Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Early Review

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh installment in the greatest franchise going right now. That may sound like a bold statement, but in this very time and place, look around! No one is doing it quite like the MI crew, and time and time again they blow audiences away with unbridled brilliance. Returning to the director’s chair for his third film is Christopher McQuarrie, the creative partner in crime of Tom Cruise. Meanwhile, this may be the largest ensemble in the franchise to date, with all the usual suspects returning alongside some new welcomed arrivals, namely newcomer Hayley Atwell, and the two decades long awaited return of Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge. 

From the jump, the intensity is ratcheted up to a ten. Getting right into the thick of a do or die, high octane sequence is the perfect way to set the tone for what’s to come. The prolonged lead up to the film’s opening credits genuinely places an emphasis on the stakes that the it is trying to establish. Like most of the films in the franchise, the fate of all of mankind laid in the balance, and a new mysterious, faceless, godlike weapon is at large, with the most powerful entities, good and bad, aiming to take control of it. Simply put, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team aim to find it, and take it as far away as possible from those who most desperately want it. The weapon is deeply rooted in the digital space and AI, making this latest MI film somewhat topical if one does not mind stretching their imagination just a little bit.  

It’s often preposterous, and with each installment, the stakes get bigger, the storylines become more convoluted, and the insanity continues to ratchet up higher and higher. A truly well executed film makes all of these factors somewhat meaningless, taking all of these factors and flipping them on their heads by turning them into strengths, and that is exactly what happens with Dead Reckoning Part One. By the time one gets deep into a multi-car, multi-party chase through the streets of Venice, they will be one with the madness and on board for the ride. 

Despite its long runtime (just around 2 hours and forty minutes), Dead Reckoning Part One rarely stops moving. There are so many moving parts that the film barely can afford to slow itself down. Each scene has a purpose to drive forward the phenomenal action on display. Showing off the “motorcycle off a cliff” stunt in each and every promotional ad and video was a smart play. Drawing in audiences with the big crazy stunt that is merely a small part of this very large film is genius, and should be seen as a lesson for how to market their gimmicks. One can’t help but get so washed up in the movie magic that it is easy to forget that it is going to be coming, and while no stunt is as impressive as that, there are a handful of sequences that are surely more exhilarating. The franchise has perfected how to frame and stitch together such sequences to ensure that they are exponentially more enjoyable than 99% of whatever else the action genre is serving up. At some point, audiences just have to sit back in awe and enjoy what is clearly the makings of a perfect summer blockbuster.

The introduction of Atwell into the franchise was a good one, and Grace brings an aspect of chaos and unpredictability that works well in contrast to Hunt’s overall goal. She isn’t a villain, but she certainly doesn’t come into this film as a perfect pairing with Hunt either. Cruise and Atwell play off each other well, with their first moment face to face being the best of the lot. What more can be said about the rest of Hunt’s crew? The wonderful Rhames as Luther, and of course Simon Pegg’s Benji, continue to quietly bring these films together on an emotional level. The dynamic continues to work so well, and they are truly Ethan’s heart through it all. Shea Wigham and Greg Tarzan Davis also make their MI debuts as Jasper Briggs and Degas, two intelligence operatives tasked with hunting down Ethan Hunt. They are great, funny, and serve as yet another moving part aimed to elevate the tension and grandiose of the stakes at hand. 

At this point, it seems like the plot doesn’t really matter in these kinds of films anymore. Now this isn’t necessarily a sweeping statement, but it’s often hard to care about the latest threat to mankind more than what is on the screen and how it is displayed. Audiences come to be entertained and for a short period, to be immersed in a thrilling cinematic experience that can be best enjoyed in a dark cool cinema on a hot summer’s day.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One fully succeeds at providing a superb level of enjoyment that few summer blockbusters can even hope to attain. It is pure thrills and peak entertainment, and it is definitely a contender for movie of the summer. So make in true Tom Cruise fashion and run to the theatre to check out the latest Mission: Impossible, for it continues the franchise’s positive trend line in the right direction.

*still courtesy of Paramount Pictures*

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Brennan Dubé

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