In a summer already flush with sequels — from Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 to Fast X, and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-verse to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — there’s a blissful simplicity to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
The Tom Cruise-centered espionage franchise does not expect you to tirelessly rewatch the past films to keep up with the lore of its latest installment. It doesn’t require you to work at all, allowing audiences to kick back and enjoy as Ethan Hunt kicks butt and employs absolutely bonkers stunts in the name of the greater good.
This seventh installment of the Mission: Impossible film series welcomes back recurring cast members, including Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Henry Czerny, who hasn’t popped up since the first outing in 1996. But you don’t need to remember who’s who or what went down before, because these movies aren’t about sprawling lore, they’re about a formula. If you’re a fan of this franchise, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will pull you to the edge of your seat and thrill you down to your bones. That’s just science.
What’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One about?
The outline of the plot is familiar: Ethan Hunt, agent of the Impossible Missions Force, is offered a chance to save the world — if he chooses to accept it. (Spoiler: He will.) Along the way, he will don incredible disguises, utilize dizzying spy tech, mix it up with suave friends and foes, and taunt death with a series of narrow escapes and jaw-dropping stunts.
The particulars this time: Hunt is seeking two parts of a mysterious key that’s believed to be crucial to controlling a sentient AI that’s casually hacking every government and banking system all over the world. It’s assumed whoever holds these keys will hold control over « The Entity, » as the AI is called. But first, they’ll need to search the depths of the ocean and mountain tops and racing trains in between to find this multi-part MacGuffin!
Though Ethan is initially asked to track down the key by IMF head Eugene Kittridge (Czerny), he will swiftly be disavowed and chased by the very government that is his on-again-off-again-and-again. Trying to beat US agents (including Shea Whigham), shady lady the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby), and smug assassins (Esai Morales and Pom Klementieff) to the key, Ethan teams up with trusted friends Benji Dunn (Pegg), Luther Stickell (Rhames), and Ilsa Faust (Ferguson), as well as a mysterious pickpocket called Grace, played by a beguiling Hayley Atwell. Together and gone rogue (again), they’ll do the impossible on their quest to save mankind from a menacing machine.
And don’t fret, amid plenty of exposition dumps, you’ll never feel like you missed a meeting or a movie.
Mission: Impossible 7 brings in fresh fun with romantic comedy vibes.
Across this franchise, Ethan Hunt has fallen for several gorgeous brunettes, who — even when tough as nails — harbor a heart of gold. This time his love interest is a smirking Hayley Atwell, who is outfitted in meticulously fitted vests and dress shirts that hug her curves while giving a Fleming flair at the sleeves. Her posh but preppy aesthetic is a sharp contrast to the femme fatale luxury of the White Widow and the rugged beauty of the unflappable Ilsa. Atwell softens the edge she brought to the MCU as Peggy Carter, and whether bantering with a wicked wink or racing from death handcuffed to her uneasy ally, she’s got a buoyant charisma that feels more suited to rom-com than espionage thriller.
While writer/director Christopher McQuarrie carefully plants a slew of outrageous action sequences throughout Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, he finds fresh fun by weaving in this romantic subplot that swaggers with whimsy. A car chase that nods to The Bourne Identity is fast-paced and furious, darting down narrow alleys and landmark staircases in Rome. But there’s an added layer of excitement and humor as Grace and Ethan bicker and quip. Cruise may take these movies very seriously, but thankfully McQuarrie finds ways to bring levity to create a bouncy balance.
While Indiana Jones’s latest has its iconic hero having outgrown crisis-sparked romance, Cruise refuses to age his protagonist. Likewise, there’s no whiff of this being Ethan’s last ride, nor is he quite so melancholy about mortality. Instead, Ethan — even when facing death — is agelessly alive, agile, and potentially ready for love. (Did he have a wife? What happened to her? Who cares! Not this movie! ) Cruise shares a crackling chemistry with Atwell, and it’s a zippy pleasure to watch them race and romance in this globe-trekking romp.
Mission: Impossible 7 suffers from a too-late release date.
Overall, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is reliable, entertaining in just the ways you’d expect. An ensemble with crooked smiles and intense stares sneer back and forth about bombs and double-crosses, while the signature theme blares over skydiving, sword-fighting, and some next level train-hopping. Some of the extravagances of this franchise feel a bit quaint, like Ethan’s inexplicably naive return to U.S. government-sanctioned spy work and the squad’s refusal to bring a gun to a knife fight. (In one sequence, they have scads of firepower but pack none to go meet with a deeply dangerous figure on their home turf!?) But the biggest failure of this film is just that it’s come too late this summer.
It’s not even mid-July, and already a slew of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘s elements feel like repeats from earlier splashy summer releases. A sequence where they race fast and furious through Rome recalls a more carnage-packed bit from Fast X. The multi-part MacGuffin reminds us of the titular dial in the new Indiana Jones film, as does a fight sequence atop a speeding train. The jolting dangers of AI — while a mounting real-life concern, perhaps especially in Hollywood — were more shocking in Black Mirror Season 6 than they are here, where The Entity is thisclose to being a digital god and its algorithm is treated like it has the power of prophecy. Even this film’s cliffhanger finale feels old-hat already, as it’s a trick pulled by Beyond the Spider-Verse and Fast X — though at the least the « Part One » here warns us in advance!
Pom Klementieff proves a merciless scene-stealer.
Nonetheless, there is plenty of fun to be had in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. On top of the gonzo action that Tom Cruise has made his chief vocation as a movie star, there’s the winsome romance, Atwell’s kinetic charm, Ferguson’s smirking sensuality, Pegg’s apoplectic comic relief, and a delightfully fun turn for Kirby in a third-act twist. There’s not a weak player in the bunch, be it Morales’s zealous killer or Greg Tarzan Davis as a disillusioned agent on the brink. But the cast member having the most fun here might well be Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3′s Pom Klementieff.
Playing an assassin named Paris, she sinks her teeth into the scenery while treating cobblestone streets, neon-lit soirees, and crowded train cars as a runway for fierce fashion and fabulous ferociousness. Her character has no apparent history or motivation for 99% of her screentime, and has such a profound lack of lines that when she does speak in the climax, you might well think, « Oh. Paris is French, I guess. » But being handed an underwritten role by McQuarrie and co-writer Erik Jendresen is no issue for Klementieff.
The wide-eyed sweetness of her Mantis is slain with one wicked grin. Paris’s character is communicated through costumes that throw together punk elements with plaid mini-skirts, Harley Quinn-like face paint with sharp military jackets, and a ruthlessly bespoke business suit, all topped with a bleach blond bob that feels like a ’00s throwback in an exhilarating way. Klementieff doesn’t just wear these cool costumes from Jill Taylor; she fills them with a frenzied lust for carnage, cackling as her vehicle barrels through a fleet of motorcycles, screaming with joy as she brings a blunt weapon to a back-alley ambush. When the movie abruptly demands the audience see Paris as more than a near-silent, unapologetically vicious killer, it only almost works because Klementieff brings this agent of chaos to sparking life.
In the end, even with its forewarned cliffhanger, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is an unquestionably exciting film, satisfyingly entertaining thanks to its generous heaps of star power, stunt spectacle, and Cruise control — topped with the special sauce of Atwell as a rom-com charmer and Klementieff as a mesmerizing wild card. Its twists and turns are dulled through no fault of its own, but due to the cruelty of comparison to other big summer releases. But it’s still a spectacular time at the movie — if you choose to accept it.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One opens in theaters July 12.
