‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ Review: Tom Cruise is Back to Save Summer Once Again and Rage Against the (AI) Machine

For close to thirty years, audiences have watched as IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has accepted the most dangerous, complicated missions in order to save the world for what the franchise calls “the greater good.” In doing his job, Ethan has climbed the tallest building in the world, broken into the CIA and the Kremlin, held his breath underwater for six plus minutes, jumped in and out of large aircrafts, raced across some of the most beautiful locations in the world on a motorcycle, even killed himself and came back to life. And running. Lots and lots and lots of running. But beyond the moral right and wrong of saving the world, Ethan has put these missions in countless dangerous positions because he won’t allow his team members (who have mostly changed throughout the series) to become collateral damage in the midst of accomplishment. It is his glaring weakness that has also been his strength, in showing that one life matters as much as the rest of humanity as a whole. With this information, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One finds Ethan on his most dangerous, emotionally vulnerable assignment in the series, making for a riveting yet frustrating action packed spectacle.

While the world is going about its business as normal, behind the scenes, a war to end all wars is coming. Through a twenty-minute opening that extends to two different conversations of complicated dialogue, we find out that US intelligence is having to archive all digital data offline line due to a device (or as it is known primarily in the film as “The Entity”) created by the Russians to gain an upper hand in modern warfare and gathering intelligence. But what starts as a good idea slowly turns against them as the device becomes self-aware, and goes rogue on its masters, sinking the submarine it is being carried on and spreading quickly like a virus that wants to consume the world. The only way to potentially stop or control its power is with a key that splits into two pieces.

And this is where we find Ethan, who has been assigned by the newly appointed director of the CIA, and his former IMF boss, Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), to hunt down the first half of the key, which intelligence believes is in the possession of Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Ethan’s ally from the last two films and someone who he has grown attached to. In what aesthetically looks like a visual sequence taken out of Dune, we find Ethan coming to Ilsa’s aid in the desert as hired assassins are after her and her portion of the key. It is the first we have been in a desert sequence since the sand storm chase in Ghost Protocol, and just like that moment in the series, the action here is spectacular, as we see Ferguson looking fierce as she wears a badass eye patch over one eye, gunning her foes down with a sniper rifle in the middle of a sand storm. Director Christopher McQuarrie, cinematographer Fraser Taggart, and editor Eddie Hamilton convey an expertly crafted, deeply romantic vibe to this sequence too as both spies are killing off enemies one by one only to end up in each other’s arms. It’s a tender moment that conveys the message of Mission Impossible Fallout, that Ethan and Ilsa are connected in a way that many in this dangerous world of espionage aren’t, and for that, they can’t help but trying to rescue each other, and why Cruise and Ferguson have had transcendent chemistry since her arrival in the franchise.

Back in the briefing room on the other side of the world, Kittridge is explaining Ethan’s mission and who the IMF is (in a rather silly piece of dialogue for a franchise that is seven movies in) to a group of various intelligence leaders (portrayed by Cary Elwes, Charles Parnell, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, and Mark Gatiss) known as “The Community.” It is then known through this conversation that The Community wants control over The Entity for their own personal gains. And when he finds out about this, and that Kittridge was the reason there was a bounty on Ilsa’s head, Ethan becomes extremely angry, showcasing Cruise’s emotional range from performances in the first part of his career that we tend to forget about now because he’s mostly been an action star for the last decade and a half. It’s a scene that reaches back to that first Mission Impossible, where Ethan is upset, losing control, and he knows full well that he has been played. In order to save the world one more time, he must turn against his country yet again. By doing so, he goes rogue, searching for the other half of the key before it gets into the wrong hands.

Ethan isn’t alone in his search, as Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames, a staple of this franchise since the beginning) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) are alongside his quest, putting his closest associates and friend in harm’s way of what is to come. Their mission lands them at an airport in Abu Dhabi, looking to set up a deal with a potential buyer of their half of the key so they can track him to the other half. Complicated sure, but it is a Mission Impossible movie, this is what you sign up for, even more so since McQuarrie has stepped behind the wheel of this franchise. As Ethan is about to meet the buyer, his key is stolen by an international thief named Grace (portrayed by the glorious Hayley Atwell), who is looking to take the key to an anonymous third party who hired her. As Ethan and Grace sort out who is going to take the key to the buyer, a team of armed enforcers led by Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), are on the move, looking to take down Ethan and stop him on behalf of The Community.

