Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Review

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is a timely tale about the dangers of AI and also a deeply personal story bringing Ethan Hunt's origins at the IMF full circle. This marks the third entry in the franchise that Christopher McQuarrie has both written and directed as he manages to bring to the screen an intensely cinematic film with both high physical and emotional stakes.

 The story is centered around an ominous artificial intelligence known as "The Entity" which has become sentient and proceeded to infiltrate its way into the computer systems of prominent nations across the world. Thus when Ethan is recruited by Kittridge (his old nemesis from MI: 1 played by Henry Czerny) to retrieve the other part of a key that governments across the world are racing to obtain in order to gain control of the AI, Ethan decides to go rogue against his government to destroy the AI thinking that that much power is too much for anyone to have. Ethan's usual team is on hand to help him including Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), and his ever-tantalizing romantic foil Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). The sparks between these two go back to Rogue Nation and the relationship has always been one of high stakes intrigue with this pair both having a penchant for going rogue. A relationship that has deepened over the course of three movies so effectively by the respective actors and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. 

The action moving to the Abu Dhabi International Airport, Ethan works to obtain the other half of the key while being pursued by a pair of dogged U.S. agents. The half-key is stolen by a professional thief named Grace (Haley Atwell). Cruise and Atwell's chemistry is immediate as Ethan guides her through getting out of the airport uncaptured. Things get complicated though when Ethan identifies a man from his past named Gabriel (Esai Morales). Ethan calls for everyone to abort but Grace gives him the slip. This leads to a lengthy yet highly entertaining chase throughout the streets of Rome that see Ethan and Grace handcuffed together in a car chase. The suspense is offset wonderfully by the rich comedic dynamic between Cruise and Atwell that has you on the edge of your seat. Not just because the car chase is so fraught with danger but because the laughs have you splitting your sides! 

Grace does end up escaping though and Ethan regroups with his team where he informs them that Gabriel is the man responsible for who he is today. We see in flashback form that Gabriel murdered a young Ethan Hunt's girlfriend in the early 90s prior to Ethan's joining the IMF. 

Ethan and Ilsa infiltrate a super-sexy party that Grace is attending at midnight in order to learn who hired her and the key's purpose. Gabriel meets up with Grace first however and is menacing as he is cool. He tells her how Ethan lost his first love Marie to him 30 years ago and that Ethan has a pattern of endangering the women he gets involved with, the latest victim being her. We learn Grace's employer is none other than Alanna, the White Widow, (Vanessa Kirby) and the tension is insanely high as Ethan tries to convince Allana not to sell out to Gabriel. Gabriel informs everyone that the Entity has infiltrated the party via a very dramatic and visually stunning light show and that the Entity has told him that either Grace or Illsa will die. "If anything happens to either one of them there's no place I won't go to kill you!", growls Ethan. "How I've missed you old friend," Gabriel cooly replies. Allana makes her alliance with Gabriel out of fear of survival and Ethan by the skin of his teeth escapes the building. 

An intense showdown takes place in the form of a sword fight between Grace and Gabriel over the Grand Canal. Meanwhile Ethan squares across Gabriel's fiersome serial-killer crazy femme fatale Paris (Pom Klementieff). Grace is rescued by Ilsa who shows up just in time. "I was hoping it would be you," Gabriel glowers. The sword antics continue between this pair and Ethan having beaten yet spared Paris races in classic Tom Cruise-run fashion to them. He's too late however as Gabriel impales Ilsa with his sword and leaves her body on the bridge. The harrowing scene brings Ethan's tragedy full circle as Gabriel took Marie from him 30 years ago and has now taken Ilsa. 

The tragedy of Ilsa's death deeply affects the team including Grace who wants to help make sure her death wasn't in vain. So they present her with a choice. Go to prison or become one of them and join the IMF. We learn that Ethan, Benji, and Luther all had criminal pasts before being given the choice to join the IMF. Ethan was a thief and it seems likely that the criminal pasts being alluded to for Luther and Benji would be that of hacker activities. Grace accepts and the plan is formed for her to board the Orient Express posing as Allana to meet with her buyer. The only problem is that their face mask machine conks out, meaning that Grace will have to board the train alone while Ethan has to find another way aboard. 

Of course that way is via the much hyped motorcycle off a cliff stunt that Tom Cruise trained a year for to perform. The build up to it is great and the tension created by cutting back to the scenes on the train makes for some great espionage drama. Grace as Allana surprisingly meets with Kittridge and craftily ensures Grace's protection as part of the terms of her deal. Ethan after some jaw-dropping action makes his way aboard and faces off against Gabriel who has killed the engine crew and rigged the train to explode. The fervent fight between Ethan and Gabriel across the rooftop of the moving train brings back memories of the climax of MI: 1 when Ethan battled Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) atop a bullet train in London. Gabriel does escape but not without Ethan regaining possession of the key.

The bomb goes off on the train which escalates into a terrifying action sequence where Ethan and Grace climb from car to car to escape the wreckage of the train. The sequence required the duo to train for months in order to achieve the necessary climbing strength to pull it off. And according to McQuarrie when Ethan asks Grace "Do you trust me?" just before they leap to the other side of the car and Grace hastily shakes her head no that was real as that was all Atwell reacting to the reality of the stunt and wasn't scripted. And when Ethan needs Grace to jump over to him telling her he'll catch her you really believe that Grace isn't going to do it until the platform she is standing on splinters to pieces and she has no other choice. With their being only one parachute Ethan has to leave Grace behind but she tells him this was part of the original plan for her to go to Kittridge. Ethan gone and Grace brought before Kittridge; she tells him that Ethan said he'd trust him to know how to use her and that she accepts the mission to join the IMF. 

Dead Reckoning Part One is one heck of a ride both on the spectacle level and the emotional one. Part One does a great job of setting up an intense conflict for Part Two all the while being a complete movie on its own. Tom Cruise continues to defy the aging process saving the world yet again at 61. He's recently stated he would like to keep making Mission movies till he's Harrison Ford's age at 80 in Dial of Destiny and I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you. The Mission franchise has been going for 27 years now and doesn't look to be slowing down or losing any steam any time soon. 

END PART ONE