MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART 1 Review

“If nothing else, it’ll be very hard not to get excited to see how this story (and franchise?) will conclude next year.”

It’s pretty remarkable that a movie franchise that originated in 1996, a movie based on a television show, no less, that really should never have worked, has instead become a fruitful source of income and inspiration for one Tom Cruise, who in turn, keeps throwing his body into all sorts of precarious situations for our entertainment. Things really stepped up with 2018’s Fallout, which in my opinion, was almost a perfect movie; it even made my top 5 that year.  

That brings us to Dead Reckoning Part 1, a brand-new story with the only connections to Fallout being some of the returning characters around Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. But first, we learn the origins of a key that will be the objective of the movie’s entire cast of characters, for reasons we’ll learn soon enough. The main plot of the movie involves a dangerous sentient A.I. referred to as “The Entity”... many, many times over the course of the movie, to the point where you might start thinking, “Shut up about the Entity already, we get it!” 

Among other things, “The Entity” is able to control all technology, something many government agencies want to claim for their own uses and means. That important key – split into two connecting parts – is the way that “The Entity” can be controlled. The US government, just like every other country, wants to get its hands on this key, but Ethan Hunt and his IMF (Impossible Mission Force) want to use the key to destroy “The Entity,” keeping it out of the hands of those who might abuse it. In other words, Hunt is going rogue again, just like he does in every previous movie.

In turn, “The Entity” goes after Hunt’s friends and loved ones, using its human accomplice, Gabriel, played by Esai Morales, who killed Hunt’s first wife, driving him onto the IMF. Got all that? (If you’re wondering why I said, “The Entity,” so many times in the above paragraph, it’s to prepare you for how many times it’s said in the movie. It would make for a very dangerous drinking game.)

In some ways, Dead Reckoning has the same “problem” as John Wick Chapter 4 in that Cruise’s Ethan Hunt often ends up taking a back seat to his co-stars, because he’s generally a one-note character when not thrown into the action setpieces. On the other hand, Hayley Atwell is great, though she looks and sounds so much like Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa, you wonder if that was intentional, or just that Cruise and McQuarrie have a “type.” Vanessa Kirby is back as Alana, the White Widow, and the fact she also has a similar look and British accent as the other two women does provide a few fun moments, but  just makes it clear how much this franchise needs some diversity. 

Maybe, for that reason and others, my favorite new character is the silent killer Paris, as portrayed by Pom Klementieff, who shows up essentially to wreak havoc on everyone trying to find the keys and get Hunt. Like Gabriel, she seems to be an agent of the Entity, trying to get both halves of the key for their own reasons. Morales is so good in this antagonist role, and he’s set-up so well as someone from Ethan’s past, you may find yourself going back to the very first Mission: Impossible to see if he was in it, and we just forgot about him. Dead Reckoning is his first movie in the series.

There are some great new characters for sure, but sadly, all the regulars just seem to be doing the same thing they’ve done in every other installment. There was a great scene in Fallout where Simon Pegg’s Benjy has to act as a GP, relaying to Ethan the best way for him to follow a target. That same thing is done two or three times here with very few modifications, although “The Entity” uses its control of technology to make this trick more difficult.

One of the true champions of Dead Reckoning is the score by Lorne Balfe, as it’s just perfect and brings a lot to every scene, whether it be action or exposition. The cinematography by relatively new DP Fraser Taggart does a good job capturing McQuarries’s vision, although there are just so many close-ups of various characters during the dialogue scenes, I would be concerned about watching it on IMAX, unless you really want to see all those character close-ups on the biggest screen possible. Eddie Hamilton’s editing is also spot-on, similar to his work on Top Gun: Maverick, but really, it’s about the stunt work by coordinator Wade Eastwood and the respective teams in various countries, which should also give John Wick a run for that SAG Stunt award.

Things really pick up in the last half hour as all the parties come together on a runaway train, and we finally see the motorcycle cliff jump that the whole movie has been building up to. And yet, that isn’t even the most jaw-dropping part of the movie; that’s still to come.

Knowing this is the first of a two-parter, you might be somewhat concerned that McQuarrie might just cut the movie short just as things are getting exciting, but no, he does allow the climax to play out, but ends it with Ethan Hunt still needing to find the answers to put a stop to the Entity. Where this ends doesn’t feel as disappointing as other two-parters (like Dune) but one also wonders if this particular story really needed to be 5 or whatever hours long. A solid single three-hour movies probably would have sufficed, but we’ll see what happens next. n

Dead Reckoning - Part 1 does suffer from the number of scenes of various characters sitting around and talking, so that the actual action scenes are few and far between. Then again, those action set pieces are all pretty great, and the ending is so exciting that it makes up for any of the earlier pacing issues. If nothing else, it’ll be very hard not to get excited to see how this story (and franchise?) will conclude next year.

Rating: 7.5/10

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 opens on Wednesday, July 12, with previews on Monday night and Tuesday.