'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' Review

“We live and die in the shadows, for those we hold close–and those we never meet.”

This is the IMF credo that Ethan relays to another agent at the beginning of the first of a two-part Mission Impossible event that is titled Dead Reckoning. The line seems essential to understanding Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series, who has been a broken man since his entire team was killed in the opening scene of Mission Impossible almost 30 years ago. Since then, he has rock-climbed, underwater-dived, skyscraper-scaled, and airplane-hitched his way to complete one mission after another to protect society at large, but more importantly to him, to keep his friends from dying again—a fact that is all the more tragic when thinking about the number of people who have been killed while working with Ethan across the franchise’s seven movies. Yet his devotion to always doing “what is right” remains unwavering.

Even Grace (Halley Atwell)—one of the many badass beauties to appear in Dead Reckoning—a pickpocket he comes across, has his undying protection because that is who Ethan Hunt is and who he always will be: He will go to the greatest lengths to ensure the safety of those around him, no matter the cost and no matter which government it will inevitably piss off. In the spirit of the past coming back to haunt him, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie brings back Kitridge, the bureaucratic antagonist from the first Mission Impossible, to deliver dialogue about the latest MacGuffin and why it would be in America’s interest to control it.

The MacGuffin in question is a two-part key (maybe that’s why they split Dead Reckoning into two parts) called the “cruciform key.” Once they are pieced together, they unlock the ability to control a rogue A.I. called “The Entity.” It all sounds ridiculous—and in the wrong hands, it could have gone that way—but the Keatonesque slapstick that informs these incredible set pieces creates a lighthearted approach that is both awe-inspiring and fun. We have seen the global stakes in Mission Impossible many times before, but never has it generated this amount of joyous laughter from the physical action alone.

Director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise have worked on the last two MI films together (Rogue Nation and Fallout), and they continue their elegant streak of highwire stunts. The standouts in Dead Reckoning Part 1 include a motorcycle jump off of a mountain with a parachute—which has been heavily promoted in the lead-up to the film—a car chase in Rome where Ethan and Grace are handcuffed together and take turns behind the wheel of an old Fiat, an intense airport chase, a one-on-one swordfight, and a climax on a train that calls back to the first Mission Impossible—but with 30 years of visual effects to provide deadly new challenges that recall video games like Uncharted 2 (even though McQuarrie swears he’s never played the game).

The Entity enlists the help of Gabriel (Esai Morales, Ozark), a ghostlike presence from Ethan’s past, to carry out some of its biddings, and Gabriel’s muscle is an almost entirely silent Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) whose maniacal facial expressions are more than enough to tell that she relishes in the mayhem they cause. Another new face is Shea Whigam (Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse), who plays an agent that is hilariously always one step behind Ethan and his team.

As for the returning players, British agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Furgeson) continues to be an important part of Ethan’s personal and professional life, the shady arms dealer White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) is back in the mix once again, and Ethan’s always reliable team of Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) are in his ear and behind computer screens to run point for him like they always do. With AI wreaking havoc, the characters are forced to go analog, making for a more grounded approach where the technology of the IMF isn’t there to assist them like in previous movies.

At 163 minutes long, the film pushes the boundaries of what a seventh film in a franchise can do, and compared to the 3-hour snoozefest that was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the runtime flies by like Tom Cruise sprinting in perfect form at full speed—a staple of the MI series. It’s an interesting point of comparison not just because of their runtime and close release date but because Dead Reckoning shows restraint in areas that Dial of Destiny blunders. And while some action sequences are similar in concept, the quality in the execution is a stark difference in that scenes in Dead Reckoning feel tangible and dangerous, while Indiana Jones feels plodding and stale.

That is the guarantee that you get when you pay to see a Tom Cruise vehicle. The 61-year-old star defies what any normal human should be able to do at that age in a way that only Keanu Reeves is achieving in modern cinema. While Dead Reckoning may not reach the peaks that Fallout does (hell, what movie does?), it carves (stabs?) its name in big, bold letters that make it stand apart from previous entries. Even if they don’t all pay off, I admire how it takes big risks and introduces enough new ideas to make audiences want to come back for more in Part 2. Having just revisited the entire franchise in preparation, I think Mission Impossible might be the most consistent action franchise we’ve ever gotten. Seven films in, and it still manages to surprise in all the best ways. I will always choose to accept the mission if they continue to be this good.