Review of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) by Matimiter — 18 Jul 2023

With Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One being the seventh entry in the franchise, you’d think the bar would be impossible to raise this time around. In all previous installments, Tom Cruise has elevated the level of this series’ craft countless times–in terms of action, personal stakes, and jaw-dropping stunt-making. And he did it again. This time around, Ethan Hunt and his crew find themselves in a deadly race between world governments, and AI-controlled thugs. The goal? To destroy the mentioned AI and stop it from swaying the balance of the modern world.

Just like Thanos tried balancing the universe, Mission Impossible does so with the Hollywood micro cosmos in a way. In times filled with mediocre action and superhero productions like The Flash or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania–which toy around with the not-so-new idea of the multiverse and numerous cheap easter eggs–Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie bet on the same odds, which are the winning ones once again.

Action cinema fans might feel like they know what they’re going to see when going to watch Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. And to some extent they’re right. Characters engage in suspenseful, action-packed sequences in renowned areas around the world and some incredible (and given Cruise does most of them himself, quite impossible you could say) stunts. Still, the detail in which these have been made are ground-breaking. Even though it feels like there are few new heights to be reached in terms of action sequences, especially with the John Wick franchise doing such a spectacular job in this area as well, Mission Impossible still delivers. The breaking point has been the levels of tension and buildup Hunt and other characters have been able to achieve in Dead Reckoning Part One. While John Wick excels in what feels like never-ending fights, Mission Impossible has found a way to introduce multiple layers of intrigue and plot twists simultaneously into single acts of each movie, especially in this one. Dead Reckoning Part One is packed and focused on these intrigues and how they interact with each other. With such a stellar range of talented actors, many would expect the plot and purpose of each one to be too much, and to simply fail to interact with each other. Luckily, that’s not the case here, and it’s an admirable achievement on its own.

The movie is essentially two and a half hours long and is mostly composed of such moments, which then burst out into dynamic interactions, brawls, and beautifully shot stunts. There are some moments to breathe, but they’re short, and feel like intersections between one rollercoaster and another in a theme park, rather than full-time lunch breaks.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t get boring, especially with additions of fresh characters such as Hayley’s Atwell’s Grace or the return of old ones like Vanessa Kirby’s White Widow. Surely there are a bunch of nitpicks anyone could’ve done. But, ultimately, when Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One finishes, you don’t feel exhausted. You know it’s been a hell of a ride, worth every second and penny.

The movie does have a proper ending rather than just being left as an open book before Part Two arrives next year. Nowadays, two-part stories struggle with that in cinema, so it’s nice to see an exception.

With all their heart Cruise, McQuarrie, and the rest of the crew put into making this masterpiece, it’s tough not to admire it. They’ve made Mission Impossible franchise an epitome of action cinema, and Dead Reckoning - Part One feels like the best entry in the franchise so far.

Although Mission Impossible might have a perfect formula for success, it’d be a shame if Dead Reckoning Part Two won’t be the end of the series or at least a sendoff to the current characters. It would be hard to watch the franchise lose its steam and become another cheap money-printing machine. And, last but not least, I believe we can all agree Hunt and Cruise finally deserve some well-earned retirement after entertaining us for 27 years. That is, naturally, if they’re given a happy ending, which they deserve.