The ensemble cast includes Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, and Alec Baldwin.

Set two years after the events of Rogue Nation, Fallout follows Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team in their efforts to prevent a nuclear attack by terrorist Solomon Lane and the mysterious extremist John Lark.

Filming was delayed for several months after Cruise broke his ankle during a stunt, significantly inflating the budget while the production waited for his return but also providing McQuarrie the opportunity to further develop unfinished scenes in the script.

Assuming Lark's identity, Ethan meets Mitsopolis, who gifts him one core, explaining that the Apostles will deliver the others after he attacks a police convoy and liberates its prisoner, Lane.

Meeting with Ethan, Ilsa explains that MI6 assigned her to kill Lane to prevent foreign governments from interrogating him and prove her loyalty after working undercover as a Syndicate agent.

Ethan, Benji, Luther, and Ilsa track Lane and Walker to a medical camp near the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir, treating a smallpox outbreak orchestrated by the Apostles.

[18] Fallout also features cameo appearances by news host Wolf Blitzer portraying himself (in actuality a disguise worn by Dunn);[15][16] disc jockey DJ Harvey as himself;[19] and director Christopher McQuarrie voices Ethan's mission briefing.

[a] That month, the series' lead actor Tom Cruise announced that filming was planned to begin by August 2016, as production studios Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media wanted a quick turnaround on the sequel.

[27][37] As part of this, the original primary narrative involved Ethan assuming Lark's identity for most of the film, forcing him to portray a villainous alter ego and face moral quandaries tasking him with performing "horrible things" to preserve the greater good.

The "mousetrap" sequence, in which Ethan, Luther, and Benji trick Delbruuk into revealing details of Lark's bombs, was also intended for Rogue Nation but McQuarrie could not make it work within that film's narrative.

[50][51] An unnamed well-known actor was originally set to play the decoy John Lark as a surprise cameo, but in preliminary tests, he was unable to keep pace with Cruise and Cavill during a fight scene between their three characters in a Parisian bathroom.

[14][50] The police officer encountered on the street by the IMF team was written as a man, but Cruise recommended swapping the gender as he felt a woman (Alix Bénézech) would make the scene more emotionally impactful.

[36] As the sequence moves under a bridge along the Seine, the area was draped with 300 ft (91 m) of silk to conceal events from onlookers and paparazzi, and the guns used were silent with gunfire being added in post-production.

[60] McQuarrie used the hiatus to improve underdeveloped scenes around the pursuit as they lacked compelling drama, some filming locations had not yet been secured, such as St Paul's Cathedral, and Benji's interactions with Ethan were still being determined.

[36][65][68] Cruise performed the single-take stunt 106 times, including practice jumps, falling at speeds of 200 to 220 mph (320 to 350 km/h) from 25,000 to 30,000 ft (7,600 to 9,100 m) from a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III accompanied by a camera operator.

[67] CGI vapor was added to Cruise's helmet, and DNEG digitally replaced the desert background with a stormy Parisian landscape and inserted the Grand Palais where Ethan lands.

[35][65] The motorbike segment, in which Ethan rides the wrong way against seventy stunt drivers around the Arc de Triomphe, was filmed in 90 minutes early on a Sunday morning when it could be closed due to light traffic.

[66] This included Amazon Prime, BMW, Kärcher, Airbus, Shell, LG, M&M's, and Uber, as well as an ESPN promo with James Harden, a Visa screening program/partnership, and an American Ninja Warrior themed episode.

[66][77] Media analyst Jeff Bock said that, as in 2017, there was a deluge of sequels but 2018's offerings were ones audiences actually wanted to watch, including Ant-Man and the Wasp, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and The First Purge.

[92] Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Fallout overperformed against projections to gross $94.6 million during its opening weekend in 36 countries, including the UK, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Latin America, and most of Asia.

[111][124][125] USA Today's Brian Truitt and Entertainment Weekly's Chris Nashawaty said Fallout's combination of exotic locations, espionage, and action had successfully established the series as the standard for international action-adventure films, and Cruise as the modern James Bond.

[111] Phillips and Empire's Helen O'Hara, among others, praised the returning cast of Rhames, Pegg, Baldwin, and Harris, while lamenting the film's focus on Ethan left little room to develop their characters.

[s] At the 72nd British Academy Film Awards in 2018, Mission: Impossible – Fallout was nominated for Best Sound (Gilbert Lake, James H. Mather, Christopher Munro, and Mike Prestwood Smith).

[137] At the 45th Saturn Awards, Fallout was named Best Action or Adventure Film and was nominated for Best Actor (Cruise), Best Writing (McQuarrie), and Best Special Effects (Andrew Booth, Neil Corbould, Huw J. Evans, and Jody Johnson).

[146] Fallout elucidates that a man like Hunt continuously endangers his life and opts to undertake impossible missions because he possesses the ability to save people and cannot bear the thought of allowing deaths through his own inaction.

[13][114] Critic Nick Allen points out that unlike typical tropes, such as motivating the male protagonist through the death of a loved one, as seen in Casino Royale (2006) and The Dark Knight (2008), the Mission: Impossible series, including Fallout, sidesteps this narrative convention.

[114] Film professor Lisa Purse examined the cultural perceptions of, and media interest in, Cruise's relatively youthful appearance compared to his age (56-years-old when Fallout was released).

[148] Purse acknowledges Cruise's access to advanced health regimens inaccessible to the average person but emphasizes his performances, defying aging stereotypes by showcasing dynamic physical prowess.

[154][155][156] They emphasized the contemporary challenges to journalistic integrity, including political criticisms, organized misinformation, declining public trust, and the struggle to discern truth from fiction.

Incorporating real news figures like Wolf Blitzer in a Hollywood action film adds an element of realism but also sparks ethical concerns, potentially risking damage to journalistic credibility.