Since the “Mission: Impossible” film series is one of the few modern action franchises I haven't kept up with, “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” offered me a unique opportunity to conduct an experiment: Would I be able to follow the latest installment without having seen any of the preceding films?

Of course, I saw the first “Mission: Impossible” film, which marked Tom Cruise's debut as Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt, and while I didn't care for it at the time, the cleverness of its plot twists grew on me, as did its effective use of impressive acting talents such as Jon Voight, Jean Reno and Vanessa Redgrave.

From trailers and online clips of the intervening films, I'd gathered that Simon Pegg and Alec Baldwin had joined Ving Rhames as Cruise's recurring allies in the sequels that followed.

But I hadn't known that Ethan Hunt had married (and later divorced) a civilian nurse played by Michelle Monaghan in “Mission: Impossible III,” or teamed up with a former MI6 agent named Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) in “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.”

Fortunately, “Fallout” does a brisk job of getting casual viewers caught up on both of Ethan's former loves, as well as on the backstory of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), a former IMF agent turned anarchist terrorist, also last seen in “Rogue Nation.”

Which is a good thing because all three characters figure heavily into the plot of “Fallout,” in which Ethan and his IMF teammates have to recover the plutonium they lost on a mission gone wrong, to avert the sort of global catastrophe that's the standard threat in these sorts of films.

Like the two TV shows that preceded it in bearing the “Mission: Impossible” brand name, “Fallout” featured some fun and inventive double- and triple-crosses, but also brings plenty of 21st Century-level fight scenes and action sequences for audiences accustomed to the explosive robustness of “The Fast and the Furious” films.

Tom Cruise is an onscreen performer with a tremendous capacity as an actor, and critics such as myself have lamented he doesn't live up to that potential more often, but what struck me about “Fallout” is that Cruise, at 56 years old, has arguably become one of Hollywood's most impressive stuntmen, since he again did all his own stunts in this film, including the parachute jump from 25,000 feet.

Indeed, the only other big-name actor who currently comes close is his generational cohort, 53-year-old Keanu “John Wick” Reeves.

Cruise is joined this time by “Superman” actor Henry Cavill as CIA assassin August Walker, who makes for a surprisingly satisfying adversary simply by growing a tweedy mustache and slipping into beast mode, as well as by Vanessa Kirby as a chillingly sociopathic black market arms dealer nicknamed “the White Widow,” whose connection to the very first “Mission: Impossible” film nearly made me laugh out loud.

(Here's a hint: When she mentions her mother, which character in the first film talked about paradoxes?)

With all this, plus Angela Bassett in what promises to be a recurring role in the future sequels, “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” is a nifty little thrill-ride.