Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Directed by Chistopher McQuarrie
Written by Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen
Starring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson
Rated PG-13
Runtime: 2 hours, 43 minutes
In theaters July 12

by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring

Topping the previous Mission: Impossible was never going to be an easy feat. Fallout marked the first time Cruise had brought a director back for another Mission, and Christopher McQuarrie delivered in every way he needed to, delivering not only a fun story and incredible action sequences, but actually pulling threads from just about every movie in the franchise and giving Ethan Hunt (Cruise) some synthesis. Fallout truly centered on Ethan’s worldview, doubling down on his desire to save everyone, especially his friends. It resolved the hanging thread with his wife, Julia. Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) has been exonerated. So where was there to go from there?

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One moves forward by introducing a new threat, a sentient artificial intelligence that has gone rogue. The intelligence community sees it as a race to control the AI, potentially reshaping the balance of the world order. Ethan is the only one who wants to find and destroy it, believing that no one should have that kind of power. As an idea for a Mission, it’s not as compelling as rogue secret agents, nuclear extremists, or bioterrorists, but it is topical. With Cruise leading the charge to save cinemas, and one of the WGA’s main reasons for striking being the threat of AI to the creation of movies and television, it does present a thematic urgency that likely would have been absent had DRPO hit its original release date. As a plot device, it is pretty silly and did stretch my suspension of disbelief further into science fiction than any other film in this franchise, but the way that it is framed helped me accept it. It also helps that the antagonism is mostly personified through Gabriel (Esai Morales), an assassin with a connection to Ethan’s past. While Gabriel does have similarities to Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane from the previous two films, he is less of a fun foil for Ethan, more cold and even more ruthless.

One thing DRPO levels up in terms of the franchise is the amount of screentime given to the actresses in the cast. It’s nice to have Ilsa return again, right back in the mess despite the ending to Fallout. Also welcome to pop up any time is Alianna (Vanessa Kirby), the shrewd and sexy “White Widow,” an information broker with a true neutral alignment. Her presence adds tension to every scene she is in, and seeing where this movie takes her character was one of its most fun turns. And then there are the additions to the cast. Hayley Atwell plays Grace, a morally ambiguous gentlewoman thief. Outside of her role as Agent Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Atwell has been heinously underutilized by Hollywood, and her appearance here proves she has that elusive star quality. Atwell plays off Cruise exceptionally well, but also holds her own with the rest of her scene partners with both stunt and dialogue scenes. Grace as a character is built out in part just through Atwell’s face acting, constantly showing that she is thinking and plotting her next move, even while needing to sell a ruse to another character. Pom Klementieff is also impressive as Paris, one of Gabriel’s subordinates, as she is clearly having fun driving a massive SUV through narrow European streets and facing off against the rest of the cast. Paris does get her own small character arc, which shows how much McQuarrie and company are invested in trying to deepen the franchise’s roster, even after seven entries. Every M:I has had women prominently in the cast, but it feels like this is the first time that we get to see them all interact and play major roles in the story at the same time.

Since M:I 2, and especially since Ghost Protocol, stunts have become a hallmark of the franchise, and on that measure, DRPO does not disappoint. With the big ones here coming in the form of a final act train sequence and motorcycle jump, I could help but think of the original stuntman, Buster Keaton. The way that Cruise puts his body (and sometimes life) on the line in pursuit of putting “real” daring do on the screen echoes Keaton’s commitment, as well as his quote, “my God, we ate, slept and dreamed our pictures.” Thinking back to Cruise’s dedication to safety while shooting DRPO during the pandemic and his earnest love of cinema–especially the theatrical experience–makes him seem like the last movie star standing, the last refugee of a bygone age. While M:I is a franchise, it’s really his only one (since he couldn’t make Dark Universe happen), and it’s the rare franchise in this era that is anchored by a star rather than the character or nostalgia for an earlier version.

Cruise and company deliberately echo The General, arguably Keaton’s best known feature, and there are even a good amount of comedic moments, even when the tension is supremely high. McQuarrie and Cruise understand another Keaton quote, “think slow, act fast,” when it comes to developing action sequences. So much about car chases, motorcycle jumps, and fights on the top of trains are about capturing speed on camera. But they are only effective when they are laid out to the audience in a clear way. And speeding through those sequences alone isn’t enough, but slowing down for a laugh or a tense moment gives these scenes narrative tension as well. Over the course of their collaboration on this series, McQuarrie and Cruise have created a new bar for capturing action on screen, only rivaled by Michael Bay at present.

If DRPO has any pitfalls, it’s that some of the elements feel repeated from earlier entries in the franchise. It’s hard to argue with a formula that works, but that familiar structure is still there. The stellar craft and new cast additions help smooth this over, and there’s nothing here that is noticeably worse, but for a “part one” movie, it would be nice to see a bit more playfulness with some of those aspects. At it stands, DRPO is the fourth great actioner in a row from this franchise, making this a true golden age for Cruise action fans.