Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

 

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

 

8/10

Starring

Tom Cruise

Ving Rhames

Simon Pegg

Hayley Atwell

 

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

 

Leave it to Mission Impossible to start with an opening that has you spoked and locked in for what else the film has to offer. Right from the start we know this is a two-parter, and that is one thing about films I dislike, why make it so long that I must wait to see how it ends. Well, Hunt and his team feel they have what it takes to make me crave another part (and I must add, this has a nice end leading to the second part). The second part is planned to be released in less than 365 days from now, if the Writers and SAG strike does not drag longer than the studios expect.

Ethan Hunt is back with his team on another mission set as impossible. It is the seventh film in the series and, as all the films in the series go, this is a sequel to Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018). And like all the films in the series the stunts are magnificent, and the scenes are fine cut to perfection. The cinematography is something worth seeing to admire, and the film makes use of different locations, as the series has a knack for never staying put in one location to finish the plot.

Our team is up against a rouge AI called The Entity. We see first-hand from the film start, what the AI is capable of and now our team, led by Hunt are on the impossible task to stop this AI.

The mission is this, Ethan and his team are to acquire a key, a key which we see in the beginning of the film is in two parts. One of the halves is with Ethan’s friend Ilsa Faust, so he is sent to retrieve one part of the key from her (and she has a bounty on her head) and, with his team, secure the other part and return it to the IMF.

If you have been watching all the movies, Ilsa has been working with the Ethan and his team since Rouge Nation (MI5) and she was in Fallout (MI6). Retrieving the key from Ilsa was not going to be easy, not because she is not willing to play ball, the bounty hunters after her are brutal. Before setting off on the mission, Ethan infiltrates an intelligence meeting and learns what the key was to be used for. The AI, which was created to sabotage systems, went sentient, and has hacked into all the major defence systems in the world. Every major power player is aware of this rouge AI and seek to control it, hence the key. It is believed it will give some sort of control over the AI, but no-one knows exactly what the key does and how it ties to the AI.

Ethan, upon being told of the mission from the start, was warned not to go rogue as he always does, but Ethan has his own thoughts on who should have the key that could give them the ultimate power.

In the end, amazing plot, nice twists, and turn with great stunts, what an enjoyable ride.

Also, Hunt's team is bigger, and the mission is not over. I do look forward to seeing the second parter which will be the eight film in the series and I like the fact that even in this time when films are not doing so well in the boxoffice, Mission: Impossible films are always performing well.