Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Top Gun: Maverick” earned Tom Cruise credit for saving the theatrical experience last summer. Now, as blockbusters like “The Flash” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” are underperforming, one of our last true movie stars returns can he save Hollywood again? I hope so because “Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One” is a blast. Once again, Cruise, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie and their team have made a deceptively simple thriller a movie that bounces good guys, bad guys and those in between off each other for 163 minutes (an admittedly audacious running time for a film with “Part One” in the title that somehow doesn’t feel long). Some of the overcooked dialogue about what this mission means gets repetitive, but then McQuarrie will stage an action sequence that’s stunningly conceived or executed or both that makes all the spy-speak tolerable. Right now, Hollywood is having an existential crisis about its very existence. Leave it to Ethan Hunt to accept the mission.
Although this series basically rebooted itself in its fourth chapter with a significant change in tone and style, ”Mission: Impossible 7″ cleverly ties back to Brian De Palma’s original more than any other sequel since then even more than “Fallout.” It’s not an origin story by any means, but it has that kind of tenor to it this is a darker “Casino Royale,” where we unpack everything we know about Ethan Hunt. Here’s where he grew up, here’s why he loves martinis; here’s what happened to his parents; etcetera. In fact, much of “Dead Reckoning Part One” is really just Ethan Hunt trying to reconcile how he got here (and each step recalls De Palma’s film). Fraser Taggart’s cinematography even shoots people from sweaty low angles, making them look like they did in the first movie how Ethan Hunt became an agent and the price he’s been paying from the beginning.
But it’s not just about flashing back. “Dead Reckoning” brings back former IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) into Ethan’s life with a new mission. There is essentially a rogue A.I. in the world that superpowers are battling to control, we’re told, which can be manipulated with a key split into two halves. One of those halves is about to be sold on the black market, so Ethan and his team (which includes returning characters Luther and Benji have to intercept not only the key but what it does. The key only matters if IMF can figure out where and how to use it.
“Dead Reckoning Part One” begins with a shootout in the desert that brings Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) back into the series. The first major set piece takes place in the Dubai airport, where Hunt discovers there are other players in this chess game of espionage, including Gabriel (Esai Morales), a morally corrupt mercenary who is essentially behind Hunt becoming an agent in the first place. Gabriel is a chaos agent someone who wants not only to see the world burn but hopes the fire causes as much pain as possible. In many ways, Gabriel is the inverse of Ethan, whose weakness has always been his empathy and personal connections Gabriel has none of those, and he’s essentially working for the A.I., trying to get the key so no one can control it.
At the airport, Ethan also runs into a pickpocket named Grace (Hayley Atwell), who gets stuck in all this world changing insanity along with a couple agents trying to track down rogue Ethan and played by the wonderfully exasperated Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis. A silent assassin, memorably sketched by Pom Klementieff, is also crucial to a couple action scenes. And Vanessa Kirby returns as arms dealer White Widow, and if this ensemble has any weakness it’s that Kirby gives something of a lost performance here she’s just never quite been able to convey “power player” in these films as she should.
But people aren’t here for White Widow’s backstory. They want to see Tom Cruise run. The image most people associate with “Mission: Impossible” probably still remains Mr. Cruise stretching those legs and swinging those arms. He does that more than once here, but it feels like that image’s momentum was what drove this entire movie artistically. “Dead Reckoning Part One” prioritizes movement trains, cars, Ethan’s legs. It’s an action film about speed and urgency, something that has been so lost in the era of CGI’s diminished stakes. Runaway trains will always have more inherent visceral power than waves of animated bad guys, and McQuarrie knows how to use it sparingly here to make an action film that feels both modern and old-fashioned at once. These movies don’t over-rely on CGI, ensuring we know it’s really Mr. Cruise jumping off that motorcycle. When punches connect, bodies fly and cars crash into each other we feel it instead of just passively watching it. The action here is so well-choreographed that only “John Wick: Chapter 4” compares for the best in the genre this year.
Thematically, it’s also interesting to think about a movie star fighting A.I. and questioning why his job exists at all. Blockbusters have always been cautionary tales of technology run amok, but consider the meta nature of a spy film where a sentient computer could end the world through espionage and stars an actor who’s dealt with his fair share of deepfake controversies. There’s also some real bite to this plot in terms of the guy’s years that plays into Cruise’s age as Ethan is made to face what he cares about when it comes to his decidedly unorthodox work life balance; indeed, such an interpretation would mirror what someone like Tom must confront toward the tail end of any action packed string that has gone far longer than even most optimists could’ve hoped for. I’m not sure if Cruise meant for that reading though I bet he did but it definitely adds another dimension to things.
But let me tell you: “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is so much fun. It breezes by and boasts more than enough standout set-pieces for several franchises. Will Cruise save blockbusters again? Perhaps. And maybe he’ll do it next summer as well.
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