After watching “Mission: Impossible II” (2000) in theaters soon after its release date of May 24, 2000, I decided not to see anymore then promised to return once the franchise was on its last film. Time to pay the piper and (re)watch the existing entire franchise, seven movies, before “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (2025) is released on May 23, 2025 (or more specifically before my screening on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. First, “A Minecraft Movie” (2025) and now this! What I do for the love of the game! I’m probably the only person not into this franchise.
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (2023) is the seventh of eight movies that reboot the television series. An AI called the Entity can shape digital reality. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) accepts a mission to retrieve the key that controls it but decides to immediately go rogue because if he obeys his orders, then the world will still be at risk. Can Ethan save the world without anyone losing their life?
Are you familiar with the idiom apples to oranges to explain that two things are so fundamentally different that they cannot be compared? Cruise is like that. Cruise from “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” hits apples hotness to his former orange hotness from “Mission: Impossible II.” He is like two different people with nothing in common. In the latter, he is an adventurer, young buck, movie star. Here, Cruise gives tailored fitness with his grey pants and vest with white shirt and wearing wire rimmed glasses. He would fit right in working at the high school in Sunnydale, California and watching over Slayers, and that is a compliment of the highest order. He is coming for Kingsman Colin Firth’s neck, and I’m here for it. Short hair hotness unlocked without looking boyish. Yes, please. If he serves these looks in the next movie, which seems unlikely given the posters, then terrific. The stunts are outstanding, natch. Cruise is keeping it high and tight! Ok, zaddy, we see you.
It is also a relief that after “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” mostly departs from the formula of prior installments. It feels like a reboot within a reboot along with being a sequel. There is a prequel embedded in this story about how Ethan became an Impossible Missions Force (“IMF”) agent. It feels a bit like revisionist history. This development departs from the television series mythos and the implied recruitment/training established in prior movies. Think “Nikita.” Benji (Simon Pegg) went to Oxford, and others seemed straightlaced, but who knows. Anyone can run afoul of the law, become a recruit and get a second chance at life. It feels like the movies are building IMF as it goes, but whatever. The team includes the aforementioned Benji, who is less annoying this time around though just as insensitive to anyone else besides his feelings of overwhelm. Still, he is mostly effective here. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) is also back but leaves abruptly to work out the problem so maybe he will have a larger role in the final movie. Luther has a great scene where he is calmly toggling between helping Benji and Ethan while they are in the field. He still functions as the moral center of the group. Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) is back saving lives and being a badass, but do not get excited. Ferguson is amazing but apparently there can only be so many women in a “Mission: Impossible” movie, which is fine because her talents are wasted here. Still no Brandt (Jeremy Renner), but Renner’s absence is not keenly missed this time. He would not fit in this story.
Grace (Hayley Atwell) winds up spending the most time with Ethan in the field. She is a thief tasked with retrieving the key for her unknown employer. Grace and Ethan’s dynamic is playful. She understandably does not trust this man who barged into her life and telling her what to do. Grace becomes an unofficial barometer of Ethan’s goodness. The pair are like dance partners. It is no surprise that Atwell would fit into this franchise easily. She was a strong part of the MCU as Agent Peggy Carter, and it is great to see her in a role worthy of her talents. No sexualization or ogling here. She is as buttoned up as Ethan so no excuse to flash her gams to the camera, and it is a nice break.
Despite having the second longest runtime in the franchise, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” feels like a lighter and fresher movie. One staple never changes: the compulsory overrated, overused trope of the protagonist as top suspect, but I’m signing a waiver from my eternal disgust because it makes sense why Ethan would choose to be rogue given the threat. If anyone gets the key to the Entity, including the US government, digital reality would be unreliable forever, which is completely fictional, right? Right. So, the count rises to four to five “Mission: Impossible” movies feature Ethan as a rogue agent, but I’m not mad.
Who can blame Ethan for going rogue when the IMF Director is still Eugene Kittredge (Henry Czarny), who was originally introduced in “Mission: Impossible” (1996). Damn, dude stays in the job. CIA Director Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) sits out this movie, but her photo is on the wall in one scene so maybe she is the President of the United States of America. Guess that we’ll get confirmation in the next movie. Kittredge works with the Director of National Intelligence Denlinger (Cary Elwes). They order a manhunt, which Agent Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham, one of the great character actors) and his partner, Agent Theo Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), run abroad. For reasons unstated, Briggs has a grudge against Ethan, but Degas has a begrudging respect for him. Their dynamic is genuinely enjoyable, and I’m psyched to see how they navigate the last movie. I’ve never been into Czarny’s performance, and Elwes is forgettable.
There is a flashback glimpse of Ethan’s nemesis before he joined the IMF, which introduces audiences to the new bad guy, who is the Entity’s familiar, Gabriel (Esai Morales). Nicholas Hoult was supposed to play Gabriel, and while I adore Hoult, it is so nice to see Morales in a movie blockbuster role. Morales is innately likeable, so it feels especially dissonant to see Gabriel wear white and be so irredeemable. Gabriel is officially my third favorite villain, which puts Morales behind Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Michael Nyqvist, but ahead of Jon Voight and Sean Harris. Honestly depending on how he performs in the last movie, he could edge out Nyqvist. He has two henchmen, but the only one worth talking about is the unhinged assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff). Daryl Hannah in “Blade Runner” seems to inspire Klementieff’s performance. You may be familiar with her because she plays Mantis in the MCU, specifically the “Guardians of the Galaxy” branch.
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is not perfect. They took the White Widow, aka Alana (Vanessa Kirby), my favorite character in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” and decided to explore the question, “What if she sucked?” They took a competent, controlled mover and shaker and made her seem like a legacy baby unworthy to head the family business that Max Mitsopolis (Vanessa Redgrave), who was my favorite character in “Mission: Impossible,” founded. It is not Kirby’s fault, who does her best with what she was given, but it was hella disappointing.
Even though “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” came out the same year as “John Wick: Chapter 4” (2023), it felt as if it took a page from its book instead of vice versa. There is a “Laurence of Arabia” -esque sequence, but once again, Keanu Reeves’ film dog walks them. In this film, it ranges from homage to imitation, but in “Chapter 4,” it feels like a transcendent resurrection. It is a stunning movie. There are a lot of sequences that feel like other movies: “The Hunt for Red October” (1990), “The Heat” (2013) and any number of movies involving espionage in airports and trains. The denouement felt like a cool reinvention of “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972) and other Seventies disaster survival films, which were always fun.
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” (2011) remains the gold standard after watching seven of the eight movies. The rest of the ranking is “Mission: Impossible II,” “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Mission: Impossible III” (2006), “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (2015) and “Mission: Impossible.” The seventh film could have trimmed some prose dumping fat to make a shorter runtime and done a better job with the supporting characters, but overall, it is a strong movie deserving of its accolades. Favorite Cruise films for context (not in a particular order or an exhaustive list): “Interview with the Vampire” (1994), “Magnolia” (1999), “Collateral” (2004) and the aforementioned “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014). To be fair, I tend to stay away from spending money on anyone who owns an island (among other reasons), but he is entertaining. Also, a bonus is he cares about everyone’s health so while normally I would not want an actor in the government again, maybe make him the Secretary of Health and Human Services because he would get us vaccines or at least follow Covid-19 protocols with masking and isolating. I’m looking forward to the last movie, but since strong “Mission: Impossible” films are normally followed up with weaker ones, I’m going to try and lower my expectations.
