Those cartoonish aspects are riotously reinforced, though, in a climactic train sequence that’s as much a straightforward action showstopper as it is a tribute to Buster Keaton’s The General , with Ethan and others frantically attempting to reckon with a runaway locomotive careens toward a ravine.
Once the train gets going, we see how everything gets set up to build for the moment where McQuarrie and Cruise get to a climactic moment that pays homage to Buster Keaton’s “The General,” but with a modern twist.
After that, the narrative doesn’t reach that same high tension, though action fans will surely lap up two exceptional extended set-pieces—an elaborate car chase through Rome and a pulsating Orient Express finale that cinephiles with a good knowledge of film history would surely cite The General (1926) as ‘inspiration’.
A climactic train sequence even calls The General to mind.