A little history lesson. The first Mission: Impossible movie came out way in 1996, 27 years ago. The storyline took place six years after the end of the ‘80’s TV series which aired from 1988-1990. That series began 15 years after the original series, which aired from 1966-1973. So altogether, the storyline spans 57 years. Both TV series, plus the first Mission: Impossible movie, featured the character Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves for TV and Jon Voight for the movie. Graves was offered to play the role once again for the big screen, but refused since the script called for his good-guy character to go bad. (Sorry for the spoiler alert, but it’s been 27 years…) Since that time, Tom Cruise has led the small pack of Impossible Missions Force team.
But it wasn’t until the 2011’s Ghost Protocol that the series really began to resonate with audiences. The 1996 film got a low Rotten Tomatoes score of 66%. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) did worse with just 56%. Mission: Impossible 3 (2006) did better at 71% followed by Ghost Protocol at 93%, 2015’s Rogue Nation at 94%, 2018’s Fallout at 97% and this year’s Dead Reckoning, Part One at 96%. (If you need to catch up, you can watch the original show and the movies on Paramount+.)
I am not a Tom Cruise fan, but I too have grown to love this series. And while his acting hasn’t gotten any better (he might be even stiffer) the storylines certainly have. (Well, the fact that he does most of his own stunts too is pretty impressive.) Oh sure, they’re all pretty crazy with “impossible” plot twists and those masks. But they’re fun. And unlike most James Bond films, the storylines are easier to understand if not more convoluted.
Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, there are plenty of on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments in Dead Reckoning. Clocking in nearly three hours, there are LOTS of on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments. My wife thought the film was an hour too long, but I couldn’t believe how fast time flew by. And this is just part one!
If you thought artificial intelligence is becoming scary, wait until you get a load of the new weapon that is threatening all humanity as we know it. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his band of merry misfit fellows, computer technician Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and technical field agent Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) are on the case (they chose to accept it) to not only track it down, but who is behind that thing in the first place.
Interestingly, the film franchise decided to bring back one character from the first film: CIA Director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny). In the first movie, he played the former IMF director who suspected Ethan of being a mole. He’s back again as Hunt’s cross to bear. Also back from previous chapters in the series include disavowed MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and Alanna Mitsopolis, daughter of arms dealer Max Mitsopolis (aka, the White Widow) played by Vanessa Kirby.
Hayley Atwell shows up here as a pickpocket who isn’t aware how powerful the person who owns the pocket that she just picked. Pom Klementieff (who plays Mantis in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies) plays a French assassin and Cary Elwes play the Director of National Intelligence. The casting is fantastic.
Dead Reckoning features many modes of transportation including a submarine, a train, a motorcycle and a really tiny car. The characters travel to the Arabian Desert, Abu Dhabi, Rome, Innsbruck and Venice. To give much more information would be to spoil the film. The less you know going into this movie, the better the viewing experience. No romances take off here, but maybe in part two. Will THAT be the end? Stay tuned…
While the movie ends with unfinished business, it isn’t much of a cliffhanger either, so waiting until the next installment comes out next year won’t be too painful for you.
Main Image: Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson (Paramount Pictures)
Leave a comment