Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Writers: Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen
Cast: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Cary Elwes, Henry Czerny, Esai Morales

Five years after Mission: Impossible – Fallout and two years after its original release date (thanks, Covid), we finally have Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the beginning of the end of the popular Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible movie franchise that has proven incredibly successful over the years. Not all the instalments have been stellar productions, in fact the quality has had quite a range, but there’s almost always been plenty of action balanced nicely with strong plots, at least for the later movies. Does Dead Reckoning Part One (DRP1) continue that trend, as well as lead us successfully toward Ethan Hunt’s swan song, or has the franchise jumped its last cliff sans parachute?

Following on from Fallout, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is once again tasked with a mission, should he choose to accept it, that will involve coming up against one of his most dangerous adversaries yet: The Entity, an AI program that has all but gone rogue. Many governments across the globe want to take control of The Entity in order to become the greatest power on Earth. Hunt must find two parts of a key that connect to unlock the source code of The Entity: one is in the possession of MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Ferguson), and the other is making its way to be sold by Alanna Mitsopolis, aka the White Widow (Kirby), via a thief named Grace (Atwell), to an unknown buyer. Hunt, of course, decides that the whole thing should be destroyed to prevent anybody from wielding such power. Thus, Hunt is pursued by governments and mercenaries alike while continually being tricked by The Entity left, right and centre. At least he still has his core team of Benji (Pegg) and Luther (Rhames) looking out for him. But will it be enough?

First off, how great is it that McQuarrie and Cruise have continued their partnership in making the M:I movies… that’s a rhetorical question, because history has proven that together they are a good formula for producing satisfying cinematic results. We have however lost any involvement from J.J. Abrams, who has been a part of the franchise in one way or another since directing 2006’s M:I III. DRP1 keeps the momentum of the franchise going strong, with very cool stunts (most of which were, of course, performed by Cruise a multitude of times…) and a super intricate storyline that reflects very real worries in this day and age, that being a rogue AI program that threatens the human race and the potential for power-hungry world leaders taking full control. It’s an angle that works well for an M:I movie, as gadgets and technology have always been an integral and essential part of how Hunt and his team work. To have all that compromised in their biggest challenge yet makes for a thrilling plot.

Where this movie falls short of Fallout’s success is in the balance between action and story/dialogue. The stunts were fewer and further between in this movie, leaving long gaps that were filled with a good storyline but too dialogue-heavy, particularly in exposition and long-winded explanations of just what the hell is going on. It verged on being too heavy on the story and teetered on being confusing, much in the same unfortunate vein of the first M:I from 1996. It doesn’t go quite that bad, thankfully, but it came close. I found myself zoning out at times and begging to see more interspersed shots of Cruise jumping or flying or anything. We have just enough to keep us happy and knowing that this is an M:I movie, but it definitely left me wanting more. On the other hand, there seemed to be a bigger shot of comedy in this movie, which was interlaced with some of the action sequences rather than leaving it all for Pegg to be the oft-sought comic relief.

There’s not much to say about Cruise’s performance that won’t already be known. He was as committed as ever to the challenges set forth in this movie, conducting every stunt fantastically and continuing to smash it, proving that age doesn’t mean a damn thing. His portrayal of Ethan Hunt is exactly the character we have always known, always determined to do the right thing and loyal to those loyal to him, though to a fault at times. He also manages to work in more comedic moments for Hunt than perhaps we’ve seen before, and it definitely works to lighten the character a little. Pegg and Rhames round out the team magnificently and have their own duo going on that serve well as some comic relief but also an outsider POV on Hunt and his antics. Ferguson’s Ilsa continues to be a likable female sidekick, and it’s been nice to have her as the franchise’s first real continuous female character. Atwell enters the fray as Grace, and though Atwell puts in a good performance, so far the character lacks any individual qualities: she’s too reminiscent of all females Hunt has come in to contact with and doesn’t particularly stand out, currently. There’s hope this’ll be rectified in Part Two, as perhaps Part One was a mere setup for what Grace is really capable of. Kirby’s Alanna is more of the same of we saw in Fallout, pretty much in this movie for the same reasons she was in the last, but her presence wasn’t for the sake of it; Alanna was a necessary cog in the DRP1 machine. Morales makes for quite a formidable foe in his character Gabriel, but we’re yet to really see the full extent of this character as a true nemesis for Hunt.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One makes for a decent entry to the Mission: Impossible franchise and as the penultimate film. Some new characters have been setup (though some are lacking, so hopefully we’ll see them rounded-out in Part Two), the story is a big one that I hope will have an explosive conclusion, and we know we’ll have McQuarrie back to finish the franchise for us. I can only hope it gives us everything we love from an M:I movie, namely the balancing of the stunt work and action with the story and dialogue. It could be that they decided to get the story stuff out of the way in Part One to make way for bigger and better stunts and action in Part Two, but we won’t know until June 2024. What will Ethan Hunt’s ultimate fate be? Death? Retirement? Something a little more solid than what John Wick or Indiana Jones have had lately? It won’t be long before we find out.

Check out this video here to see Tom Cruise being insane in the making of the bike/cliff stunt you can see in the movie’s trailer.