Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015)

★★★½
If Ghost Protocol writers André Nemec and Josh Appelbaum and director Brad Bird laid the groundwork for increasingly stacking the deck against mission success to test Ethan Hunt's resolve and make the plot compelling, then Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie was the perfect man to bring in to follow that blueprint and develop challenging adversaries who will push Hunt to great lengths to finish the job. Whereas James Bond can quip a one-liner to decompress after a near death experience, Ethan Hunt remains alert. His missions are too multilayered to allow him any respite. This isn't surprising, as McQuarrie wrote The Usual Suspects, a dense and complex crime thriller the ending of which slowly unfolded in a way to force us to rethink everything. Previous Mission directors didn't write the scripts. McQuarrie not only wrote this one, but he will also write and direct the rest of the series. A film universe that needs an I.M.F. perfectly plays to McQuarrie's strengths as a writer.