A Reel Review: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

One of the biggest challenges for the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE franchise, now in its 57^th year, is how to stay relevant in today’s technology-driven world. After all, this was all based on a TV show where rubber masks and exploding tape recorders were its calling cards. Since its big-screen debut in 1996, the series has found many ways to avoid being dated, and here in 2023, director Christopher McQuarrie and producer/star Tom Cruise take their biggest leap yet with DEAD RECKONING PART ONE. 

Ethan Hunt (Cruise), agent for the IMF (Impossible Mission Force), is assigned to track down the two halves of a key which can disable a powerful Artificial Intelligence program (called the Entity), which has reached sentience and is a threat to every government in the world. 

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie and the 7^th film in the franchise, DEAD RECKONING quickly begins as a globe-trotting chase with Hunt on the (ahem), hunt for the two halves of the key. Things get complicated quickly when he finds himself once again disavowed by his own agency, has one-half of the key stolen by a pickpocket named Grace (Hayley Atwell), crosses paths with an old foe (Esai Morales), and finds himself hunted by a deadly assassin (Pom Klementieff). All this while the Entity has the ability to hack into every piece of tech Hunt and his team (Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg), rely on to complete their mission. 

The film is loaded with misdirection and twists and turns, all of which work extremely well. The film also focuses on the moral quandaries of Ethan, his team, and Grace. Grace is in the game for the money and often wrestles with the choice of cash over honor, while Ethan, who has a personal grudge against his old foe, has to choose between the mission and revenge. It’s a solid theme, and gives DEAD RECKONING a lot to work with. 

Working overtime here is McQuarrie and Cruise in the outstanding action sequences, ranging from fistfights, gunfights, knife fights, car chases, train chases, and foot chases…taking place in airports, city streets, trains, mountainsides, cliffsides, and inside top security locations. The tension (and fun) is up to the max with many sequences having more than one thing going on, and just when we think one action sequence is headed for the door, something else happens to take it a few steps more. Much has been made of Tom Cruise doing his own stunts in the last few films, with a stunning motorcycle jump off a cliff a highlight here. That highly publicized jump is just the tip of the ‘berg…as the film is relentless in dishing out the spectacle. McQuarrie keeps things tight as the film rockets along and doesn’t feel like its hefty 163 minutes. The score by Lorne Balfe is excellent. 

Tom Cruise is a powerhouse here but isn’t afraid to show some vulnerability. He knows that his Ethan character has been in the spy game for 30 years, and there are subtle moments showing that Ethan has become world-weary. Hayley Atwell steals the show as a pro thief who is in over her head in this world-wide game of espionage. The rest of the cast is excellent: Esai Morales, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Cary Elwes, Pom Klementieff, and Henry Czerny. 

Ten years ago, DEAD RECKONING could have been lumped into a sci-fi category with its increasingly evil AI ready to take over the world’s technology. Today, it seems like we are just days away from that actually happening, which makes this 7^th MISSION IMPOSSIBLE film hit home hard. That, and the action and character moments are the best in the half-century old franchise. DEAD RECKONING PART ONE is a pure adrenaline blast of entertainment that will have us more than ready for PART TWO next year. 

BOTTOM LINE: See it