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Clearly, we are screwed. “The end you always feared is coming,” a doomy voice intones, amid references to AI and nuclear stockpiles. “The world is changing. Truth is vanishing.” War is next, we are assured. Welcome to Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. What sort of escapist night out is this, you may well ask?
很明显，我们完蛋了。“你一直害怕的结局正在到来，”一个充满末日感的声音低声说道，背景中还提到了人工智能和核武库。“世界正在改变，真相正在消失。”接下来就是战争，我们被这样告知。欢迎来到《碟中谍：最终清算》。你可能会问，这样的电影之夜还能算是逃避现实吗？
And yet, in the next moment, your big screen will fill with the leviathan face of Tom Cruise. Technically, yes, it is rogue secret agent Ethan Hunt. But come on. We all know who that earnest squint really belongs to, under the hair luxuriant enough to get a mention in the script. And breathe.
然而，下一刻，你的大屏幕上就会出现汤姆•克鲁斯那张巨大的脸。严格来说，没错，他饰演的是“叛逆”特工伊森•亨特。但说真的，我们都知道那副真挚的眯眼神情到底属于谁——尤其是那一头浓密得连剧本都要提一笔的头发。深呼吸。
As per the title, the movie is billed as the very last hurrah for Cruise as Hunt, after three decades of acrobatic do-gooding. It is also the second half of a two-part grand finale. (Opener Dead Reckoning Part One came out in 2023.) No small refresher course is needed to get the plot back up and running. Hack through the thickets of exposition, and the story comes down to a world-ending threat from that aforementioned AI.
正如片名所示，这部电影被宣传为克鲁斯饰演亨特的最后一次亮相，三十年来他一直以高难度动作拯救世界。这也是两部曲大结局的下半部分（《最终清算》的上部已于2023年上映）。要重新进入剧情，确实需要一番回顾。穿过繁复的背景介绍，故事的核心其实就是前文提到的人工智能带来的世界末日威胁。
Avoiding spoilers, the rest may involve a long-lost Russian submarine, that might in turn host one of the deranged action scenes that have become a hallmark of the franchise, performed by Cruise without stunt doubles. Another could feature biplanes and high altitude daredevilry. Who can say?
为了避免剧透，接下来的情节可能会涉及一艘失踪已久的俄罗斯潜艇，这艘潜艇或许会成为该系列标志性的疯狂动作场面的舞台，由克鲁斯亲自上阵，无需替身。另一场戏则可能出现双翼飞机和高空特技。谁又能说得准呢？
We shouldn’t be blasé. Cruise risking his own neck is only one reason the series has become a gold standard for modern action movies. Long-term director Christopher McQuarrie also renders them models of blockbuster choreography, working in tandem at vast and close-up scale.
我们不应忽视其他人的贡献。克鲁斯亲自冒险只是该系列成为现代动作片黄金标准的原因之一。长期担任导演的克里斯托弗•麦奎里(Christopher McQuarrie)也让这些电影成为大片动作编排的典范，无论是宏大场面还是近距离镜头，他都能与团队默契配合。
It does also feel like the most playful ideas were all used up in the first half of this long goodbye, whose flights of fancy included a tiny, custard-yellow Fiat causing absurdist mayhem in Rome. (It also helped that back then, that Hunt hadn’t yet actually worked out what was going on, eliminating the need to verbally bullet point.)
确实让人觉得，这场漫长告别的前半部分已经用尽了最有趣的创意，其中包括一辆奶油黄色的小菲亚特在罗马制造的荒诞混乱。（当时，亨特还没有真正搞清楚发生了什么，因此也不需要口头点题。）
This time round, everything is simply less fun. Callbacks to Missions past hint at elegy. But another clue to the uptight mood might be the reported $400mn budget: the kind of money that makes anyone tense. The last thing the movie needs is more explanation, but it might account for a story that feels simultaneously worried-over and oddly slapdash. (As far as I can tell, the whole thing ends up hinged on a plot device cribbed from Superman II.)
