The lead up to seeing Ghost Protocol was interesting for me. It’s maybe the only time I can remember going to see a new movie from a director who has exclusively made films that I love, but not having any idea what to expect. That’s because, after wowing everyone with his animated works The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, this was the first time Brad Bird would be making a movie using cameras, live actors, and real world locations. Would his animation skill set also serve him well making a live action film, or would he need to rely on a completely new bag of tricks? For most of us, questions like this are beyond our ability to even conceptualize, but Bird must have been confident. Ghost Protocol is at the same time jaw dropping in its spectacle and seemingly effortless in its presentation. Either putting together scenes where you have camera men and actors dangling off the side of the tallest building in the world isn’t all that different from crafting The Incredibles’ spy movie sequences all inside the confines of a computer, or Bird is just the kind of guy who is wildly talented at everything he does. Whatever the case may be, the man is so good that I’m sure he puts all of his filmmaker friends into regular fits of jealousy.
In addition to crafting an exciting action sequence, both on a storyboard and in the physical world, Bird is also skilled at telling human stories in places you wouldn’t usually find them. Whether he’s telling a story about a giant robot, a family of super powered beings, or a lowly Parisian rat, he’s always able to find some angle on the tale that you can relate to your own life, that creates an attachment to the characters, and this movie is no exception. Here he’s giving us a film composed almost entirely of stunts and battles. This is an action movie in every sense of the word; it’s kinetic, exciting, and everything that happens on screen is in service of the thrills and the spectacle. That doesn’t mean that Bird leaves us hanging when it comes to things like character or story though; every big stunt, every violent battle, they’re littered with little asides that give us a look into the hopes and fears of the participants.
The actual plot isn’t what’s important. There’s a bad guy trying to end the world, a team of heroes trying to stop him, the odds seem impossible, and no one can be trusted. It’s typical spy movie stuff and if you don’t pick up on the intricacies of all the ins-and-outs and double crosses, it’s not too important. You get to know the characters, and you always know the stakes of their situation; and for a good action movie that’s all you need. Much of the credit for the film’s success needs to go to Bird and his screenwriters André Nemec and Josh Appelbaum, but it’s also clear that they were helped out quite a bit by having a cast this good. This is an action movie that puts spectacle ahead of everything else, yeah... but it’s also a movie featuring actors perfectly suited to what was required of each individual character, which makes everything go down with a spoonful of sugar.
Ethan Hunt is the protagonist of the piece, he’s the prototypical, flawless hero, and he needs to be played by a big time movie star. This works out great, because the thing Tom Cruise is best at is being a movie star. He brings a vitality and an energy to every role he plays just through his natural screen presence, and other than looking good in pants that expose your ankles, being vital and charismatic is about all an actor playing the Hunt character needs to be. Cruise seems to visibly be having a good time sticking to what he’s good at and showing off, and it makes the audience have an equally good time watching him.
Hunt’s team is composed of Benji, the tech guy, and Jane, the chick. Benji’s character arch sees him adapting to going from being the nerd behind the scenes to being the guy working out in the field and getting involved physically for the first time. To bring him to life they needed an actor who could bring a humor to his nervous energy, but also be believably intelligent enough to pull off some amazing technological feats. In Simon Pegg they found their man. Pegg has long proven that he has the comedic chops to bring humor to any situation, but he also has the nerd cred necessary to play intelligent, so he’s able to keep Benji from devolving into a wacky sidekick. Paula Patton plays Jane, and she’s not an actress I’m familiar enough with to speak to her strengths, but it seems to me that the Jane role required someone who could project anger and who could look smashing in an evening gown (she’s dealing with the recent murder of a loved one by one of the film’s antagonists, and she has to seduce a rich playboy at a posh party near the end of the film), and Patton pulls off both with aplomb. I look forward to seeing more from her in the future.
