Dave and his daughter Mary have revived The Fansplainers banner for a new mini-series – they’re going to go through all the Mission: Impossible films in anticipation of the release of Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning on May 23.

This week they tackle the epitome of the sophomore slump, Mission Impossible II, released in 2000 – a weirdly embittered Robert Towne returns to write and Hong Kong action director John Woo joins the team hot off his big hit Face/Off.

Thandiwe Newton does the heavy lifting, playing a thief who gets dragged into interpersonal shenanigans between Tom Cruise and Dougray Scott. Ving Rhames returns as Luther and Anthony Hopkins briefly appears as a weird misogynist.

Thanks for listening!