, we find the heroes caught up in a deadly, tight battle with the motorcyclists – who have drawn their weapons and begun shooting at Ilsa. When one of the bikers gets in front of their car, Ethan is able to successfully get him out of the way, but then finds his car start getting hit with a spray of bullets. He then makes the decision to pull into a tight alley way, and while this seems like a mistake at first, it turns out to work in the best way possible – as Ethan throws on the emergency brake, sideswipes a number of bikers, and sends the rest of them driving into a garbage truck. The only downside is that our hero then finds himself driving in reverse… and about to go over a giant embankment that will send the car soaring.
The two extended clips were followed by a quick sizzle reel also featuring the stunning "riding on the outside of a plane," and after all of it, it really felt impossible not to be tremendously excited for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. All of the action was very physical and visceral, and I can only imagine that the finished film will deliver even more of that on an even bigger scale. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait much longer to see it, as the fifth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise will be in theaters on July 31st.
