Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Dare I say it? Did Mission: Impossible find it's mojo? Dead Reckoning is absurdistly over the top yet edge-of-your-seat gripping in a way the the films in this series haven't been since De Palma's first instalment. It starts with an inspired moment with Cruise taking his Ethan Hunt character far too seriously, builds through a dramatic set up where Hunt and his IMF team have to face a world destroying AI, and then its one spectacle action sequence after another. With Dead Reckoning, the Mission: Impossible series has embraced exactly what it is, what its strengths are, and runs off a cliff (literally) with it. Good on it!

Once you (choose to) accept the story you are being told it is a no-holds-barred thrill ride with just enough plot to keep it all moving and a cast of characters that make it fun to watch. Atwell makes for an incredibly charismatic co-lead. Ferguson is back to add a certain gravitas to the whole thing in her mysterious ally role. Kirby is back as the amoral yet compelling broker she debuted in the last film (taking over for Vanessa Redgrave). And Klementieff is a standout as a force to be reckoned (pun intended) with. Perhaps Rhames' and Pegg's schtick is beginning to wear a bit but this series has become about family (not in a Fast and Furious way) and the returning characters play a role to ratchet up the stakes which works here much better than in Fallout. 

And then there is Cruise doing all that Cruise does. He does the Cruise run a few times. He rides his bike off a cliff. He jumps onto a speeding train. It wouldn't be a Mission: Impossible film without breaking the bank on insurance for Tom Cruise. 

While these films haven't always been my cup of tea, I have to to appreciate their style and Dead Reckoning does feel like it is a synthesis of all that they have worked for. It's fun, exciting, knowingly preposterous, and chock full of all that is M:I. I know there was some intention of using this two parter to wrap up the series, or at least to Cruise's character and I still hope they have the courage to do that and go out with a big bang. That would be the biggest stunt of them all!

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One

Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Henry Czerny, Pom Klementieff, Cary Elwes, Shea Whigham, Frederick Schmidt, Indira Varma, Greg Tarzan Davis

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Writers: Erik Jendersen, Christopher McQarrie