On a $178 million budget, Mission: Impossible – Fallout grossed over $790 million worldwide, becoming the eighth highest-grossing film of 2018. Additionally, the movie earned some of the franchise’s best reviews, topping off with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2019, Tom Cruise announced that the next two installments would be shot back-to-back with Christopher McQuarrie returning to direct. Filming was supposed to start in February 2020, but production was pushed back due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Beginning in September 2020, the movie was shot in and around Italy, the UK, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates. With a roughly $291 million budget, this became one of the most expensive films ever made. The movie was initially supposed to come out in May 2022 but was replaced with Top Gun: Maverick. After five years, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One finally hit theaters in July 2023.
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Synopsis
IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is tasked with retrieving half of a cruciform key from an old friend. Said old friend, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), has a huge bounty placed on her head, and Hunt rescues her. Later, he crashes a meeting with the U.S. Intelligence Community and confronts his superior, Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny). Kittridge explains that the key is somehow connected to “The Entity,” an advanced AI that’s gone rogue and become sentient. Hunt reunites with his old friends Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) to hunt down the key. Along the way, he runs into Grace (Hayley Atwell), a pickpocket who snatches the key before escaping to Rome. At the same time, The Entity has tasked Gabriel (Esai Morales) and his assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff) to stop Hunt. With everyone after him, Ethan is determined to get the key and kill The Entity.
Review
It’s incredible that the Mission: Impossible series has been going on for this long and keeps improving. Once again, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One delivers everything an excellent action movie should. You’ve got many great action sequences involving car chases, alleyway fights, desert shootouts, and a climax on a runaway train. As always, Tom Cruise delivers a charismatic performance and does some crazy, death-defying stunts that top what he did before. Series newcomer Hayley Atwell also does a great job and has fantastic chemistry with Cruise. Returning cast members Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson are as dependable as ever and get their shining moments. It’s great to see Henry Czerny returning to play Kittridge after playing him in the original 1996 film. Pom Klementieff stands out as the silent but deadly assassin Paris, who comes off as intimidating without saying much.
Admittedly, the one outlier in the cast is Esai Morales as the villain Gabriel, a former ally of Ethan’s. His performance isn’t terrible, but there’s not much to the character that makes him very interesting or memorable. The plot has so many twists that it can be hard to follow, and several scenes are just exposition dialogue. In its defense, many other films in the series had convoluted stories, so it’s not exclusive to this one. Also, at two hours and forty-three minutes, the film runs longer than it should, and some scenes could’ve been trimmed. Regardless, this is still an excellent action film with huge stakes, big set pieces, and engaging characters you’re invested in. Considering this is part one, I’m curious and excited to see how the second half ties into this one. Overall, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One proves the franchise is still strong.
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