Impossible character Ethan Hunt gamely takes on the burden, ad nauseam, of saving the world, Cruise genuinely thinks he can save cinema. His optimism is touching, if unrealistic. But as hard as he, and we,

Picking up from Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt now holds the key to confronting the formidable AI known as the Entity, his most perilous adversary yet. The film propels the plot forward as Hunt must gather his team to locate the sunken Russian submarine containing the Entity’s source code, the key to its destruction.

Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, and more star in the eighth film in the stunt-filled action franchise, out May 23.