Who is the mole?

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2012)

I had seen the odd episode of the television series as a child but it was long enough ago that by the time I came to watch the film I'd forgotten so much about it that I could view this as a totally new product; which is probably for the best. It was clear from early on that this was going to be a star packed adventure as the team included Tom Cruise; Kristen Scott Thomas, Emilio Estevez and Jon Voight at least it seemed that way until the first mission we see leaves most of the team dead and their target free with the 'NOC List'; a list giving the names and code names of every CIA asset in Eastern Europe! Cruise plays the team's leader, Ethan Hunt, and after that debacle the CIA believes he is the mole they already suspected somebody and as the sole survivor it must be him or must it? As part of their mole hunt they had placed a fake list so anybody who uses it will get caught. Soon it becomes clear that there was a second survivor; Claire Phelps. After some distrust he eventually decides that she isn't the mole and sets about finding who wanted the list so he can bait them with the real list and expose the mole.
This is an exciting thriller with plenty of twists and turns before the end. The surprises started early when characters played by well known actors were killed off and continued right until the end when we learn which previously trusted characters are in fact bad. Tom Cruise puts in a solid performance as Hunt; it is of little surprise that he continued to play the role in an ever increasing franchise. The rest of the cast support him convincingly as Hunt and his new team work to catch the mole. There are plenty of exciting moments; the best being when they sneak into the CIA headquarters in Langley to steal the real file if you think too much about the scene it does seem somewhat ridiculous but it is so well handled it doesn't matter besides this is Mission Impossible after all! Things continue well until the very end then things get unfortunately silly as Hunt chases the bad guy on the roof of a speeding train as it heads towards the channel tunnel then enters the tunnel with a helicopter attached to it by a cable there is impossible and there is unbelievable; sadly this was the latter. That said this is just one scene and while it detracted from a previously good film it didn't spoil it for me. Fans of Cruise or of slightly far fetched thrillers should certainly enjoy this.