While it may not quite top Fallout as being the best in the series, Dead Reckoning (Part One) is another masterclass in how to craft a crowd-pleasing, adrenaline packed, propulsive action-thriller blockbuster, packed full of memorable characters as well as jaw-dropping stunt sequences.

Premise: The creation of a weaponised AI that could fundamentally upset the balance of power between the world’s intelligence agencies, and the return of a mysterious figure from his past, set Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) on a mission to find Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and prevent a global armageddon.

Review:

Now that we’re seven films into the Mission: Impossible series, it’s clear that the movies fall into two distinct eras. The first four films were largely standalone films, each approaching the spy genre from a different angle with a different director – Brian De Palma’s first Mission: Impossible in 1996 was a suspense-driven thriller, then John Woo’s M:I-2 in 2000 was a stylised action-fest, before J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III in 2006 focused on Ethan Hunt’s attempt to have a “normal” life, and finally Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol in 2011 attempted to subvert the established tropes of the series. Each of those films over that 15 year period were, essentially, individual standalone films with noticeably different tones and stylistic approaches to the material.

That all changed as the “second era” of the Mission: Impossible series began in 2015, when writer/director Christopher McQuarrie first teamed up with Tom Cruise to make the excellent Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. Cruise and “McQ” clearly have a great working relationship, having worked together in one capacity or another on 11 movies (12 if you include the movie that they’re currently filming), and Rogue Nation eventually became the first film in the Mission: Impossible series that really felt like it was part of a larger narrative – especially after Mission: Impossible – Fallout came out in 2018 and effectively formed a two-part story with Rogue Nation, focused around Sean Harris’ rogue agent Solomon Lane, and Rebecca Ferguson’s enigmatic Ilsa Faust.

“…delivers a satisfying conclusion to the first part, while also leaving the door open for the next chapter…”

For me, as much as I enjoyed the earlier movies, the films of the “McQuarrie Era” of the Mission: Impossible series stand head and shoulders above the others because of the masterful way in which they are able to find a perfect balance between plot, character and stunt work. In this regard, while Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Part One) doesn’t feel like it quite hits the dizzying heights achieved by Fallout (which, in my opinion, is the best movie in the series so far), it’s not far off – and when Dead Reckoning (Part Two) comes out next year and we can see the entire story in all its glory, I may even need to reassess my current feelings on Dead Reckoning (Part One).

On that note, I need to be absolutely clear that Dead Reckoning (Part One) is not in any way an unsatisfying movie in its own right – but equally, it intentionally does not tell the “full story” and leaves several plots threads to be concluded in next year’s second part. In many ways, it reminds me of the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, in that way that it: has a lengthy pre-titles sequence to establish the events leading up to the main story; it spends a lot of its early scenes setting up the various new characters and competing agendas; and it culminates in a suitably climatic finale that feels like a satisfying conclusion to the movie while also leaving the door open for the next leg of the characters’ respective journeys.

“…the biggest revelation in this movie is Hayley Atwell…”

The cast that McQuarrie and Cruise have assembled for Dead Reckoning (Part One) is incredible – not only are Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg back as Ethan Hunt and his trusted friends Ilsa Faust, Luther Stickell and Benji Dunn, but Vanessa Kirby also returns as the black-marketeer known as the White Widow, while Henry Czerny returns to the series for the first time since 1996’s Mission: Impossible as shadowy intelligence overlord Kittridge.

Alongside the great returning cast are several memorable new characters, which include Shea Whigham as an unrelenting agent in pursuit of his quarry, Cary Elwes as the US Director of National Intelligence, and Esai Morales as Gabriel, the enigmatic antagonist with a mysterious connection to Ethan Hunt’s life before he joined the IMF. You could argue that Gabriel is perhaps a little underdeveloped (so far), but this is only “Part One” after all, and I have no doubt that they’re holding a lot of his backstory back for “Part Two”. Meanwhile, Pom Klementieff makes a big impression despite her relatively limited screentime as Paris, Gabriel’s lethal associate, but without a doubt, the biggest revelation in this movie is Hayley Atwell, who in many respects is the second lead in the movie after Tom Cruise.

“…Hayley Atwell has a story arc unlike any of the other characters that we’ve seen in the series so far…”

I’ve long been a big fan of Hayley Atwell, but I’ve also felt that Hollywood hadn’t fully realised what she was capable off. Although she was given the lead on the TV show Agent Carter, she’s general been relegated in movies to supporting roles and love interests (although her cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness gave a tantalising glimpse of what she could do with a lead role on the big screen). Dead Reckoning (Part One) feels like the first film to fully realise Hayley Atwell’s potential, giving her what should be a career-making performance.

I don’t want to say too much about her character, Grace, as part of the fun of the movie is gradually learning about her character as Ethan Hunt does – but suffice to say that Grace has a story arc unlike any of the other characters that we’ve seen in the series so far. The role gives Hayley Atwell a chance to do a bit of everything – comedy, drama and action – and she not only excels at all of it, but she also has terrific onscreen chemistry with Tom Cruise, that captures the mismatched odd couple dynamics of classic screwball comedies of yesteryear.

“…the film’s depiction of AI is both timely & intriguing…”

The plots to most of the Mission: Impossible films have centred around a hunt for different “MacGuffins”, and Dead Reckoning (Part One) continues that tradition, with Ethan Hunt this time racing to find two pieces of a metaphorical and literal key. You could argue that, like the “Rabbit’s Foot” in Mission: Impossible III, it’s not really important what the cruciform key in this movie actually is – although its relevance may become more meaningful in its own right in Part Two.

What is particularly interesting in this movie is the fact that the villain and the MacGuffin are inextricably linked, and the film’s depiction of Artificial Intelligence is both timely (given that work on this film started several years ago, long before ChatGPT became a household name) and intriguing, focusing as it does on the AI’s potential for pseudo-precognitive predictions, based on psychological profiling, probability modelling and psychometric analysis. This also isn’t a film where AI is threatening to simply “launch all the nukes” (yawn), and instead, the danger is far more insidious, with the threat being an inability to tell objective truth from implanted lie if digital records can no longer be relied upon. The sight of hundreds of CIA agents furiously copying out countless electronic records on typewriters to protect them from digital interference is a particularly memorable image.

“…you’ll be hard pressed to find a more propulsive, jaw-dropping, old-school action-thriller of a blockbuster this summer…”

Of course, this being a MacQuarrie/Cruise Mission: Impossible film, the stunt work is second to none. The motorbike cliff jump is the movie’s “big” stunt that featured in a lot of the advance publicity, but the car chase through the streets of Rome was probably my favourite set-piece. There are, however, tense and exhilarating action sequences from the opening prologue to the closing showdown, and after the first half-hour sets up the various plot threads, the pace never lets up.

Taken as a standalone film, Dead Reckoning (Part One) isn’t quite as satisfying a movie-going experience as Fallout, primarily because there’s still so much left unresolved as the end credits roll. But you’ll still be hard pressed to find a more propulsive, jaw-dropping, old-school action-thriller of a blockbuster this summer, and it’s certainly left me eagerly awaiting Part Two (due next June).