Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023)
Oh, yeah, it is ON, people. The release of this latest Mission: Impossible movie was delayed because of COVID, but the wait has been completely worth it. Like the vast majority of films we’ve seen from the busy Mr. Cruise, Dead Reckoning grabs the viewer and holds on tight.
I’ll try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but a few may creep through so consider thyself warned.
The new film is a timely one, because the enemy is a sentient AI known as “The Entity,” that’s everyone’s worst case scenario about artificial intelligence. It can trick a sub into torpedoing itself. It collects data about everyone and can fake the sound of anyone’s voice it chooses. The only way to subdue it is by using a cruciform key, but the specifics of where that key goes are evidently being saved for Part Two.
Along for the ride this time is Grace, a crack pickpocket and thief who encounters Ethan at the Abu Dhabi International Airport and gets caught up in his assignment. It’s kind of her own fault because her kleptomania runs deep, but once she settles in she’s the inadvertant audience character. It’s not until someone from Ethan’s team dies defending her that she starts to get a clue, though.
Some familiar faces reappear in Part One, as well as some familiar-adjacent faces. Remember Max from the first Mission: Impossible movie? Her offspring plays a pretty pivotal role here, and while she doesn’t match Mom’s committment to secrecy, she’s got the confidence in spades.
One of the most effective things about Dead Reckoning is that while it gives out with just enough fanserve, it also turns the formula on its head. Up until now Ethan has always given the impression of being completely sure of himself. Even if things go wrong he thinks on his feet and doesn’t miss a thing. He knows what he’s capable of and he’s very confident in his abilities. We’ve all seen it. This is the dude who infiltrated the tightest security systems at IMF and swung around on the side of the Burj Khalifa, among other feats. He’s pretty much fearless.
In Dead Reckoning, however, things go wrong that even Ethan can’t predict, and he has to decide to take risks in the moment despite not knowing the outcome. He may not feel too sure about parachuting off a cliff, but there’s nothing else to do but pull the ripcord and hope for the best. And when an AI is involved, what seems to be the voice of a friend may not be, so it adds another bit of tension.
There’s also quite a bit of humor in the film, which I really appreciated, because it allows a breather from all of the fantastic stunts, maybe even in the midst of them. There’s one car chase scene in Rome, for instance, where Ethan and Grace end up driving a bright yellow Fiat 500 that seems to have a mind of its own. It’s Mission: Impossible meets The Italian Job meets Herbie the Love Bug and it’s fun.
There’s also a sense throughout of respect for the audience, starting with a personal message from Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie before Dead Reckoning starts, in which they say the movie was made for us, the fans, and they hope we enjoy it. No expectations. No villification. Just have fun. It’s tremendously refreshing and goes to show why Tom Cruise movies always land. He likes us, we like him back, and it’s all good.
And oh boy howdy, did Mr. Cruise and everyone deliver. The audience at my showing roared with laughter and gasped at the stunts and had a great time. I took a peek behind me during one particularly exciting scene and saw a lot of people scrunched in their chairs, grinning like crazy and completely caught up in everything. This is why we go to movies.
The only things I would say about Dead Reckoning is that the villain, Gabriel, is slightly android-like and there are a LOT of characters, but in the end that’s neither here nor there. When Tom Cruise is hanging off of a broken train on a crumbling bridge in the Austrian Alps, nothing else matters. It’s just so stinking cool.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One is currently in theaters. Rated PG-13.
My grade: A
Principal Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigman, Greg Tarzan Davis, Frederick Schmidt, Mariela Garriga, Cary Elwes, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie.
Written by Bruce Geller, Erik Jendressen and Christopher McQuarrie.