'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' Review

Tom Cruise's war against streaming reaches it's ultimate stage

In the fall of 2012, I was studying in Italy during a semester abroad. One weekend, we took a trip to Florence — famous for Dante, David, and leather. Lots of authentic leather (I promise, this is going somewhere). I went to Florence with the firm intention of not only walking out with a new leather jacket but getting one at a steal thanks to my shrewd negotiating skills. 

As one obviously has at the age of 20.

On the day of, I walked into the leather jacket shop of choice. The salesman walked up to me, picked out a jacket he thought I might like, and asked if I wanted to put it on. I, of course, agreed. We walked up to the mirror. The jacket looked great. Up until the next moment, I knew exactly what I wanted to say to bring the price down (I’m a college student, I’m just going to walk away, thanks anyways!). Then, Giorgio, we’ll call him, asked where I’m from.

“Virginia!”

“Oh, my friend. With this jacket, you are now the Tom Cruise of Virginia.”

The Tom Cruise of Virginia.

All of this is a preface to say, I have near-zero objectivity when it comes to Tom Cruise movies. That crazy, 5’7 man will always get my butt in a movie theater. Why? Well, frankly, because thankfully it’s okay to have near-zero objectivity when it comes to his movies — because they’re usually so good. His near maniacal (okay, maybe just maniacal) commitment to bringing the best to audiences every single time is legendary now. In an era of filmmaking defined by CGI, the Volume, and now AI, he continues to push the envelope on real, in-camera, borderline analog filmmaking, all for the benefit of the audience.

Nowhere has this been more in play than in his Mission: Impossible series. Across seven (!) films now, Cruise and his go-to partners have risked life and limb all for the enjoyment of audiences across the globe. Crazy? Maybe. But the man is on a singular mission to save the movies. He has been saying it for years now. Finally, between last year’s Top Gun: Maverick and now this year’s Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning — Part One, the world is saying it with him.

The newest entry in his now nearly 30-year franchise is the third directed and written by his favorite collaborator, Christopher McQuarrie. One of McQuarrie’s brilliant strokes since taking over the series with Rogue Nation in 2015 is to have a different team involved behind the scenes every time to ensure that the films have a different look and feel. This one is no different, though it also is clearly returning to director Brian DePalma’s look in the first Mission Impossible, to great results. Tight, low Dutch angles abound, particularly in conversations. It’s a reminder of how far the series has come, while also bringing it back to its smaller, more claustrophobic roots.

Not to say that the movie is small — by no means. This is the most ambitious undertaking McQuarrie and Cruise have undertaken yet, as evidenced by the two-part nature of the venture. The stunts and locations are as big and as complex as ever — from thrilling chases in Abu Dhabi and in Venice, to the motorcycle jump that has been the centerpiece of the film’s marketing campaign for over a year now. 

That ambition threatens to overtake the film’s narrative momentum in the opening forty minutes, however, with exposition, exposition, and a little more exposition helping to set the plot in motion for this movie and the next. It’s a lot of heavy lifting and you can feel that weight at times, especially in comparison to the how efficiently previous films dealt with setting their respective plots in motion. 

McQuarrie is not known for holding the audience’s hand, but there are moments where information is repeated ad nauseum, causing the film to drag in that first half. Select characters are burdened with exposition dumps throughout that reduce them more to plot devices than actual human beings — again, not typical for this franchise. It’s a surprise for someone like McQuarrie who’s such a smart screenwriter, with the only possible explanation being that all the time spent explaining will result in a more breathless, more efficient Part Two. 

Why all the exposition? You’ll have to see the movie for yourself to find out. But, in short, just as Cruise wants to push against digital filmmaking, streamers, AI, and the like, his character, Ethan Hunt, is fighting against an algorithm. Yes, Dead Reckoning is literally Cruise’s war against AI. 

