After saving movie theaters last summer with Top Gun: Maverick, a movie that is fine but which felt like a masterpiece by starring actual human beings in actual locations, Tom Cruise is back with the long-awaited and long delayed seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible series. Dead Reckoning Part One is less a successor to Fallout than to the original De Palma film, with many parallels that make this feel like Ethan Hunt’s story is coming full circle. You can see the seams stretching and nearly coming undone, but the excellent supporting cast and relentless action more than makes up for any weaknesses. Tom knows what we’re here to see, and he delivers.
Living manifestation of destiny Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team are tasked with a new mission, facing a foe perhaps more dangerous than anything they’ve ever seen. A nearly-undetectable algorithm is infiltrating every government on earth, doing nothing but leave evidence it has been there. It could be capable of anything, and its shepherd Gabriel (Esai Morales) has a mysterious connection to Hunt. The Impossible Mission Force not only has to deal with Gabriel and his bloodthirsty accomplice Paris (Pom Klementieff), but a dogged agent (Shea Whigham) tasked with capturing Ethan for the US government. Of course, this is a Mission: Impossible movie, so things only get more complicated and dangerous as it finds new ways to throw Tom Cruise off a cliff. We also get a new tenuous ally in the form of Grace (Hayley Atwell), a talented thief that crosses paths with Ethan. Atwell fits the world perfectly, effortlessly going toe-to-toe with Cruise in some of the most dangerous looking stunts, including a car chase where the pair are handcuffed together and hurtling through Rome.
Just like the actual mission, Dead Reckoning feels like it could fall apart at any moment, and the thrill comes from watching Tom and company keep the fun going. Renting out an airport? How about there’s a bomb that can only be deactivated by a puzzle, while a master thief manages to take the key you need? Really want Ethan to have to jump off a cliff on a motorcycle? I’m sure there’s a pretty good reason for that. Got a train you want to fly off an exploding bridge? That’s the climax, let’s get the script going and fill in the blanks! Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson know exactly how this works and keep finding new ways to surprise and entertain.
Fallout remains the high watermark of the series, but I found the stakes of Dead Reckoning even more compelling. Tom Cruise has been clear how much he hates “the algorithm” and its effect on the moviemaking industry along with clueless executives who think his star-based box office dominance is a thing of the past. I know this is the seventh in a series that has been going since 1996, but it is still a Tom Cruise movie. He is the face of the film and he’s doing his own stunts. He knows a computer can’t replicate his ambitions and make them feel real. The algorithm is portrayed as a black hole, absorbing truth and knowledge but learning nothing. Esai Morales captures the godlessness of this thing in his merciless fanatical performance, bringing Hunt to his knees for a divine purpose.
Despite this being a “Part One,” it still feels like a complete story. Not everything is resolved, of course, but it didn’t end mid-climax like Fast X or with a shocking twist like Spider-Verse. Dead Reckoning Part Two is the only follow-up I believe exists and will open next year. The Fast X follow-up could fall apart before it even films, and who knows how long the animation for Beyond the Spider-Verse will actually take. But I believe in Tom and his quest to save the movies, especially when it involves a submarine.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
2023
dir. Christopher McQuarrie
163 min
In theaters everywhere Wed 7/12
