It’s great news for film fans when a franchise’s fifth installment is it’s strongest. Some Mission Impossible purists might disagree with me, but I am convinced that Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is the best outing yet.

Not bad for a franchise that started in 1996.

Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, putting to bed the rumours surrounding Ghost Protocol that Jeremy Renner was brought in to replace the 53-year-old star.

Or does it? As Renner also returns as Agent Brant and with one film left on his contract with the studio, the rumours will rumble on.

Also returning are Simon Pegg and franchise stalwart Ving Rhames.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Rogue Nation delivers everything fans expect from a Mission Impossible film, fast paced, jaw dropping action sequences, comedy and masks, picking up roughly where Ghost Protocol left off, with Hunt tracking a shadowy organisation known only as the Syndicate.

The film’s star turn comes from Rebecca Ferguson as the mysterious Ilsa Faust, who repeatedly steals scenes from under Cruise’s nose.  Faust, as the name suggests, is a devilishly complicated character whose true motivations remain shrouded in secrecy. Just when you think you have got her pegged, McQuarrie throws a curve-ball and you’re back to square one.

Whilst Ferguson steals scenes, the rest of the cast deliver strong performances, especially Simon Pegg whose role has once again grown, as Benji is brought front and center, allowing Pegg to show off his serious acting abilities as well as his comedic timing.

Rogue Nation always promised to be a film of epic proportions and it definitely delivers on those promises.

With it’s shadowy villainous organisation, secret agents and grand stunts the comparisons between Rogue Nation and Spectre were inevitable.

In my opinion, Hunt beats Bond in this round.

Spectre tried but just didn’t have what it took to top a film that was confident enough to use an intense, complicated stunt sequence, involving it’s leading man hanging off the side of a military transport aircraft as it took off, in the first five minutes.

The only question that remains…What is in store for Ethan Hunt and the IMF in Mission Impossible 6?

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