After the unexpected box office shattering performance of Top Gun: Maverick last summer, Tom Cruise has been cemented in the minds of many as the king of the box office and savior of the theatrical experience. Halfway through a summer of disastrous proportions for tentpole films, Cruise is once again looked at to help save the day for Hollywood accounting and theater exhibitors with the latest installment of his Mission Impossible franchise. Can Cruise entice audiences and save Tinseltown once more?
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 puts audiences alongside Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team of Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) once more as Ethan accepts the mission of tracking down two halves of a key that will unlock access to an artificial intelligence program gone rogue coined The Entity. The Entity has infiltrated government computer systems the world over and can wreck havoc within the blink of an eye, leaving the world’s powers both fearful of the program and in a race to use the key not to take it offline, but gain control of it and use it to control the world. Along the way, Ethan and the team encounter Grace (Hayley Atwell) a master thief who adds another wrinkle in their pursuit of the key. As they seek to utilize her help, Ethan soon finds himself confronting a wild card of The Entity’s from Ethan’s past.
If you’re going to the theater to see a movie in the Mission Impossible series, or a Tom Cruise movie in general, you’ve probably paid the price of admission so that you will be treated to the best, most high octane action sequences that Hollywood is able to produce. With that in mind, I feel it is my duty to open this review by reporting that the action in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning absolutely does not disappoint. The thrilling physical stunts and impossible (see what I did there?) predicaments that the characters, and thus the actors, continually find themselves in during the movie’s nearly two hour and forty-five minute runtime keeps viewers on the edge of their seat and tense while watching if they will survive, even though for most of the onscreen talent, you know that will be the case. It’s a testament to the atmosphere Christopher McQuarrie is able to create from the director’s chair in pulling the audience in and creating the sense of real stakes for the story and its characters. Take the film’s half hour long, pre-credits opening that is brilliant in its technical execution in introducing the film’s premise and building tension in both the long and short-term for the film. The action and spy thriller elements are so engrossing and interesting to watch unfold that many in the audience won’t even notice that the credits haven’t begun until they start rolling. Another display of McQuarrie’s skill is an engrossing parallel game of cat-and-mouse scene set in an airport that establishes Dead Reckoning’s spy thriller elements with character development and story progression during a bomb diffusion that further fleshes out the disembodied A.I. villain and Benji. The pacing and editing balance the simultaneous scenes perfectly and is a feat of filmmaking that display this movie is about more than just popcorn blockbuster action scenes.
In addition to the craftsmanship present in the movie, the main villain in the story adds a touch of topicality that also separates Dead Reckoning from typical blockbuster fare. The concept of an A.I. program that has gone rogue and infiltrated the digital systems of every government the world over in order to achieve its own mysterious ends is a timely one in a world where growing concern over the place of artificial intelligence programs in our future and what that could mean for society and humanity moving forward has been a hot topic of discussion. As technology continues to develop at a rapid pace, the ability of our society to keep up with its development and potential for malevolence has already been challenged and had a substantial effect on major developments in our world. Dead Reckoning explores these questions within the movie, presenting The Entity as a threat to the truth of the human world and what people know to be real, both for civilians and for the defense and intelligence systems of the world’s governments. There is slight familiarity here with concepts from science fiction past such as the Terminator series, but the villain being a software entity that sees humans and can manipulate them and their technology without the use of an avatar like a cyborg or robot feels new and fresh enough to avoid being rote. This bit of substance and exploration about our world elevates Dead Reckoning narratively from a story that just seeks excuses to display elaborate action sequences to a movie with some semblance of thematic heft.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning combines incredible action sequences with a story that both thrills and provides topical commentary on society writ large to create a movie that will keep audiences thoroughly entertained and invested in an interesting story. The movie takes the time to flesh out its characters and elevate its villains into interesting foils rather than just obstacles for the heroes to attack and play off of for the sake appearing valiant. Being the first of a two-part story, director Christopher McQuarrie does well in making the movie something that is interesting on its own while leaving just enough for audiences to remain invested in its eventual conclusion. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning is a definite crowd pleaser that shows why blockbuster filmmaking is something that drives people to theaters.
Image: Paramount Pictures