这一次，一切都变得不那么有趣了。对过去任务的回溯暗示着哀伤。而让气氛变得紧张的另一个线索，或许是据说高达4亿美元的预算——这种钱让任何人都感到紧张。这部电影最不需要的就是更多的解释，但这也可能是故事让人感觉既忧心忡忡又奇怪草率的原因。（据我所知，整个故事最后都围绕着一个从《超人2》中借鉴的情节展开。）
Still, there is real wit to a scene of Ethan setting about goons with knives and hammers. Played out entirely through the wincing expressions of co-star Hayley Atwell, it makes a self-aware riff on Cruise’s image as the kind of action man who may leave behind a pile of bodies, but is rarely seen with blood on his hands.
不过，有一幕伊森用刀和锤子对付打手的场景，确实展现了巧妙的幽默。这一幕完全通过联合主演海莉•阿特维尔皱眉痛苦的表情来呈现，巧妙地自嘲了克鲁斯的银幕形象——他虽然总能留下满地尸体，却很少被看到手上沾血。
The sequence is also one of several to feature him shirtless, 62-year-old pectorals bared for the camera. How much self-awareness is involved in that? Again, who knows.
这一幕也是他多次赤裸上身、62岁的胸肌在镜头前展露无遗的场景之一。这样做有多少自我意识在其中？谁又能说得清呢。
You might ask yourself the same question in the many scenes where characters remark to each other, or sometimes Cruise directly, that he — sorry, Ethan — is the only man who can save them, and the Earth. Frankly, the effect is North Korean. The messianic bit gets tiring. Off-screen, you wonder what it must have been like for Cruise to be thanked by Steven Spielberg — among many others — for personally rescuing Hollywood with the post-Covid triumph of Top Gun: Maverick.
在许多场景中，角色们彼此，或有时直接对克鲁斯说，他——抱歉，是伊森——是唯一能拯救他们和地球的人，你或许也会问自己同样的问题。坦率地说，这种效果让人有些朝鲜式的感觉。救世主情结让人感到疲惫。银幕之外，你会想象克鲁斯被史蒂文•斯皮尔伯格(Steven Spielberg)等许多人感谢，感谢他凭借《壮志凌云2：独行侠》在新冠疫情后亲自拯救了好莱坞，那会是怎样的场面。
Truth be told, though, the last Mission: Impossible was a box office squib by comparison. (Though I gave it five stars, which I’m sure was ample compensation to the producers.) Now, two years later, a plot centred on the threat of AI feels less prescient than self-evident. That also doesn’t make the movie more fun.
And yet the way Cruise and McQuarrie approach the future feels weirdly old world. The tone recalls the 1990s moment when Hollywood first fretted about online life in movies such as The Net and Hackers. (The word “cyberspace” can’t have been used so much this side of the millennium.) Cruise’s very first outing as Ethan Hunt dates back to 1996, but amid the knowing nods to the origin of the series, you sense a still deeper nostalgia. Beyond the floppy disks and VHS tapes, references to a world free of “nations or ideologies” would gladden Francis Fukuyama, the political scientist who famously declared the ’90s “the end of history”.
然而，克鲁斯和麦奎里对未来的处理方式却带有一种奇异的旧世界色彩。这种基调让人回想起上世纪90年代，好莱坞在《网络奇兵》和《黑客帝国》等电影中首次对网络生活感到担忧的时刻。克鲁斯首次饰演伊森•亨特可以追溯到1996年，但在对系列起源的种种致敬中，你会感受到一种更深层的怀旧情绪。除了软盘和VHS录像带之外，对一个“没有国家或意识形态”的世界的描绘，也会让那位著名宣称90年代是“历史终结”的政治学家弗朗西斯•福山(Francis Fukuyama)感到欣慰。
Of course, it was also an era when a driven young movie star could revive a dusty old TV show as a long-term big screen project, in a medium with an unquestioned place at the centre of culture. It was indeed a nice time to be alive. Now, we can only bid farewell to Ethan Hunt — and wonder what AI will make of this $400mn slab of training content.
当然，那也是一个充满干劲的年轻电影明星能够把一部尘封的老电视剧复活为长期大银幕项目的时代，而电影作为媒介在文化中心的地位毋庸置疑。那的确是一个美好的时代。如今，我们只能向伊森•亨特告别——并且好奇人工智能会如何看待这部价值4亿美元的训练内容。
In cinemas in the UK from May 21 and in the US from May 23
5月21日起在英国影院上映，5月23日起在美国影院上映