Yes, Tom Cruise runs. Very fast. Even at one point when he is in London and could probably get there faster in a cab, though for some reason there are no cars anywhere as he races across Westminster Bridge. He also does that mask thing where the disguise is so good that no one can tell it is him until he dramatically lifts the prosthetics from his head. And he attends a black tie gala. This is all in the first 15 minutes or so.

Thus, we are able to get what we came for and get on with the new stuff, which also includes running and fight scenes, sometimes shirtless, blue wire/red wire bomb defusing decisions under extreme time pressure, Ethan Hunt telling everyone to just trust him, several people telling him that he is the only one who can save the world (“although you never followed orders, you never let us down”), recaps of the previous films with some reckoning and a bit of retconning, a very welcome return of a character from the first Cruise “Mission Impossible” in 1996, vastly over-qualified actors in near-cameos, and, of course, absolutely bananas but very exciting action scenes, one under water, one in the air. In other words, like Ethan Hunt himself, they understood the assignment.

You don’t need to remember much or even have seen part one because (a) they tell you what happened and (b) it doesn’t matter because all you need to know is that they need to get The Thing (and the things you need to disarm The Thing) or it will be very bad for the everyone on the planet.

The MacGuffin is an AI that is getting ready to destroy all of humanity, close to gaining control of every nuclear weapon in the world. This is of great concern to the US President (Angela Bassett) and to those who think they can take control of it and therefore of everything. The primary villain in this category is Gabriel (Esai Morales), but like The Ring in the LoTR films, the AI known as The Entity is so powerful that even honorable people can be seduced away from destroying it and into wanting it for themselves. It is a “truth-eating parasite processing our deepest personal secrets” that “knows precisely how to undermine our every strength and exploit our every weakness.” Time for only the purest of heart and the fastest of running men to save the day.

Like Harry Potter and the horcruxes or a character in a video game, stopping the Entity requires going to many places to obtain different items and perform various tasks. These mini-MacGuffins include the source code for the AI, which is in a sunken Russian submarine and the “pill” to shut it down, created by Ethan’s teammate Luther (Ving Rhames) and stolen by Gabriel, a variation on “Independence Day’s” virus uploaded to an alien operating system.

Thankfully, a lot of the communication between Ethan and his team is meaningful looks. The dialogue can get heavy-handed. There is not much of it, though, because everyone knows why we’re here, and it is not witty remarks. (One funny line relates to The Entity’s appeal to viral conspiracy types.)

There’s a big build-up to how dangerous and difficult the dive to the Russian submarine is and the high probability that it won’t work and Ethan will die, but hey, the name of the series isn’t “Mission Possible.” As with the last episode’s train scene, still to my mind the best action scene in the series, the submarine scene makes very good use of shifting weight and huge, heavy things that have to be ducked. After making it very clear that the only thing keeping Ethan alive at that depth and temperature is the super-high-tech diving suit, he has to shed it, so we see him swim around in his boxers.

The showstopper is an arial battle between two colorful biplanes, one red, one yellow. At this point, the film is cutting back and forth between four or five desperately high-pressure situations, but it is the planes that will forever show up in film school and highlight reels.

If you remember anything about the first film, it is most likely the hanging from the ceiling heist at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. There was a humorous button on that scene of a confused CIA employee entering the room just as Ethan was exiting, leaving his knife behind. That employee was immediately transferred to the most remote location under the CIA’s jurisdiction as a consequence of the theft. He is computer genius William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), married to an Inuit woman named Tapessa (Lucy Tulugarjuk), and they are the two best new characters in this installment. “Severance’s” Tramell Tillman is a delight as a US submarine captain, but Hannah Waddingham, Janet McTeer, Carey Elwes, Nick Offerman, and Mark Gatiss are not given much to do (though Waddingham’s American accent is quite good, perhaps from listening to her co-stars in four years of “Ted Lasso”). Henry Czerny returns and is just right as the frustrated head of the CIA who thinks he knows better than Ethan. I think we know who’s right on that.

I usually say that in action films, everything depends on the villain. In “Mission Impossible” movies, everything depends on the stunts, the “Fast and Furious”-style found family of the team, and the unquenchable charisma of Tom Cruise. Fortunately, all are here. Happy summer and happy summer movies!

Parents should know that this film is non-stop action-style peril and violence with guns, chases, fights, and explosions. Characters are injured and killed. There is some strong language.

Family discussion: Movie villains often reflect contemporary controversies. What does this movie tell us about the possible outcome of our current decisions? Why did the President change her mind? What are Ethan’s regrets? People trust Ethan for different reasons. How many did we see?

If you like this, try: the other “Mission Impossible” movies