In the grand tradition of the franchise, the cat and mouse chase around the airport between Ethan and Briggs’s team raises the stakes early on to inform us that the threat to find the other half of the key is paramount, while also being a cool way to demonstrate the IMF’s skills. Benji and Luther are able to manipulate the camera, putting Ethan on the other side of the airport when Briggs catches up with him. Whigham and Davis are able to sell their frustration and exhaustion so well as they are running around, looking for Hunt, showcasing the great humor that is at the core of these films. But it is all fun and games for Ethan and his team till a bomb is located at the airport right before the deal is about to be made, and a new threat emerges. An old adversary of Ethan’s named Gabriel (Esai Morales), who knew our hero before he joined the IMF, swiftly makes his way through the airport, causing chaos to distract Ethan just enough that Grace is able to steal the key and board a flight to Rome without him. Thought to be dead, Gabriel, alongside his right hand assassin Paris (a devilishly evil Pom Klementieff), is working for ‘The Entity,’ making sure the key is secure so the AI run machine can reach its goal and take down the world one digital footprint at a time. While Morales is menacing as a villain and gives a fantastic performance, one can feel as if there is too much left known about his connection to Ethan and their past and thus he is not as fully fleshed out in the story as antagonists in the series past. You could make the argument that it is a byproduct of this story being separated into two parts, or the fact that Morales’s character was reworked on the page after actor Nicholas Hoult had to back out. Either way, there is something missing from Gabriel as of now that prevents him from being a series’ best villain like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mission Impossible 3 or Sean Harris in both Rogue Nation or Fallout.

A lot is being thrown at you within the first 45 minutes of this movie (some of which will take multiple viewings to fully understand it), yet the film is moving at such a confident pace, you don’t have time to think before you are at the next set piece. We easily transition the chase from an airport to the streets of Rome, where Ethan and Grace are on the run from all interested parties as well as the police. While earlier this summer we saw the filmmakers of Fast X have their bombastic set piece take place at the same location, Dead Reckoning Part One strips away a lot of the CGI and focuses on the practical effects and simple approaches that make this franchise stand out amongst cinema’s other IP machines. Beyond just being expertly edited and staged perfectly, the scene is hilariously driven by Cruise and Atwell’s chemistry that shines throughout most of the film’s action sequences. Handcuffed and crisscrossed, they are bound to each other as they race for their lives in this adorable Fiat, drifting over the cobblestones of Rome.

It is here, at the end of the first act, where the film starts to get into trouble. As all parties converge to an evening meeting set up by Alanna Mitsopolis (devilishly played by Vanessa Kirby), a black-market dealer known as the “White Widow,” the film’s cards are placed on the table and the message of the film fully presents itself. While topical for the current state of the world and our ongoing uneasiness surrounding artificial intelligence, Dead Reckoning Part One takes its “entity” to places of confusion and obscurity not seen in a modern blockbuster in some time. When we find out Gabriel’s true intent, and what this will mean for the world and anyone who stands against him, the dialogue is so uneven, it is borderline laughable. Factor in an on-the-nose meta narrative with The Entity symbolizing the danger presented by modern day streaming services and Cruise, a massive ally in the protection of the theatrical experience, and him being the only one who can take it down, the film becomes muddled by too many ideas being thrown at the screen and not expertly executed enough on the page. McQuarrie, who had a hand in some form over the last three films before this one, sadly stumbles narratively in trying too hard to top his previous stellar efforts. He was already dancing on the line with Fallout but in this film, he’s gone completely over the line and the film suffers because of it.

By the time we get to the third, and rather extensive, final act of the film, it takes a good couple of minutes to get back in the groove due to the disjointed nature of how events in the second act shape out. But once the characters step foot on a runaway train for the film’s final set piece, Dead Reckoning Part One is able to land smoothly and becomes overall better than the sum of its parts. As Grace is involved in a plan to get both parts of the key (enter the signature Mission Impossible masks!!), Ethan gears up for an awe-inspiring motorcycle jump to help her get on the train. Highly publicized for being one of the most dangerous moments not just in the franchise, but in film history, Cruise (the massive adrenaline junkie) effortlessly is able to pull it off and you are left amazed by the level of commitment he continues to put into these films. He just keeps topping himself, with the sequence looking just as incredible as the Halo jump set piece in Fallout.

In sync with the first entry of the franchise from legendary director Brian De Palma, McQuarrie keeps his camera close to the conflict at all times. Using dozens of close up shots, he builds tension with each exchange on and off the train, leaving you on the edge of your seat throughout the finale. He even has Cruise fighting Morales on top of a moving train, with a tense tunnel sequence like in the original Mission Impossible. And even though you can see a lot of spotty CGI work (especially when the train starts to fall apart and Ethan and Grace are climbing for their lives), there is no question that McQuarrie and Cruise just know how to pull the action sequences off with enough ease to make those issues go away and have us still believing in the movie magic they are creating.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is an up and down roller-coaster, both in the action adventure on screen and the tone swifts of its narrative. Cruise, alongside series regulars Rhames, Pegg, and Ferguson, (who are all severely underutilized), are excellent as always, with Atwell and Morales being welcome additions we will see more of soon as Part Two. And while there are questionable character and plot decisions in a weaker script than past McQuarrie Mission efforts, Dead Reckoning Part One is still an entertaining enough spectacle to keep fans of the franchise happy until we see how this mission is fully accomplished next summer.

Grade: B

Paramount Pictures will release Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One only in theaters, Dolby Cinema, Premium Large Format and IMAX on July 12.