It's not a proper summer movie season without at least one film where Tom Cruise risks life and limb while saving the world. In 2015, Cruise reprises as Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt for the fifth time, with Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, and his Jack Reacher writer/director (and Edge of Tomorrow co-writer) Christopher McQuarrie calling the shots, for this year's offering of Cruise action.

Rogue Nation introduces "The Syndicate", an extremely secretive criminal organization that - in the Mission: Impossible film universe - is dedicated to taking down the IMF (thus sabotaging its efforts to maintain global security). The Syndicate's efforts seem to be working too, as Rogue Nation finds Ethan and his trusted IMF co-workers forced to (you guessed it) go rogue, when the IMF comes under attack from the CIA and Alec Baldwin's character, based on the claim that The Syndicate isn't real - and that it's people like Ethan and Co. who are the real obstacle to improving relations between the countries of the world.

Paramount Pictures has now unveiled the international trailer (or "Payoff" trailer as the studio's calling it) for Rogue Nation, and the clip in question remixes the U.S. preview material with related, but at the same time previously-unreleased footage. The main focal points of the film's marketing (of course) remain the action sequences and set pieces where Cruise himself stares death in the face, whether it's catching a ride on the outside of a cargo plane or holding his breath underwater long enough for the Hunt character to (understandably) be a little loopy right afterwards.

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

One element that McQuarrie - who co-wrote the Rogue Nation script in addition to directing - has carried over from Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (which reportedly got an uncredited rewrite by McQuarrie) is the use of humor to balance Cruise's more ridiculous stunts on this franchise. Similarly, it appears McQuarrie and his production team have put together several action sequences for Rogue Nation that play out as variations on those in past Mission: Impossible films (motorcycle chases, stunts involving extreme heights), but are well-executed and different enough to work on their own terms, here.

The Rogue Nation cast includes Mission: Impossible staples Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, with Jeremy Renner reprising from Ghost Protocol and Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen) filling the token female agent role that Paula Patton handled in Ghost Protocol. Indeed, McQuarrie's installment probably won't break the mold for this daredevil espionage action-driven movie franchise, but this looks to be a fun bit of goofy summer escapism - and really, isn't that what you want from your summer helping of Tom Cruise's day-saving antics?

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation opens in U.S. theaters on July 31st, 2015.

Source: Paramount Pictures