Mission Impossible—Fallout 4K Ultra HD

In "Mission Impossible—Fallout," Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is on a dangerous assignment to recover stolen plutonium. Ethan chooses to save his friends over the mission, allowing the plutonium to fall into the hands of a deadly network of highly skilled operatives intent on destroying civilization. Now, with the world at risk, Ethan and his IMF team (Pegg, Rhames and Ferguson) are forced to work with a hard-hitting CIA agent (Cavill) as they race against time to stop the nuclear threat. Based on the television series created by Bruce Geller. (Gary Reber)

Special features include commentary by Director Christopher McQuarrie and Actor Tom Cruise, commentary by McQuarrie and Editor Eddie Hamilton, commentary by Composer Lorne Balfe, an isolated score track, the seven-part featurette "Behind The Fallout" (HD 53:32), a deleted scenes montage with optional commentary by McQuarrie and Hamilton (HD 03:41), the Foot Chase musical breakdown (HD 04:50), "The Ultimate Mission" (HD 02:51), storyboards, theatrical trailers, a 12-page picture booklet, upfront previews, and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD HDR10/Dolby Vision picture, reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display, was photographed in anamorphic Panavision® on Kodak Vision3 film stock and digitally using the Red Wagon (6K) camera system and was sourced from a 4K master Digital Intermediate format. There was a 3D conversion by Prime Focus World but no announcement for a 3D Blu-ray Disc.

Picture quality is wonderful with a virtually non-existent film grain cinematic appearance that perfectly captures the outstanding production design created for the monumental locals of Paris, London, New Zealand, Norway and Abu Dhabi. The color palette is rich and warm with a wide color gamut that reveals subtle shadings of hues. Primaries are strong, while fleshtones are perfectly natural. HDR contrast is excellent and reveals nuanced black level shadings and shadow delineations. Peak white brightness is exhibited in the fantastic lighting design with bright lighting and specular highlights throughout, which effectively contrasts with the broad range of imagery and creates a captivating visual experience. The snow-capped mountains as the IMF team approaches Kashmir is stunning, as well as lighting design within the waterway tunnel scene. Resolution is excellent throughout, especially in the character close-ups revealing fine detail in facial features, including skin pores, beards, stubble and hair. Clothing fabrics are nicely detailed as well, as is object textures throughout. The imagery exhibits a nice spatial dimensionality. WOW! segments are numerous such as from 04:38 to 05:00, 26:12 to 27:45, 40:30 to 44:12, 59:34 to 01:00:50, 01:32:12 to 01:33:02, 01:54:03 to 01:55:45, 01:57:30 to 01:59:10, and 02:05:26 to 02:06:21. This is a spectacular visual experience that totally captivates, with numerous reference-quality segments. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack is terrifically dynamic and powerful with sound effects galore, from speeding and screeching cars and motorbikes burning rubber, to crashes, to automatic and pistol gunfire, with deep bass accentuation, to airplanes, helicopters, explosions and drones. Very powerful .1 LFE provides a visceral experience throughout. The incredibly powerful and sweepingly dynamic orchestral/choral score composed by Lorne Balfe is a main sound element with a wide and deep soundstage that extends aggressively to the four surrounds and to the height layer. The music element, which permeates throughout, alone is worth the entire experience. Foley sound effects perfectly enhance the realism of both the nuanced and strong action sequences.

The Immersive Sound element is very good. The height layer is used to aggressively extend the entire orchestral music for effectively creating a spherical surround experience. This provides an effective spherical dimensional presence. Sound effects are positioned as well throughout, including thunder and rain, a train movement above an underground roadway, electronic synthesizer sounds, swooshes, a foot landing on a glass ceiling, distant airplanes, helicopters, echo voices in an underground cavern, a church choir, a lattice elevator gate closing, heavy breathing in an elevator shaft, elevator movement, a helicopter in free fall, a helicopter chase, a helicopter distress siren and crash, and minor other sound effects. So much more could have been achieved, but given the current stage of Immersive Sound design, this is one of the better height layer treatments.

This is a full-blown holosonic® spherical surround soundtrack that delivers a dynamic spectrum of sounds, from deep sub-25 Hz bass to brilliant high frequencies that ignite the entire spatially dimensional soundfield. The soundtrack is reference quality throughout. (Gary Reber)