IN WHICH OUR HERO… On a motorcycle, is pursued by a guy also riding a motorcycle
SETTING UP THE SCENE: IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise)—hoping to prevent a deadly virus from spreading in Australia—faces off against a turncoat agent (Dougray Scott) on the cliffs overlooking Sydney…
WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Director John Woo stages action scenes with operatic undertones that—more often than not—are both goofy and intensely thrilling.
BEST PART: Cruise and Scott, facing off and charging each other like jousting knights—and both leaping from their bikes to meet in a crazy mid-air collision (2:00)
OTHER GREAT CHASES LIKE THIS ONE: Carrie Moss on a Ducati in The Matrix Reloaded. Steve McQueen evading Nazis in The Great Escape. And Edward Furlong pursued by the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzIQg6Ly_Rw]