MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-DEAD RECKONING PART ONE (2023)
Tom Cruise Continues to Run on Full Steam, and So Does This Franchise
Grade: A
The Mission: Impossible spy series exists largely to show Tom Cruise doing increasingly outrageous and death-defying stunts while racing to save the world from some devastating threat. The situation often involves a McGuffin, such as a list or nuclear codes, and ends with a one-on-one confrontation between the villain and Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt, a member of the Impossible Missions Force. Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One continues this trend with a long but outrageously entertaining story which unites new characters with old and places them in several well-staged action sequences.
It is rather bizarre that the film should come out smack dab in the middle of the SAG-AFTRA strike, considering the antagonist of the film is an Artificial Intelligence. The riveting opening scene shows how this A.I., known as the Entity, goes rogue and engineers the sinking of a Russian submarine in the Arctic Circle. A conversation between several high-ranking intelligence officials reveals that the Entity is all-powerful; it can rewrite anything it wants on the Web, and it wants people to know it exists and is coming back.
Ethan Hunt learns that this Entity can only be controlled by two pieces of a key-and every nation on the planet is trying to get ahold of it. Ethan teams up with his friends, Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) to find the key so they can destroy the Entity. Their mission brings them into contact with a skilled thief named Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Gabriel (Esai Morales), a terrorist who serves the Entity and has a connection to Ethan’s past.
One of the triumphs of the series is making its characters three-dimensional beings instead of generic action cliches. There is great camaraderie and chemistry between the characters as Ethan struggles to keep everyone around him safe from the Entity’s wrath. Two standout performances go to Rhames and Atwell. While talking to Ethan, Luther urgently reminds him that Gabriel must not be killed, despite his evil deeds, since he alone knows how the key works. Grace falls into the typical mold of a rogue criminal who becomes devoted to the heroes’ cause, but Atwell sells this story thread splendidly; she ultimately emerges as a secondary protagonist. Then there’s Pom Klementieff as a henchwoman who seems to love destroying everything in her path with an armored vehicle, lending a wonderfully cartoonish tone to the proceedings.
The film is co-written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who had also helmed the previous two movies in the franchise. As before, McQuarrie creates a sense of exhilarating urgency to permeate the action scenes, as Ethan and his team alternatively pursue and are pursued by their enemies throughout the streets of Rome, the alleys of Venice, and the Austrian Alps. There are many great moments, including a destructive car chase in Rome, but the best sequence comes at the climax. Without giving too much away, it involves a motorcycle jump off a high ledge, a duel atop the Orient Express (which this reviewer didn’t even know was still in service), and a scramble to escape before the train plunges into a river. The whole sequence lasts for a good while; McQuarrie and Cruise are determined to squeeze as much tension as possible out of the film, and they definitely succeed here.
Unlike the recent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Dead Reckoning Part One is kind enough not to end on a cliffhanger, leaving audiences waiting for a sequel that may take years to arrive. Instead, it concludes on a definitive note while setting up an inevitable final confrontation with the Entity. Although the film may have underperformed (it premiered one week before Barbie and Oppenheimer), Dead Reckoning still has a sequel coming next year, and it promises to be just as spectacular. Cruise has stated in interviews that he wants to keep playing Ethan Hunt into his eighties; as long as the movies are able to maintain their winning streak, this reviewer has no objections.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen (Based on Mission: Impossible created by Bruce Geller)
Producers: Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie
Cast: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Hayley Atwell (Grace), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust), Vanessa Redgrave (Alanna Mitsopolis), Esai Morales (Gabriel), Pom Klementieff (Paris), Henry Czerny (Eugene Kittridge), Shea Wingham (Jasper Briggs), Greg Tarzan Davis (Degas), Cary Elwes (Denlinger)
Rated: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and action, some language and suggestive material)
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