An Impossible Mission: Does ‘Dead Reckoning’ Live Up to the Hype?
Sequels usually start running out of ideas… especially by the seventh instalment. But Cruise and his crew don’t like to obey the law of diminishing returns.
good.film
2 years ago
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Why should I see Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning?
It’ll get your pulse pounding, but that’s not all. With all the fear around real-life AI in the news, this Mission feels ripped from the headlines.
What social causes does Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning explore?
Female Empowerment. Science & Technology. War & Peace.
Have you read Canadian journo Malcolm Gladwell? His 2008 book about extreme overachievers, Outliers, famously theorises that to become an expert in something, it takes 10,000 hours (or roughly 10 years) of deliberate practice.
Now take a glance at Tom Cruise’s social bio: “Actor. Producer. Running in movies since 1981.” Funny, but that’s 40+ years of getting physical on film. So in the stunt department, you could comfortably call Cruise an expert and then some.
He seems to have a maniacal interest in putting his life on the line in the name of great entertainment. His theory? The more we believe it’s really him dangling (or speeding, or falling, or insert-deadly-activity-here), the more we’ll invest. Not a stunt double. Not a CGI replacement. It’s. Really. Him.
That’s smart job security on Tom’s part, too. With an ugly debate brewing about the potential for AI to replace future performances, and all of Hollywood’s SAG-AFTRA union actors on strike as we publish this, Cruise has made sure he’s doubly valuable. It’s a studio marketing department’s dream: with each new Mission, audiences have come to expect seeing Cruise push himself - not just his character, but himself personally - to new physical extremes.
Like how? The last three Missions have seen Cruise clinging to the sleek glass atop the world’s tallest building, clutching onto the side of an Airbus 400 as it takes off, and executing a HALO freefall skydive at dusk - all to deliver audiences something jaw-dropping.
Now, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is here to up that ante. After four release date changes and close to $300 million spent, the seventh instalment of Cruise’s evergreen mega-franchise is bigger, longer, expensive-er, and riskier than ever. But does it stick the landing or, like Tom’s ill-fated dirt bike above, does it crash & burn into bits?
How does Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning unfold?
The key to unlocking Dead Reckoning is… literally, a key. In a tense opening sequence on a Russian submarine, this “cruciform” key (it’s shaped like a 3D cross, fam) provides the only access to the sub’s AI-driven brain. Naturally, the AI goes rogue (because AI villains are the new black) and lays a clever trap, firing missiles all over the Baltic Sea.
The sub is sabotaged, the crew are killed and the two, interlocking halves of the cruciform key are lost… or are they? Of course, the key is a classic MacGuffin: like the shining briefcase in Pulp Fiction, it’s there to drive the plot and give our characters a goal. You know the drill… get the two halves of the key, shut down the crazed AI that’s rapidly infecting global online systems, and save the darn world. Again.
If that sounds a bit old-school, you’re right; if it sounds complex, you’re not alone. The dense plot is probably Dead Reckoning’s single greatest hurdle: explaining where the AI originated and what’s at stake takes a Pentagon-full of characters, who feed us the setup one line at a time while stern CIA-types listen gravely.
Happily, the writers (like their AI villain) are fully self-aware, and they pepper the dry stuff with pops of humour that keep things crackling until the real action arrives. Mission: Impossible loves leaning into the old school vibe. It’s genuinely fun, and they nail it.
We’re quickly on a high-tech cat & mouse hunt (with some bonus sleight-of-hand) as Ethan Hunt and his crew track the key at breakneck pace through Dubai airport, the streets of Rome, off a Norwegian cliff, and atop a speeding train. Because, hey - it’s not “Mission: Possible”.
What themes does Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning explore?
First and foremost, trust. We quickly get that world powers are desperately keen to be ones clutching this key. With an ability to distort or erase any kind of information online, whoever controls this nefarious AI would, effectively, control the truth.
And in a world with fresh memories of broken-trust events like the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Fox News Network’s widespread misinformation, truth - or the appearance of truth - makes for a weapon more valuable than oil and gold combined.
We’ve all seen (and been a bit creeped out by) DeepFakes and face-tracking tech at work, and Dead Reckoning taps into our hunch that governments probably wouldn’t mind tracking our every move… and covering theirs up. This isn’t the stuff of science-fiction any more.
Spinning off that trust is the other core theme of family - or what constitutes a family when you’re a disavowed, off-the-books spy. For Ethan, that’s his core support team of Ilsa, Luther, and Benji, who are as much a wife and brothers as any flesh-and-blood relationship.
But that creates its own risk: Ethan already walked away from one marriage, when his job risked Julia’s life, back in Mission: Impossible’s third outing. Now, his team is genuinely a family to him - which means the stakes are infinitely higher, because there’s so much more to lose.