The amount of table-setting necessary to put this plot in motion, along with it only being the first half, keeps Dead Reckoning from the upper echelon of Mission films (2018’s Fallout is still the series’ benchmark). But being the third or fourth-best Mission: Impossible? Any franchise would kill for an entry this good. 

What sets it apart? The set pieces come to mind first: there’s a reason that film lovers flock to these movies over, say, Fast & Furious or Marvel movies. The way they’re constructed, edited, and shot are second to none, as Cruise and McQuarrie continue to try and top themselves with each film. Everyone will be talking about the motorcycle stunt that really kicks off the film’s climax, with good reason — watching Cruise fly off a cliff, and then following him as he plummets to earth, is one of the wildest things the series has attempted. But not enough attention is being paid to the film’s Venice sequence near the middle. 

Without delving into spoiler territory, McQuarrie hits a series peak in terms of tension based on character here, utilizing the location to supreme effect. Beginning with a simple conversation at sunset on a rooftop and ending on a mist-surrounded bridge at night, the Venice sequence becomes the driving force for the rest of the movie. You feel the claustrophobia and the suspense palpably through the staging and the cinematography, through the looks of desperation on Cruise’s face (and others). And the end result? A raising of the stakes that pays off well in the film’s third act — but will hopefully pay off even more in Part Two.

The reason sequences like Venice and the rest work so well is because of the characters. Not to throw Vin Diesel under the bus again — but also to throw him under the bus again — Mission separates itself from franchises like Fast & Furious through its constant focus on characters and their souls. The stunts, as incredible and breathtaking as they are, would mean nothing without an investment in the characters involved. JJ Abrams was the first to really bring that into the series with Mission: Impossible III, but it was McQuarrie who perfected the team dynamic, ensuring that not only Cruise would continue from movie to movie, but also his supporting cast of Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, and others. What matters most to these people? As one character states early on in the seventh entry: “my friends.”

Dead Reckoning pushes that theme to the forefront, begging the question: why choose the life of an IMF agent, when it means not having a “life” as we typically know it? Not just in the case of Ethan, but for all the characters. Ultimately, it’s answered in a conversation late in the film. A character questions why Ethan wants to help when he doesn’t even know them. His answer: “Why does that matter?” 

For Ethan, and for, by extension, the actor who plays him, these movies are a vehicle for saying even the lives of those we don’t know matter — enough to the point of, yes, even driving a motorcycle right off a cliff. These films are about crazy stunts, masks, and gadgets, yes. But, thanks to Cruise and McQuarrie, they’ve become something more: about the importance of helping strangers, of choosing friendship above all. Ethan refuses to believe that anyone is expendable in the course of completing a mission. That belief drives him constantly, even as he himself undergoes physical and emotional pain, over and over again. His mission, that he chooses to accept? Save everyone he can — even those who seek to hurt him the most.

Franchises aren’t supposed to get better with age. But seven movies in now, Mission: Impossible continues to cement itself as the blockbuster franchise. Dead Reckoning — Part One may not be the franchise’s best, but in a series that features, arguably, some of the greatest action films ever made, that’s nothing to slouch at. And if all the track laid in this film pays off in Part Two, this film will age all the better when they’re ultimately ranked. 

Tom Cruise is putting his body on the line to save the moviegoing experience. Go see this one. And then choose to see Part Two next summer.

RATING: 4/5 stars

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:

• The score from Lorne Balfe is tremendous, particularly during the aforementioned harrowing sequence in Venice. 

• The movie employs a couple, we’ll call them, GoPro shots to make you feel like you’re right next to Tom Cruise as he’s driving or flying. They’re cool shots, but also a jarring difference from the rest of the cinematography in the movie. Less of those in Part Two, please. 

• If I were to rank the franchise right now, off a first watch of this one:

1. Fallout

2. Ghost Protocol

3. Rogue Nation, Dead Reckoning — Part One - tied

4. MI: III

5. MI

6. MI: 2

• Oh, that jacket in Florence? I bought it at full price. Well played, salesman.