Jeremy Renner is the wild card here. He’s not a huge star like Cruise, but he’s an up and coming actor who has shown solid leading man potential. He’s playing the character of Brandt, a supposed data analyst who has far too many physical skills to not be hiding some secrets. Circumstances lead to him teaming up with Hunt and his crew, and there’s always the questions of what his real past is and where his true allegiances lie hanging over everything he does. From what I’ve seen of him so far in his burgeoning career, Renner is best at playing the steaming kettle, and this serves him well when taking on the mysterious Brandt. You can always see that there are other thoughts rolling around in the back of his head and conflicting emotions wrestling just underneath the surface of his skin, and Renner’s performance has you constantly questioning what’s going to happen when Brandt finally makes his play.
As I’ve said though, this movie isn’t necessarily about story or character, it’s about the action. And there are a few reasons why the action sequences in this film are worlds better than what we get other places. First off, they’re just epic in scope. When the Kremlin explodes it engulfs you in its dust cloud and shock wave, when you’re hanging off the side of the Burj Khalifa building the effects are dizzying. I haven’t seen action sequences of this scale since James Cameron did True Lies, and the over the top approach was much appreciated. The action genre is all about getting bigger, going further, and Bird seems to appreciate this, because he’s always ramping up not just the scope of his set pieces but the stakes involved as well.
The building climbing sequence doesn’t just work because it’s ridiculously high and ludicrously dangerous, it works because of the step by step way in which it’s set up. Before Cruise climbs out onto the glass there is a scene where the window gets pulled away and all of the actors sell how scary it is being up that high. The function of the adhesive gloves Cruise is using to stick to the side of the building is explained to us, we know when they’re working and what can happen when they malfunction. This prep work gets us set up for the sequence, let’s the stakes of the whole thing set in, and then Bird starts turning the screws tighter and tighter. Just being out there is scary enough that I was hearing audible gasps from the audience, but once one of Cruise’s gloves starts malfunctioning the peril starts to make you absolutely squirm. Suddenly Cruise is hanging off of the world’s tallest building with one hand instead of two, the ante has been upped. And when things progress to the point that he’s out there with no gloves at all, stranded and hanging, you pretty much hit a crescendo of panic. It all works so well because of the step by step process of telling the physical story of what’s happening, not because Bird uses a bunch of CG assisted, impossible camera angles to jazz things up and cut corners.
Another sequence that really blew my hair back was a fight sequence that takes place on a parking garage that moves cars with robotic elevators. Cruise is fighting with the bad guy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s Michael Blomqvist) over a briefcase that can launch nuclear missiles, and the results are a game of cat and mouse where the objective is to use jumping, punching, and kicking to get the case out of your opponent’s hands and back into yours. In most action films these guys would just be fighting for the sake of having a fight, and they’d be doing fancy karate moves just for the sake of fanciness. But here, they’re fighting over an item with world ending consequences, and the fact that everything is focused on retrieving the briefcase and not just caving in faces allows for an inventive approach to fight choreography that makes the scene memorable and helps it stand out from the pack. Good action scenes live and die in the attention to detail, and I guess that’s one place Bird’s animation background is a real asset. A lot of modern action is just loud noises and blinding visuals, Bird’s is meticulously constructed and it orients us instead of disorienting us. The effect are scenes that are memorable and nail biting instead of dizzying and deafening, and I couldn’t appreciate them more.
To wrap things up, I’ll talk a bit about the fact that I saw this film in an IMAX theater, and seeing as several sequences were filmed using IMAX cameras, the added effect was well worth the couple of extra dollars. I’ve seen a narrative of 3D vs. IMAX pop up because of the release of this film, and I can confidently say that I throw my hat in the camp of IMAX supporters. You would think that when scenes switch from your typical widescreen format to the taller aspect ratio of the IMAX film that the effect would be distracting and take you out of the movie, but, on the contrary, I found every scene where we switched over to IMAX film to be instantly absorbing. Something about that giant, crystal clear image just immediately sucks you into its world and envelopes you in a way that 3D rarely does. And it was already proven with The Dark Knight that including IMAX footage in your narrative films can be a huge moneymaker. If, over time, they are able to get these IMAX cameras smaller, lighter, and easier to shoot with, making big budget movies explicitly for the IMAX screens could be the answer to getting people out of their living rooms and back into movie theaters. There’s no annoying glasses, you don’t have to worry about whether you’re seeing something shot natively in the format or hastily post converted; I would take a movie presented completely in the IMAX format over ten movies presented in 3D.
