Latest 'Mission' Is Impossibly Good Thriller

Latest 'Mission' Is Impossibly Good Thriller¹

"Mission: Impossible — Rogue² Nation" is the fifth installment³ of the successful 20-year-old spy franchise⁴, based on the iconic, eponymous 1960s TV series. With 53-year-old Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise still at the helm, the intelligent thriller offers an excellent plot and breathtaking action.

As in the previous films of the series, Cruise insists on performing all of his own stunts⁶. His greatest challenge? Surpassing his prior daredevil acts.

In this installment, the Impossible Missions Force faces its deadliest enemy yet: a group of powerful rogue agents turned against its masters. Calling itself the Syndicate, it wreaks⁷ havoc⁸ in the global economy by assassinating⁹ world leaders.

Ethan Hunt (Cruise)  and his team, the only force able to stop them, are disbanded by the CIA, forcing them to operate off the radar¹⁰. One unexpected asset: mysterious team member Ilsa Faust (played by Rebecca Ferguson), an independent agent who warns Hunt of the Syndicate's sheer invincibility¹¹.

"I really wanted to make this for an international audience, and I wanted to bring you to places that you might not otherwise be able to go to," filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote and directed MI5, said in a Paramount¹² Pictures release. "And that’s why we explored Vienna the way we do. That’s why we explore London the way we do, and Morocco was no different.”

The production team chose Morocco to stage its pulse-pounding motorcycle chase, where Cruise's character swerves¹³ down a winding¹⁴ mountain road without even wearing a helmet. But he does not seem to mind.

“I feel fortunate 'cause I get to work with the best bikes so that we can do very extreme things," Cruise said, according to the Paramount release. "We are not doing a lot of CGI [computer-generated imagery]. We don’t have other stunt⁵ people doing this."

Cruise also performed the stunt in which he had to jump into thousands of gallons of water without an oxygen tank. The film sequence lasts over three minutes, and Cruise had to train to hold his breath for longer than that.

“We are doing up to six-and-a-half-minute breath holds," he said. "It surprised me, actually, the physical toll¹⁵ that it took and how challenging it was.”

But despite the action scenes, Cruise still acknowledges that what audiences love most in the "Mission: Impossible" movies is a good story, so the script is king, he said. “I want to be on the edge of my seat when I am watching a movie," he said. "I want to deliver that for an audience, and that is storytelling."

Simon Pegg plays Hunt's sidekick, Benji Dunn. The tech guru endures a lot of stunt action next to Hunt, but Pegg said in the Paramount release that "none of those stunts would have any effect if you don’t care really about the people involved in them. I think the important thing for us is to create characters that you cared about so when they were in those situations, you gave a damn, you know?"

The rest of the cast, which includes Jeremy Renner and Alec Baldwin, is as charismatic. But the star remains¹⁶ Cruise, who in every "Mission: Impossible" installment keeps raising the bar in the stunts he performs.

After all, in a $150 million production such as "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," you would expect him  to tether himself to the side of a cargo¹⁷ plane and reach an altitude of 5,000 feet at 200 miles an hour. Right?

He said that when the aircraft left the ground, he felt "the force of my body going against the side of that fuselage. ... I guess I did it eight times ... but I wanted to make sure that we had that shot. It’s pretty exhilarating, actually.”

1 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

2 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

3 installment   

n.(instalment)分期付款；(连载的)一期

参考例句：

• I shall soon pay the last installment of my debt.不久我将偿付我的最后一期债款。
• He likes to buy things on the installment plan.他喜欢用分期付款法购买货物。

4 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

5 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

6 stunts   

n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He did all his own stunts. 所有特技都是他自己演的。
• The plane did a few stunts before landing. 飞机着陆前做了一些特技。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 wreaks   

诉诸（武力），施行（暴力），发（脾气）( wreak的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Worshipping the sun wreaks havoc on skin. So does smoking. 过度晒太阳会毁掉好皮肤，吸烟也是如此。
• His hard work wreaks havoc in his personal life. 他拼命工作破坏了他的私人生活。

8 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

9 assassinating   

v.暗杀( assassinate的现在分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• They struck a blow for freedom by assassinating the colonial governor. 他们为了自由而奋力一博，暗杀了那位殖民地总督。 来自互联网

10 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

11 invincibility   

n.无敌，绝对不败

参考例句：

• The myth of his and Nazi invincibility had been completely destroyed. 过去他本人之神奇传说，以及纳粹之不败言论，至此乃完全破灭。 来自辞典例句
• Our image of invincibility evaporated. 我们战无不胜的形象化为泡影了。 来自辞典例句

12 paramount   

a.最重要的，最高权力的

参考例句：

• My paramount object is to save the Union and destroy slavery.我的最高目标是拯救美国，摧毁奴隶制度。
• Nitrogen is of paramount importance to life on earth.氮对地球上的生命至关重要。

13 swerves   

n.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的名词复数 )v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The road swerves to the right. 道路向右转弯。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• At the last moment, Nina swerves and slams into a parked car. 在最后关头，尼娜突然转弯，将车猛烈撞入一辆停着的车中。 来自互联网

14 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

15 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

16 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

17 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。