Spoiler alert: this post is mostly about the very end of the new Mission: Impossible film, Dead Reckoning: Part one. Don’t read on until you have seen that, or you will be very angry with me.

I have written here before about how the stunt movie and the art of silent slapstick intersect – the inspiration that time was John Wick, with its old-school fight choreography. New in the cinemas this week is the latest film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, starring Tom Cruise, a man who has long insisted that he does all his own stunts, just like a latterday silent star.