Riot’s Reviews: Mission Impossible-Dead Reckoning Pt. 1
The Mission Impossible franchise is certainly a storied one, cementing itself in cinematic history as, what I would consider, the American equivalent of James Bond. The similarities are abundant: spy craft, fascinating gadgets, thrilling action sequences, gun fights, and maniacal bad guys hell-bent on taking over the modern world. The MI series sets itself apart in some fairly distinct ways though, which I’d argue is where most of the draw to these films comes in. There is often a pretty fascinating (borderline prime Shyamalan style) twist that comes into play and the franchise is helmed by an action star so committed to his craft that he refuses to let anyone else do his unbelievable stunts. Through multiple decades (holy cow the first came out in 1996!!!) and multiple directors, Tom Cruise has taken us through some outright amazing adventures. So many years later, can he strike gold again?
Mission Impossible-Dead Reckoning Pt.1 kicks off in a Russian submarine that is carrying an incredible payload, a hyper-intelligent A.I. that is helping the sub remain undetectable to enemy forces. When an enemy sub seems to have finally spotted the Russians, their counterattack quickly goes haywire as the sailors realize their instruments are being manipulated by its A.I. passenger, to the downfall of the entire crew. Seemingly lost to the sea is a pair of interlocking keys that are inextricably linked to the machine whose location fades from the world’s knowledge. When we meet up again with Ethan Hunt (Cruise) his new mission is to track down an old accomplice, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and obtain one half of the key she is in possession of. Unsurprisingly for Ethan, what seems to be a regular day at the office quickly becomes an exceedingly complicated web of old and new faces, all hellbent on retrieving the keys and gaining power over the rapidly advancing A.I.
Now if you’re thinking that little snippet is oversharing, you’d be dead (reckoning lol) wrong. By the time the classic opening credits kick in, you’re maybe only 15-25 minutes into a two hour and forty-three minute film. Full transparency, it was a real struggle to find legitimate complaints during this one but certainly, the exorbitant run-time heads the list. The problem with this critique is that I would be hard pressed to find minutes or content to cut down. Unlike some of the unreasonably drawn out chase scenes in movies like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, director Christopher McQuarrie had a better sense when to move onto the next scene. Outside of the action, there is certainly a healthyamount of dialogue but it didn’t feel overextended or out of place. Also, unlike the set-up film of Across the Spider-Verse, this part one of a story has a more rounded out plot that still accomplishes planting the seed of desire to witness the finale without relying solely on a massive cliffhanger.
Dead Reckoning shines in the same way the last few Mission Impossible films have: in its outright fantastic acting. The trio of Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, and Ving Rhames is an absolute winner yet again. Their interactions and dynamic friendship has been the right kind of selling point that balances out the unbelievable stunts for the last few installations. Dead Reckoning leans into some old faces that bring on the extra talent including Henry Czerny (Kittridge) and Vanessa Kirby (The White Widow) and introduces a trio of new additions in Hayley Atwell (Grace), Esai Morales (Gabriel), and Pom Klementieff (Paris). The latter three were as incredible as they could possibly be. Atwell proved herself very capable keeping up with Cruise in nearly every way. Morales as the film’s main antagonist was uncomfortably terrifying. And Klementieff as a (mostly) silent assassin had me on the edge of my seat whenever she was menacingly chasing down her marks.
Dead Reckoning accomplished something that has seemingly been a real struggle in Hollywood these days; keeping the plot on the rails through the final quarter of the film. This proves exceptionally ironic since the entire final action sequence takes place on a runaway train. The last Mission Impossible set itself apart from the others by featuring some absolutely stunning fight sequences that the audience simply didn’t expect. While Dead Reckoning takes a bit of a step away from the hand to hand combat, it brings back some of the thrilling gun fighting scenes from old films and leans back into the complex world of espionage and spy craft. The tension (in almost every way) is palpable from the start and damn near never lets up. At the film’s crescendo, the audience is hit with visually mind-blowing action sequences over and over until the end credits finally hit. The movie stays absolutely true to the Mission Impossible format and now will have to contend with the same problem as Spider-Verse; how to make a finale as good or better than its part one. As far as I’m concerned for both, it’ll be a tall order.
Riot’s Rating: 9.4/10: I don’t feel comfortable giving it a higher rating than Across the Spider-Verse to be perfectly honest. But this is definitely one you cannot miss. Tom Cruise has truly done it again, putting another of his summer blockbusters on the board as the best action film of the year.
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