Mission: Impossible - Fallout — All you need to know about Tom Cruise's action-packed entertainer

A skydiving Tom Cruise returns this Friday for the latest stunt-packed instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, which promises to up the bar for action films. The 53-year old Hollywood star reorises his role as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Fallout , his sixth stint as the secret agent, serving up the usual action-packed and nail-biting scenes. The Paramount Pictures film, directed by Christopher McQuarrie , releases in India this Friday on 27 July and here is what you need to know before entering cinemas. [caption id=“attachment_4825941” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Mission: Impossible - Fallout promo. Image via Twitter[/caption] ( Also read — Mission: Impossible - Fallout movie review — Tom Cruise steals the show in a film full of eye-popping action ) What happened in the previous Mission: Impossible films? Based on the popular 1960s TV spy drama of the same name, Brian De Palma introduced us to Cruise’s Impossible Mission Force (IMF) operative Hunt in Mission: Impossible in 1996. After being framed for the murder of his fellow agents and selling government secrets, Hunt embarks on a seemingly impossible mission to expose the real criminal. In John Woo’s more stylistic sequel in 2000, he stops the bad guy from causing a global epidemic with a virus known as ‘Chimera’. In the third film, which marked JJ Abrams’ feature directorial debut, Hunt is forced to come out of retirement to take on a black market arms dealer, who kidnaps his wife Julia but everything ends cheerfully. In Ghost Protocol (2011), Hunt and fellow agents get blamed for a terrorist bombing of the Kremlin and are forced to go on the run (Also, Julia’s death is faked in order to keep her safe). Rogue Nation (2015) finds the IMF disbanded as Hunt and his team face off with the sinister Syndicate organisation. The first five Mission: Impossible movies have raked in $2.8 billion at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo, putting it in the top 20 movie franchises of all time. ( Also read — Tom Cruise on Mission: Impossible future after Fallout: I have a lot of ideas for next two or three movies ) What is the basic plot of Mission: Impossible - Fallout? [caption id=“attachment_4825961” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Rebecca Ferguson and Tom Cruise in a still from Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Image via Twitter[/caption] Mission: Impossible – Fallout follows Hunt and his team as they race against time to recover stolen plutonium after a mission goes wrong. Hunt is hunted by assassins and former allies in his efforts to prevent the terrorist organisation from provoking this global catastrophe. Why should you be excited for the sixth instalment of a franchise? “The Tom factor,” as Cruise’s fellow cast member Simon Pegg puts it. “Tom is just an energy ball. He lifts you up, he lifts the crew up, he makes everyone want to make a great movie. You just feed off his energy.” Legendary producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson cast Cruise in 1985’s smash-hit Top Gun as the fighter pilot Maverick, a role that catapulted him into the ranks of Hollywood’s elite. In the 33 years since, he has established himself as one of the most powerful and bankable players in Hollywood, his movies grossing $9.3 billion and his talents earning three Oscar nominations. Cruise has carved a career as one of Hollywood’s top earning and longest running action stars, much of it built on his reputation for doing his own stunts, including swinging around a Dubai skyscraper and hanging off the outside of a cargo plane as takes off. Director McQuarrie has said he wants Mission: Impossible – Fallout to explore a more human side to Hunt, starting with the return of his ex-wife, played by Michelle Monaghan, and British MI6 collaborator Ilsa Faust, played by Rebecca Ferguson. What cool new stunts should you look forward to in Mission: Impossible - Fallout?

In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Cruise — who famously does his own stunts — throws himself from a military transport plane at 25,000 feet, pilots a helicopter though mountain ravines in Kashmir and races a motorbike helmet-less through oncoming traffic round Paris’ Arc de Triomphe. The film was even forced to halt production in London last year after Cruise slammed awkwardly into a concrete wall as he leapt between buildings while attached to cables. ( Also read — Mission: Impossible — Fallout review roundup: Most 'extreme, dangerous-looking' stunts ever assembled ) Who else is in Mission: Impossible - Fallout? Pegg returns as the nerdy sidekick to Cruise’s suave spy Ethan Hunt. Rebecca Ferguson plays Hunt’s love interest and a government agent sent to track his enemies down.  _Justice League_ ’s Henry Cavill appears as a CIA-paid hitman who joins a terror ring intent on engineering a nuclear disaster to destroy the old world order. Other than Michelle Monaghan’s return, the film will also feature franchise regular Ving Rhames. Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby and Sean Harris make up the rest of the cast. Watch the Mission: Impossible – Fallout trailer.

(With inputs from agencies)