MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One’
The Mission Impossible franchise reflects a level of discipline we rarely see in the action/adventure genre. Director Christopher McQuarrie’s dogged pursuit of genre elevation pairs well with Tom Cruise’s go-for-broke(n bones) approach to acting, which usually involves the 61-year-old star blue-balling death, dusting himself off, and gunning it to his next stunt. The McQuarrie/Cruise chemistry has only become more fun, more intoxicating, more irresistible over time. Dead Reckoning: Part One, the belated seventh Mission Impossible, beautifully reinforces their creative marriage.
Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) and the Syndicate are relics of missions past, once-feared terrorists who’ve joined their predecessors in obscurity. Now, errant spy Ethan Hunt finds himself tangled in the web of an even deadlier enemy: the Entity, a near-omniscient AI with an endless bevy of puppets to do its wicked bidding. The sinister Gabriel (Esai Morales) leads the charge against Hunt and his fellow do-gooders. Resurfacing for the first time since the first Mission Impossible is Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge, a former IMF director whose goals clash with Hunt’s fight against the Entity. If this sounds like a veritable clusterfuck, it’s because it is.
The plot is the right amount of ridiculous, and it knows it. An all-powerful AI hell-bent on stopping Hunt and co. from obtaining a key to its source code? Why the hell not! Ludicrous stakes are as much the action genre’s bread and butter as outrageous baddies and globe-spanning chases for implausible McGuffins, and Dead Reckoning: Part One has all of that and more in spades. Even so, it mostly succeeds at feeling and functioning like enough of a standalone experience to warrant repeat viewings.
Dead Reckoning: Part One’s relative self-sufficiency is as striking as it is welcome. In a cinematic landscape saturated by unfulfilling, incomplete experiences, it’s refreshing to get a story that’s able to satiate a corporate hunger for more and function well enough as its own animal. It’s an installment that doesn’t depend on what came before for depth, context, or depth of context, nor is it interested in cheap cliffhangers or tacked-on mysteries. It distances itself from its predecessors in both time and focus. Cruise’s action-hero sheen is showing signs of slight wear, but rather than cover up the scuffs, the creases, the dings resulting from a life lived on a knife’s edge, McQuarrie has him employ these blemishes for purposes of pathos. He commands how these missions erode Hunt’s emotional state, how they simultaneously — -and incongruously — -break him down and strengthen his resolve.
But don’t mistake Hunt’s wear and tear for any kind of fatigue on Cruise’s part. He again channels the “hold my beer” energy of death-courting daredevils, further proving Ethan Hunt’s unmatched gumption without neglecting the character’s fear and vulnerability. At this point, though, his real feat isn’t the jumping off cliffs or hanging onto the outside of an airplane by his fingertips. It’s convincing us he’s still scared doing it. Cruise is famously cavalier about his safety, scaring the bejeezus out of his colleagues and injecting every leap, climb, or other act of derring-do with the small-but-present possibility it will be his last stunt.
Because McQuarrie focuses so intently on managing Dead Reckoning’s many moving parts — and making sure they align with Hunt’s trajectory — specific character arcs suffer. Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, a newer series staple, feels neglected, her arc sidelined to permit Hayley Atwell’s Grace (an outstanding addition) to shine. This isn’t inherently negative, but it does crowd an already packed script and siphons “oompf” from the story’s punchier moments. The franchise has never hesitated to omit characters unceremoniously who don’t serve the story at hand (Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton, anyone?), so Faust’s underwritten role feels a tad off-brand.
As unwieldy as it sometimes is, though, Dead Reckoning: Part One remains a delight. The latter half of this seven-installment story is vastly better than the first, and it’s not close. McQuarrie, having helmed the franchise from Rogue Nation onward, understands why Brad Bird’s Ghost Protocol is so potent. Bird and frequent Mission Impossible producer J.J. Abrams took pre-existing franchise elements — -fun characters, twisty plots, and rampant duplicity — — and used them to push the parameters of the genre. McQuarrie uses the Bird/Abrams blueprint as the basis, all while maintaining his own style and polish. The other winning ingredients? Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames! Those two will always be a joy to watch onscreen, especially in their respective turns as Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell.
VERDICT: As its title suggests, Dead Reckoning: Part One isn’t a complete story. It is, however, a complete experience, a perfect storm of astounding action, surprising emotional resonance, and wild stunts. There’s a ton happening — sometimes too much — but it all coalesces into a film that no doubt stands just as well on its own as it will beside its impending sequel.
GRADE: A-
