Tom Cruise – hate him or love him, there is no denying that he is one of the last big old-school movie stars in the age of streaming and superhero universes. His ability to entertain audiences and keep movie series like Mission: Impossible fresh and exciting is unparalleled. Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 is a sequel to Mission: Impossible – Fallout from 2018. MI-7 (for the ease of typing) stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, whose IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team takes on a powerful rogue AI known as “the Entity” (In this age of AI, humans are boring so we needed an AI villain).
The movie begins with the Russians threatening the West (of course – to fit in with the Western Russo-phobia) on the Sevastopol, a top secret next-generation Russian submarine, that is currently being tested. The captain of the submarine reveals that they are testing a prototype system for invisible navigation, by using dead reckoning. During the test, the crew is alerted to an enemy submarine moving faster than physically possible, and hear it complete a full torpedo launch sequence, prompting the captain to order the firing of the submarine’s own torpedos. They see them fail to intercept the enemy torpedoes and brace for impact, only for nothing to happen, and the enemy submarine to disappear from radar just before their own torpedoes hit it, leading them to believe that it was a “ghost in the system”. However, during the abort sequence, their own torpedo fails to disarm, and makes a loop heading back toward the Sevastopol. Despite all their efforts, the submarine is hit and sinks. None of the crew members survive and their bodies float back up to the surface.
Ethan Hunt is tasked with a mission to retrieve half of a cruciform key, which was on the Russian sub-commander’s neck, from his ally and friend, Ilsa Faust, on whom the IMF has placed a bounty. He travels to the Empty Quarter in the Arabian Desert, where he obtains the half-key from Faust. Back in the United States, Ethan infiltrates a meeting of the U.S. Intelligence Community, where officials of various intelligence agencies, including CIA Director, Eugene Kittridge, and Director of National Intelligence Denlinger, discuss an experimental artificial intelligence referred to as “the Entity“. Originally designed to sabotage digital systems, the Entity went rogue, achieved sentience, and infiltrated the major defense, military systems, and intelligence networks of the world. Various world powers are now racing against time to protect their national security and harness the Entity.
Ethan however, seeks to destroy it as he believes no nation in the world should have so much power. He and his teammates, Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell, travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the holder of the other half of the key. Ethan evades agents of the Intelligence Community as well as Gabriel, an Entity liaison with ties to Ethan’s pre-IMF past (of which we knew nothing about until the flashback scene), while the half-key is stolen by a professional thief, Grace, on behalf of a buyer. Meanwhile, Luther identifies a piece of baggage containing a nuclear explosive sent by the Entity; Benji narrowly defuses it, only to find it empty. Rattled by the Entity’s seeming precognition and the appearance of Gabriel, Ethan pursues Grace alone. In Rome, Ethan tracks down Grace before Community agents and Gabriel close in. After a lengthy chase, Grace escapes again, while Ethan reunites with his team and Faust.
With Benji and Luther’s support, Ethan and Ilsa infiltrate a party held by the arms dealer, Alanna Mitsopolis, in Venice, hoping to find Grace’s buyer and learn the purpose of the key. At the party, Grace encounters Gabriel and learns that Alanna had hired her to steal the half-key. Ethan unsuccessfully attempts to dissuade a fearful Alanna from selling the key. Gabriel tells the group that the Entity has infiltrated the party and determined that one of Ethan’s allies, either Ilsa or Grace, will die. They all scatter afterward, with Ethan sparing but subduing Gabriel’s subordinate, Paris. Gabriel subdues Grace; stabs and kills Faust, before Ethan can intervene, devastating him. A remorseful Grace is convinced to join Ethan’s team, and they prepare to board the Innsbruck-bound Orient Express, where Alanna will meet with her buyer. Luther leaves for an off-grid location to investigate isolated traces of the Entity in his hard drive, warning Ethan not to kill Gabriel out of vengeance, as the Entity already expects him to. On the train, Gabriel kills the engineer and fireman; destroys the throttle and brake before meeting Denlinger, who proposes an alliance between himself and the Entity.
Denlinger explains that the complete key unlocks the chamber housing the computer of the Russian submarine, Sevastopol, which was attacked and sunk by an early version of the Entity after it infected the system and tricked the crew into destroying the submarine with their own torpedoes. This early version is still on the submarine, and whoever can access it can devise the means to either control or destroy the Entity, once and for all. Gabriel kills Denlinger and attempts to kill Paris, who the Entity has determined will betray them, because Ethan had spared her life in Venice. Impersonating Alanna, Grace brings the complete key to the buyer, whom she learns to be Kittridge. Though tempted to betray Ethan for $100 million and protection for herself, she decides against it, pickpockets the key from Kittridge, and flees. Soon after, Kittridge and Alanna’s henchmen discover Grace’s deception and confront her.
Ethan parachutes off a perilous cliff onto the train to save Grace, but Gabriel acquires the key. Ethan overpowers Gabriel on top of the train, but the latter escapes and detonates the bridge ahead. Grace and Ethan detach the locomotive from the rest of the train, saving all the passengers (a truly thrilling segment and one of the best action sequences of the movie). Just before they are about to plunge down the broken bridge, they are saved by Paris, who informs Ethan of the key’s connection to the Sevastopol, before falling unconscious from her injuries. As Ethan flees the train with the complete key, which he had pickpocketed from Gabriel during their skirmish, Grace informs Kittridge that she has chosen to join the IMF.
Overall, MI-7 is all you want in an action movie – it has thrills, suspense, insane stunts and fights and a story that doesn’t let you get bored. The villain Gabriel is played by Esai Morales of Ozark fame and does bring a deviousness to the role of the villain. His partner, Paris is played by Pom Klementieff who is basically out there to be a chaotic agent of destruction. However her action sequences with Ethan Hunt are some of the best in the movie. The knife fight above the train between Ethan and Gabriel is intense and sort of reminds us of the train sequence in Mission: Impossible from 1996. Simon Pegg as Benji acting as the comic relief, doesn’t disappoint and brings a lightness to the movie. Hayley Atwell as Grace is decent but doesn’t bring much while Rebecca Ferguson is wasted both as a talent and literally in the movie. Her character Ilsa Faust, joins a long list of women associated with Ethan Hunt who haven’t made it all the way through in the Mission: Impossible series. Vanessa Kirby as Alanna seems on the verge of tears – not sure if they added too many artificial tears to her makeup or what but it did bring her presence as a powerful arms dealer, a lack of believability.
So, who’s left? Of course, the man (or the vampire) Tom Cruise who holds the movie together from start to finish. It is funny how every character could be replaced or played by another actor but Tom Cruise is essential for the movie to be a success. All the Hollywood elites and the woke perpetually offended folk who detest Tom Cruise for his association with Scientology cannot deny his power to pull audiences at the box office. He did it with Top Gun: Maverick and he is doing it again as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible. His commitment to his craft is undeniable and no matter what Brie Larson blabbers about her doing her own pathetic stunts, she is nowhere close to the master that is Tom Cruise. He takes it to another level with his motorcycle jump off a cliff in this movie. The question is will Part 2 be the end of Ethan Hunt as at 61, a moment comes where biology trumps will and Tom Cruise, despite his elixir of ageing, will also need to let go of the character, as many actors portraying iconic characters have had to. All we can say is that, whenever this happens, we would have lost the last great Hollywood action hero.
JAY’S VERDICT
A movie made for the big screen – grab your soda and your popcorn and let Tom Cruise entertain you as God intended.
