Film Review: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE (2023): Tom Cruise is Back in a Summer Movie Thrill Ride for the Record Books

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Christopher McQuarrie, written by Bruce Geller, Erik Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Greg Tarzan Davis, Shea Whigham, Frederick Schmidt, Mariela Garriga, Cary Elwes, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Indira Varma and Rob Delaney.

Don’t worry about seeing Barbie or Oppenheimer quite yet. You’ve got the best action film of the summer to witness first. That would be director Christopher McQuarrie’s spectacular, tense thrill ride, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Top Gun: Maverick got quite a few accolades last year and McQuarries’s new seventh Mission: Impossible film is even stronger than last year’s Top Gun picture which went on to earn several Academy Award nominations. Expect McQuarrie’s globe-trotting new roller coaster ride to walk away with at least one technical Oscar in the categories of visual effects or sound effects editing. This new picture opens with a roughly half-hour long pre-credit sequence that sets the stage for the story line centered on a key which exists in two pieces which many characters will try to get their hands on for the greater good during the course of the picture’s nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes running time.

Cruise is cast once again as Ethan Hunt who gets a self-destructing message that offers him the opportunity to accept a mission that will be the most important adventure he’s taken on, and probably one of the most dangerous ones he’s ever faced. As previously stated, a complex key that has two parts to it drives the action. We’ve had two-part devices in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and F9: The Fast Saga but this new film makes the most out of this concept out of these three movies.

It will take a lot of trickery and other skills to keep the lives of Ethan’s IMF team, Luther and Benji (Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg), safe from the villains who populate this new sequel. The movie opens under water as a group of men find themselves in the middle of a nightmare when they lose their lives for a specific reason that ultimately leads to the action taking place in an Abu Dhabi airport that offers some truly clever fun. Ethan is the master of disguise and sends those who are in pursuit of him off in a whole different direction at the airport while playing games with master thief, Grace (Hayley Atwell). Benji goes after a duffle bag in the interim but when things get overly complicated, our heroes must go on the run.

The main villain here is the menacing Gabriel (Esai Morales). Other characters to keep a close eye on include The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) and Paris (the well-cast Pom Klementieff). One of the best scenes in the film is when the movie takes the story line to Rome where Ethan and a key character must escape their pursuers in a Fiat. Driving around (sometimes in circles) and ultimately handcuffed to the wheel, Ethan (alongside Grace) gets into some wild scenarios that must be seen to be appreciated.

Rebecca Ferguson appears as Ilsa Faust, a character whose life Ethan must try to save at a key moment inside an upscale nightclub. Faust ultimately faces off with Gabriel at a central moment within the picture that is certainly going to keep audiences’ hearts racing. Ethan is previously asked to choose which life he wants to save more-Ilsa Faust’s or Grace’s. Needless to say, Ethan finds the choice quite difficult to make. This action sets the stage for the piece de resistance which comes after Ethan rides a motorcycle to board a train passing through the Austrian Alps on which Grace disguises herself as The White Widow to get the valuables all these characters so desperately seek.

All the scenes incorporated into the last hour of the film are absolutely fantastic. Ethan and his team run afoul of some dishonorable characters, to be sure, but, ultimately, it’s the way that some of our principal characters must try to survive which becomes so terrifically entertaining to watch. When the aforementioned train is displaced by a bomb that blows up the tracks, Ethan and Grace must literally climb and swing for their survival as train cars fall off a cliff. Talk about great cliffhangers at the movies!

There are so many phenomenal set pieces here. Take your pick. Some audience members may prefer the Fiat scenes while others will love the scenes set on board the train in which Grace dons the disguise of the White Widow. The nightclub and airport scenes are equally stellar and are edited with terrific precision.

Tom Cruise never seems to age, yes, but his physically demanding and charismatic turn as Hunt is nothing short of perfection. Hayley Atwell is a perfectly matched co-star for Cruise and these two have terrific on-screen chemistry in a non-romantic way. Vanessa Kirby once again proves she’s a talent to take seriously with her performance here as well. Morales is a villain who keeps the movie tense throughout. You won’t want to mess with Gabriel, but can our heroes pull the wool over his eyes? And, even if they do, can they survive the havoc Gabriel leaves behind.? See the movie for the answers. Ferguson also gets some moments to shine in the picture especially in the scene where she faces off with Gabriel.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a crackerjack Hollywood blockbuster that is most entertaining to behold in its spectacle. Setting the stage for its conclusion in the next picture, which could be equally perfect, director McQuarrie keeps the momentum of his new film moving at a fast clip. It’s unnoticeable that the film is almost three hours long because of how enjoyable it all is. Watching Ethan Hunt in action is definitely one of the biggest and best highlights of this summer movie season which is shaping up to be one of the most memorable ones ever with a great film like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One as the centerpiece of it all. Don’t miss this edge-of-your-seat blockbuster. Accept this mission immediately for a film which certainly will not self-destruct at the box-office anytime soon.

Rating: 10/10

Leave your thoughts on this Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, and Flipboard.