Two things to talk about here. For all intents and purposes, the Mission Impossible franchise is all about the action. Yes, there’s a cat-and-mouse chase for the key. Now add the requisite car chases, train fights, aerial stunts, and big explosions, and you have a film. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Part One) elevates every action trope to impossible levels. But those scenes are still exhilarating.
The other part of the narrative is the relationship between Ethan and Grace. At a minimum, Grace is your standard thief with a checkered past. Most of her arc involves not knowing who to trust while she’s forced to look out for herself. The emotional thread of this movie is Grace slowly uncovering the man that Ethan is and whether or not he is someone to follow for altruistic reasons. The sequence at the airport is the perfect example of this. The segment is a game of following the key from Grace to Ethan to a few bad guys and all the while showing us the power of Gabriel and the A.I. We’ve seen action scenes like this, but Cruise and McQuarrie turn a simple chase and key hunt into the most riveting moment in the film.
“Cruise and McQuarrie promised an action film like no other, and they delivered.”
It then gets more thrilling from there. The car chase in Italy outshines the Fast X car chase on the very same streets. Ethan and Grace are handcuffed together, driving a souped-up tiny Fiat and trying to escape the Italian police and Paris driving what appears to be a police tank. I didn’t even mention two lone federal agents in Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis. These two have small but pivotal roles.
Best of all. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Part One) does precisely what a sequel should do. It plays all the tunes you love: Cruise, Pegg, Rhames, and Ferguson have all returned; the band is back and better than ever. Now add Morales and Klementieff as the new baddies while throwing in the Kirby playing a few new tunes, and we have an actioner that feels comfortable yet has evolved since the last entry.
McQuarrie has to be the best action director working today. Along with Cruise, his ability to tell a complicated story and make it feel simple and easy to follow is second to none. Best of all, this is a movie for the fans of cinema. It entertains and makes us think, then puts pretty people on the screen. In that sense, it is a total blockbster. Cruise and McQuarrie promised an action film like no other, and they delivered. This may not be the best of the series, but Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Part One) is definitely a return to form and a feature I’ve been craving since Top Gun: Maverick.
"…car chases, train fights, aerial stunts, and big explosions..."
