This seventh installment in the Mission franchise keeps up the energy of the previous Christopher McQuarrie helmed films - Rogue Nation and Fallout. The Cruise/McQuarrie partnership has a bit of alchemy about it. There's nothing we haven't seen before with these films, aside from the glare of publicity about Cruise's stunts, I suppose. Plot-wise, they don't reinvent the wheel but, blimey, they've got something. Could be the balance of camaraderie and extremely tense action sequences, or the lack of water-treading, or maybe the sheer star wattage of the Cruiser himself.
The gist of Dead Reckoning is that there's a malevolent AI called 'the entity' that has become sentient and has let world governments know that it can infiltrate anything it wants. Obviously, everyone wants to retrieve it and control it, except Ethan Hunt and his usual crew, Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg) and Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson). They want to fuck it up. It's actually the first of these kind of films that ventures into sci-fi, in that the villain isn't human. It does have an 'agent', Gabriel (Archangel?), who is, coincidentally (or not) also an echo of Hunt's past. He's a proper wrong'un this guy.
The film looks great, with cinematographer Fraser Taggart apparently using a combination of digital and film. Locations include Rome, Venice, Abu Dhabi and Austria, where Cruise does a fair impression of Steve McQueen (you'll know when you see it). There's a lot to get through so a few exposition dumps are interspersed with those horribly body cramping set pieces. The extended train sequence is one of the most satisfying, yet nerve-wracking filmic events of the past decade. Sheer brilliance.
Hayley Atwell (Grace) and Pom Klementieff (Paris) add value to the cast, as do returnees Vanessa Kirby (Alanna) and Henry Czerny (Kitteridge - last seen in the very first Mission film from 1996!). A fun way to spend a couple of hours, and sometimes that's all we ask for. Looking forward to part two next year.
See also:
I usually avoid TV shows here but the central premise is pretty similar to series two of Star Trek: Discovery (2019), created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman. And for a compilation of Cruise's film catalogue, check out this supercut - Every Tom Cruise Run Ever.
(Film stills and trailer ©Paramount, 2023)
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