MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Back in 1996, the words Mission: Impossible were mostly familiar because of a spy show on television from 1966 and its sequel series from 1988. The essential elements: the kickass theme song composed by Lalo Schifrin, the self-destructing briefing materials, and the Impossible Mission Force have stayed consistent since the 1960s, but the seven films starring Tom Cruise from 1996 onward have taken everything to the stratosphere. That is certainly the case with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
The mission, should they choose to accept it
When the Russian submarine Sevastopol is sunk after its own torpedoes mysteriously change course and target it, the sub’s entire crew perishes at sea, buried with a terrifying secret. IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is briefed that needs to retrieve half a key from his ally Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) in the Namibian desert. The recovery mission quickly goes sideways as bounty hunters go after both Hunt and Faust.
Hunt then infiltrates a meeting of the heads of various intelligence agencies, including IMF Director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and Director of National Intelligence Denlinger (Cary Elwes). Kittridge tells Hunt that an experimental AI originally designed to infiltrate and sabotage any digital system has gone rogue. Now called “the Entity,” the AI has infiltrated major military systems and intelligence networks, but it continues to evolve.
Convinced that the Entity is too powerful for any government to control, Hunt decides to destroy the means to control it, which lies with the key. Joining forces again with his team of Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), they travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the holder of the other half of the key. While trying to avoid agents hunting him down, Hunt loses the key to professional pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell) who flees to Rome.
Before chasing after Grace, Benji has to diffuse a bag containing a nuclear explosive while Ethan suddenly sees someone from his pre-IMF past, a ghost-like figure known as Gabriel (Esai Morales). As Hunt and Grace scramble to retrieve both parts of the key while evading law enforcement forces and Gabriel’s own plans, the stakes reach an all-time high in this globetrotting romp.
Cruise as Hunt still going strong
It’s still amazing to think that Tom Cruise was first seen with that theme song back in 1996. Over the course of 27 years, there have now been seven Mission: Impossible movies starring Cruise, and his portrayal of Ethan Hunt can be compared to long-term actor-character synergies such as Harrison Ford-Indiana Jones, Sean Connery-James Bond, and Mark Hamill-Luke Skywalker.
Like his triumphant return as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in last year’s Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise clearly knows what his audience likes seeing and gives them that in spades. Director Christopher McQuarrie, himself, has now directed his third film in the series, with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two set to finish at least this chapter in 2024.
What is perhaps most astounding is that over these past 27 years, Cruise still finds ways to come up with scenarios that thrill, exhilarate, and invigorate his audience. The opening scene in the Russian submarine shows how far special effects technology has come from the days of The Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide.
In this age of ChatGPT and artificial intelligence seemingly ever closer to gaining some sort of independent thought, the prospect of a sentient machine that can hunt you down anywhere in the world, seek out or mask your identity if it chooses, or even replicate the voices of people you know like the back of your hand, is terrifying. That is what the faceless, emotionless Entity is in this film.
While much has been said about Cruise’s obsession to do his own stunts (and there are some fantastic ones here particularly involving cars, motorcycles, a cliff, train cars, and a bridge), this film does not disappoint at all in that department. Now 61, it’s a bit amusing to see Cruise opposite a couple of actors who also went through the grinder as Hollywood heartthrobs in decades past in Morales and Elwes.
Old, familiar faces
The essential crew of Cruise, Rhames, and Pegg remain at the heart of Dead Reckoning Part One, and they’re at their best when their backs are against the wall and, in this case, when the technology that they’ve been so reliant on works against them.
Ferguson’s return to the series is another plus for continuity as her closeness to IMF team underlines the emotions that they go through near the film’s climax. The most unexpected return, though, is Czerny’s Kittridge who was last seen in the first film from 1996. Most of the audience probably thought that the character had long been fired, retired, or slain, so seeing Kittridge both briefing Hunt while hunting him and “the good guys” down was welcome after having actors like Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, and Angela Bassett as Hunt’s bosses in past films.
Even Vanessa Kirby’s Alanna Mitsopolis returns from 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and it isn’t a small role either. Her past interactions with Hunt, plus her connection to Vanessa Redgrave’s Max from the 1996 film all add additional layers to this ever-expanding IMF web that Cruise has cast.
New additions
It may be true that the older characters are always fun to see, but what keeps any long-running series like this working is the addition and assimilation of new characters. In Atwell’s Grace, we are presented with a street-smart orphan who is clearly in over her head after accepting Kirby’s proposal to steal the key.
Not a damsel in distress by any means, Grace is hardened and untrusting, even when people like Hunt are looking out for her. Her hesitation to join the IMF rings true, and the story about how she is recruited and “given The Choice” is a part of the Mission: Impossible mythos that had yet to be seen before. That, as well as Gabriel’s history with Hunt, serves as a bit of an origin story in the growth of Ethan Hunt.
Fresh off her turn as Mantis in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, Pom Klementieff foregoes the prosthetics and make-up of the alien empath to instead play a sadistic assassin this time around. Her portrayal of Paris seemed like it would be the stereotypical psycho killer for most of the film, that is until a series of events give her some surprising character development.
As the title clearly says, this seventh film is Dead Reckoning – Part One, thus joining Fast X and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as 2023 films that guarantee a sequel. Despite the lack of a clear conclusion, the film still succeeds in giving its characters a veritable breather at the end, and they clearly needed it because the pace that McQuarrie and his crew put them would leave any normal person exhausted for sure.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One opens in cinemas on July 12.
