Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
In the summer’s most exhilarating blockbuster, an algorithm knows the future – and it doesn’t look good for mankind.
Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist,” said Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) in The Usual Suspects. It’s a villain of similar anonymity who makes life so difficult for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his crew – and the rest of the world for that matter – in Dead Reckoning. Gabriel (Esai Morales) sees “death as a gift to be shared with the rest of the world.” More worrying still, Gabriel is a hair’s breadth away from controlling The Entity, an artificial intelligence that is re-shaping the digital realm – across all platforms. Meanwhile, the Russians have come up with “the most fearsome killing machine ever devised by man.” But is it any match for The Entity? Still, we need not worry so long as we’ve never operated a mobile phone or turned on a computer…
In a summer of dippy, disappointing blockbusters, it is reassuring to encounter a big-budget movie ahead of the game, tackling the disconcerting capabilities of both AI and the Kremlin. Thank God, then, for Ethan Hunt, the scientific brains of Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and the out-of-the-box wisdom of Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames). Hunt may have no superhuman powers but he is super-smart, intuitive, fit, phenomenally courageous and has an unwavering moral code (and can speak fluent French and Italian). He has also become the most wanted man on the planet, with a slew of clandestine agencies baying for his blood – just as he is trying to save the world from this “truth-eating digital parasite” (Benji’s words).
Christopher McQuarrie may be the most gifted and successful filmmaker you’ve never heard of. He’s the can-do scriptwriter to go to when the big players need a reliable talent to shake up a franchise. He won an Oscar for his second screenplay (for The Usual Suspects, see above) and contributed to the scripts of X-Men, World War Z, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Top Gun: Maverick. He’s also responsible for directing the two best entries in the M:I canon – Rogue Nation (2015) and Fallout (2018), the previous four being directed by Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams and Brad Bird. And he has elevated the series to the level of the re-vamped Bond movies.
Here, McQuarrie not only crafts superlative dialogue but gets his actors to deliver his lines with accomplished understatement. He not only provides a chilling villain in Esai Morales (as Gabriel), but gives us a female lead who has the brains to match her beauty and comic timing. Hayley Atwell has been simmering under the radar of superstardom for sixteen years, only recently winning real American fame as Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Marvel Television’s subsequent series Agent Carter. But she’s always been good and here she lights up the screen. Tom Cruise, apparently 61-years-old, provides the testosterone and continues to perform his own stunts, giving the film an edge of reality that makes the jaw drop.
Dead Reckoning, superbly scored by Lorne Balfe and fabulously shot by Fraser Taggart – in locales as far-flung as the Arabian Desert and the Austrian Alps (via Abu Dhabi, Rome, Venice and the Bering Sea) – reminds one of the excitement that the cinema can bring. Rich with scintillating detail, dastardly bad guys (Pom Klementieff is priceless as a demonic assassin) and breath-catching chases, the film raises the bar of what the multiplex can offer. At the screening I attended, it was a joy to hear the communal gasps and laughter, in cinematic terms transmuting mere Butterkist into high-grade heroin.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Frederick Schmidt, Cary Elwes, Mark Gatiss, Indira Varma, Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell.
Dir Christopher McQuarrie, Pro Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, Screenplay Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen, Ph Fraser Taggart, Pro Des Gary Freeman, Ed Eddie Hamilton, Music Lorne Balfe, Costumes Jill Taylor, Dialect coach Marcela Marambio, Splinter Unit Dir Chris Jones.
Skydance/TC Productions-Paramount Pictures.
163 mins. USA. 2023. UK Rel: 10 July 2023. US Rel: 11 July 2023. Cert. 12A.
