‘Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One’: Review

Dir: Christopher McQuarrie. US. 2023. 163mins

Brimming with confidence and swaggering showmanship, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One further cements this series as a consistently dazzling action franchise. Picking up where 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout left off, this seventh instalment once again sends Ethan Hunt on a dangerous globetrotting assignment in which car chases, shootouts and nerve-shredding stunts are sure to follow. Tom Cruise remains the dynamic centrepiece and, while one suspects that filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie may be saving some of the bigger set pieces for Part Two (due to be released next summer), this first chapter is entertaining enough on its own, hitting a more operatic register than previous pictures.

As Cruise gets older, his Ethan has begun to show signs of vulnerability

Opening worldwide on July 12, Dead Reckoning will try to match the $791 million haul for Fallout, currently the highest-grossing film in the franchise. It is doubtful the picture can compete with Top Gun: Maverick’s stunning $1.5 billion, but good reviews and the five-year wait for this new instalment should help drive audiences to theatres.   

Ethan (Cruise) and the rest of his IMF team, Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), are tasked with retrieving a missing two-piece key that has the ability to unlock ’The Entity’ – a mysterious, all-powerful A.I. which can dismantle the world’s defence systems. His search puts him in contact with expert thief Grace (Hayley Atwell) and a terrorist from his past, Gabriel (Esai Morales), who long ago killed a woman Ethan loved. 

This is McQuarrie’s third straight Mission: Impossible film and, as with Rogue Nation and Fallout, Dead Reckoning is a gripping thriller accented by spectacular action set pieces and nuanced emotional shading that make these entertainments more sophisticated than their blockbuster peers. As with McQuarrie’s previous M:I pictures, Ethan’s mission will be complicated by the presence of Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) – a bewitching former British agent operating on her own who seems to understand Ethan better than anyone else. There isn’t as much romantic friction between them as in the earlier chapters, but that’s partly because Ethan finds himself drawn to Grace, who is just as skilful in deception as he is, leading to a teasing sexual tension.

Much has been made about Cruise’s willingness to put his body in harm’s way in the name of a great action scene but the veteran star, who recently turned 61, is not quite as agile as he once was. Perhaps as a result, Dead Reckoning’s set pieces do not quite top what has come before in this franchise but, even so, the suspense sequences are robustly, sometimes breathlessly, executed, with McQuarrie introducing some levity during a dramatic chase involving a comically tiny automobile in which Ethan and Grace unexpectedly find themselves handcuffed together.

The filmmaker’s staging remains electric, aided by Fraser Taggart’s sharp cinematography and Lorne Balfe’s pulsating score — although certain sequences are even more compelling because there’s no music, the diegetic sounds providing all the aural accompaniment required. Throughout, Dead Reckoning features clean, precise action that never feels overly busy, with editor Eddie Hamilton perfectly pacing the onscreen mayhem while nicely weaving in a darker, more melancholy tone as Ethan feels the burden of what might happen if The Entity falls into the wrong hands.

At more than two-and-a-half hours, this is easily the longest Mission: Impossible, its title indicating that we will have to wait for a resolution. And, after so many epic adventures with life-or-death stakes, Dead Reckoning sometimes strains to live up to the high standards of earlier instalments – especially in presenting this latest global threat as even more terrifying than all the ones that came before. (Similarly, Ethan is again warned that he will have to risk everything, including those closest to him, in order to achieve his impossible mission. At this point, it seems highly likely that he fully understands the potential consequences of the life he has chosen.)

And yet, those reservations pale in comparison to the technical expertise and narrative deftness that permeates this latest chapter. Where other franchises have become beholden to deadening CGI, this film’s excellent digital trickery, mixed with practical effects, is astonishing. In terms of the new cast members, Atwell effortlessly inserts herself into this world of high-octane spycraft, while Morales’ suave villain exudes a serene self-assurance that’s unsettling. And as Cruise gets older, his Ethan has begun to show signs of vulnerability, lending a subtle poignancy to Dead Reckoning’s gargantuan set pieces.

In the back of his mind, maybe this indomitable hero knows that nothing lasts forever, and indeed Ethan will face the agony of loss. But as proof of both Ethan and Cruise’s indefatigable stamina, the picture ends with its most remarkable suspense sequence — setting the stage for Part Two, and the promise that even greater heights are about to be scaled.