Then there’s new character Grace, a high-end thief who’s too slippery to trust, but too good to let go. Is she a sister, a lover, or a partner? Those lines blur as Ethan & Grace navigate their mistrust and growing respect for each other - while flinging a high-powered BMW around the Roman Colosseum, naturally.
What makes Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning different?
It’s exciting - that’s a given - but there’s depth beneath the spectacle of Dead Reckoning. Like the stunts having more impact if you know it’s really him, Cruise realises that the story has more impact if we actually care about the characters. Like we touched on, they’re a family - they just don’t say it over and over (like a certain Fast & Furious guy we could name).
Fans will recognize the traces of mourning that Ethan still feels, making the painful choice to decouple from his wife for her own protection. This informs his relationship with Ilsa, his female equal who’d probably be his romantic partner, too, if he didn’t intentionally keep Ilsa at arm’s length for the same reasons. And Grace has an abandonment and foster backstory of her own, giving her character the dimensions we need to care about her choices. For “just a spy movie”, it’s pretty rich emotional soil.
Then there’s the baddie of the piece. Disembodied, faceless and emotionless, “The Entity” teases out that nagging existential fear most of us started to feel when ChatGPT exploded into the mainstream - is software taking over everything? The writers have timed their run on this to perfection. You may not relate to some deranged Eastern European wanting to blow things up, but a bunch of ones & zeroes draining our bank accounts and turning us against each other feels all too relatable. And hey, you can’t spell “villain” without AI.
Lastly, the female characters of Dead Reckoning are way, way more than just eye candy on Ethan’s arm. The days of Pussy Galore - a beautiful accessory, not a person - are long gone. To be a globally accepted, brand-name franchise, present-day values are a must, or you’ll be destroyed in the court of public opinion. Which means there’s a genuine effort to pass the infamous Bechdel test here. All four of the Mission women have agency (no pun intended).
On the good side, Ilsa and Grace regularly show off their prowess in combat, subterfuge and general badass spy business. As for the baddies, Alanna coolly runs a high-stakes brokerage in illicit goods for the world’s highest bidders, and Paris thinks nothing of hurling a military-grade Humvee down the Spanish steps in hot pursuit of her quarry. No damsels in distress here.
What are critics saying about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning?
- ”Amid its terrific action sequences, comedic wit and — somewhere deep within that — heart, the movie is helping to sound a much-needed alarm.” | HUFFINGTON POST
- ”With an uncontrollable digital villain, McQuarrie and Cruise make an impassioned argument for cinema itself: the kind created by humans, shared collectively, in which emotion is integral to spectacle.” | TRIBUNE NEWS
- ”Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One will pull you to the edge of your seat and thrill you down to your bones. That's just science.” | MASHABLE
- ”An endlessly propulsive beast, tense from the start: even the quieter, conversational scenes have you on edge. Mission, once again, accomplished.” | EMPIRE
Fully on board, or disagree big time? We’d love to hear your take. Leave a review to share your thoughts with the good.film community!
So what’s the takeaway from Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning?
As an actor, a producer, and a certified stunt demon, the Cruiser is fixated on just two things: getting our bums into cinema seats, and blowing our minds apart. It’s the driving force behind his insatiable need to keep upping the adrenal ante. As a result, this seventh go-around takes the law of diminishing returns, crushes it into a cube and flings it off a cliff.
What we get in exchange for our $15 is a rock solid, quintessential spy thriller. The iconic Mission: Impossible ingredients - the old school mask-work, the famous theme music, Tom’s pistonized running, the code-breaking - are all present and accounted for. And while that famous face is getting a tad puffy now that he’s rounded 60, boy oh boy does Cruise still look sharp in a tailored blue suit.
Behind the camera, it’s superb filmmaking. The bike jump alone deserves a special achievement Oscar, and you feel in your bones the visceral crunch of the vehicle impacts (and there are plenty) in the impossibly narrow cobbled Roman laneways.
No, Dead Reckoning isn’t flawless: with an engine this massive, there’s bound to be a few squeaks and rattles. There’s a freight train worth of exposition (do NOT take a shot every time someone says "key", you won’t even make it halfway) and the very slight nagging feeling that we've seen all the marquee setups - a sandstorm, a train fight, a Russian sub, a streets-of-Rome car chase - before.
BUT, and it’s a big ‘but’: we've never seen them better. You simply can’t nitpick movie experiences this buttery smooth. Even if spy movies aren’t your thing, you have to admire the sheer scale of human effort that has gone into producing something so beautifully machined. It’s like watching the hundreds of pieces within a fine Swiss watch working flawlessly in sync.
After "saving cinema" last year (Spielberg’s words, not ours) with an outstanding Top Gun sequel - it was nominated for Best Picture, for crying out loud! - Maverick has swapped his fighter jet for the Orient Express and seemingly done it again.
