Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has a pretty complicated reception despite being seen as a great addition to the long-running film franchise. Most of this comes down to the fact that while it performed nicely with audiences and critics, it underperformed when it released in 2023 due to its gargantuan budget of $291 million and for coming out around the same time as Barbie and Oppenheimer, effectively being consumed by the Barbenheimer craze and failing to make its money back. While its remained a well-liked feature, this messy beginning put some doubt on how well Part Two would perform (so much so that it had to be renamed as to not alienate people who didn’t see Part 1), fittingly putting this mission in a nearly impossible situation to overcome.

IMF agent Ethan Hunt (played again by Tom Cruise) is pulled back into the fray after he learns of a new intelligent AI system called ‘’The Entity’’ which has gotten the world’s attention after going rogue and blowing up a Russian submarine. Learning that a two-piece cruciform key is required to access it, world leaders plan to take command of the AI for their own usage, whereas Ethan hopes to destroy it to prevent further destruction, making him an enemy of every country including America. With Benji, Luther and Ilsa (played again by Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Rebecca Ferguson) agreeing to work alongside him, Ethan’s quest to track down the key sets him on the path of Grace (played by Hayley Atwell), a thief who has been hired to obtain a portion of the key for a bidder, but also the path of Gabriel (played again by Esai Morales), an old foe who has now become a zealot of the AI and plans to unlock its power to take over the world. With Grace unwillingly being dragged into this mess, the prospect of finding the key proves incredibly challenging due to being public enemy #1 on a global scale and with the AI using its abilities to manipulate the crew in more than just digital means, which could make this mission one that all of them may not get out of alive.

Dead Reckoning Part One is substantially different from the franchise’s past entries and has become so self-aware of its own tone that it almost feels like a satire of itself, but the strong cast, simple yet engaging narrative hook and thrilling action set pieces allows it to warrant its popularity even in spite of its poor financial performance.

The way this franchise has managed to sustain itself for over seven movies is almost as impressive as the fact that it was able to positively pivot by the fourth feature (which would normally be where things go downhill). While the first three are well known, they aren’t seen as good and couldn’t settle on a definitive tone, whereas the latter movies really cemented the series’ personality and captivated people more than could’ve imagined, especially due to the commonality of spy films. On its own, Dead Reckoning interestingly decides to play things in a more in-your-face manner, to the point that it starts to feel like self-parody, which is definitely a strange choice. While this series has always had a light-hearted tone which helped it stand out in the genre, the dramatic camera angles, swooshing musical score, hyper realistic choice of narrative focus and almost comically simplistic writing, feels like it’s admitting to its formula and deciding to play along rather than try to fall back into reality, which might’ve been its best decision. It doesn’t have the best writing, with a screenplay by director Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen that features cheesy dialogue that sometimes flows pretty awkwardly during conversations, and the layout is a little too basic and predictable to be interesting, as while the simple-to-grasp nature of the main goal is appreciated, the basic tropes that pop up are annoyingly noticeable.

While the film doesn’t do well in statis, it really comes alive when in motion, as any moment that features a high-risk action scene or conflict, is incredibly well handled. Whether it’s due to McQuarrie being more comfortable in these realms or just the fact that this team have always been strong at building tense sequences that effectively build upon themselves, Dead Reckoning has some very solid moments throughout that keep the energy high, the tension razor-thin, and the thrills always thrilling. Even though the film is almost three hours long (which is crazy given how relatively basic the set-up is), the majority of that time is dedicated to these expansive sequences which display the action and the spy angle in a very memorable and efficient sense. If you do look deep at what the actual story is telling, it isn’t anything special and even a little one-note, but when looking at it from a purely action sense, it’s insanely entertaining and explains all the love its received.

The latter entries have provided very memorable characters, and this is largely thanks to the casting. While the first three films did feature decent star power, these recent movies picked people who seem appealing to the target demographic and really fit with this universe and personality, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously but still feels genuine. A lot of these characters, regardless of how minor or major they are, are brimming with a lot of likeable charm and energy, and thanks to the great on-screen chemistry a lot of them share, it results in very good scene work even if the dialogue can be a little silly. This isn’t always the case, as the government official roles played by Cary Elwes, Henry Czermy, Charles Parnell, Rob Delany and Indira Varma suffer from the awkwardly stiff and unnatural dialogue pacing, and Esai Morales is also not that good as the main villain, with a bland delivery, uninteresting motivations, and plot and character so annoyingly generic that it feels like the one major element that wasn’t sprinkled with that zesty life the rest of the film features.

The remainder of the cast is thankfully much better, and even if their involvement isn’t huge, they still leave a good impression. Vanessa Kirby and Pom Klementieff play effective side antagonists, Shea Whigham is pretty one-note shouty as an American agent tasked with tracking down Hunt, but he and Greg Tarzan Davis get some good moments, Rebecca Ferguson and Ilsa as a character aren’t handled in the most interesting way, but her brief moments are passable, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames continue to be the best part of this series due to how charming they are and their ability to smoothly work off the other actors, and Hayley Atwell is a really solid addition to the cast and has some really solid moments of action and comedy alongside Cruise (with whom she shares really strong chemistry with). While Cruise as a person is very easy to mock given his clearly fragile ego and need to be front and centre all the time, he proves to be really good in these movies because he’s allowed to be goofy and passionate instead of needing to be portrayed as effortlessly cool and capable. The films do still go out of their way to portray him glowingly (Cruise is a producer, so he couldn’t help himself), but at least it doesn’t distract from the fact that he does a good job.

While John Wick is the modern-day action franchise heralded for its reinvention of the genre, Mission Impossible also deserves credit for their incredible feats of action, not just because of the practicality behind them (usually containing some truly death-defying situations), but also because of the inventiveness put into them and how they think outside-the-box. Given how expensive this movie was, it’s nice that you can feel that budget through the various elaborate action sequences set in global areas like Venice, Rome, London and Norway, all of which are incredibly memorable and fun to witness. Whether it’s racing through the streets of Venice in a tiny yellow Fiat 500 Abarth, escaping from train cars that are plummeting off a cliff, or trying to track down a target in a crowded airport while also dealing with being chased by FBI and disarming a planted nuclear bomb, all these moments have multiple layers that never feel hard to follow, constantly increase the tension, and result in scenes that go above-and-beyond to be visually impressive and eye-catching, whilst still remaining entertaining and even slightly humorous. They’re paced really well, are matched with really great music handled by Lorne Balfe, are decently edited by Eddie Hamilton even if it can be a little quick, and even though there are a lot of tilted angles and shots by cinematographer Fraser Taggart to the point of being a little funny, the way the action is displayed makes up for it.

It’s a shame that Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One didn’t get a good opening due to coming out against two of the biggest box office juggernauts of 2023, as the film truly is an exciting, engaging, and memorable experience that’s greatly impressive considering how long the franchise has been going, but maybe at the end of the day, doing the same thing isn’t good enough to stay relevant. It’s hard to say this movie is different enough from what came before it (even the big stunt that was all over the trailers doesn’t feel that wowing anymore) and since the next film had to change its title to not keep people from seeing it, it seems the creatives are also aware of this, but they can at least be proud that they still made a pretty great movie with likeable actors with great chemistry, a simple-to-follow story with enough self-awareness to make the cheesiness feel more digestible, and some truly memorable action scenes that are worth witnessing just to appreciate their ingenuity. Might be a little late to the party, but there’s no harm in accepting this latest mission.