Last summer, Tom Cruise was given credit for saving the theatrical experience with the widely beloved Top Gun: Maverick. Can he be Hollywood's savior again?
I hope so, because Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a ridiculously good time. We’re seven films in and nothing about M:I, from the star’s incredible stunt skills to the silly-serious tone, is showing any sign of slowing down.
Cruise's character Ethan Hunt assembles his usual gang, consisting of Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), who has been on call since the first Mission: Impossible (1996), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg). Also in the mix is Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who made her début in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.
The image most people associate with Mission: Impossible is probably Mr. Cruise stretching those legs and swinging those arms. He does that more than once here, but it seems like the momentum of that image was the artistic force behind this entire film.
Dead Reckoning Part One prioritizes movement: trains, cars, Ethan’s legs. It’s an action film that's about speed and urgency, something that has been so lost in the era of CGI’s diminished stakes. Hunt is mysterious, superfit and the leader of a top-secret intelligence/combat unit brought in by a shadowy US government agency when they want deniable stuff done.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is incredibly fun. It feels half its length and contains enough memorable action sequences for some entire franchises.
The pure joy involved in this film, its silly-serious alchemy, and the way the franchise seems to strain at something crazily bigger with every film, is something to wonder at. Will Cruise save the blockbuster experience again? Maybe. And he might do it again next summer, too.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, rated PG, plays at the Patricia Theatre from July 21 to 27 at 7 pm, with matinees Sunday, July 23, and Thursday, July 27, at 1:30 pm. Running time is two hours and 43 minutes.
Gary Shilling is executive director of qathet Film Society.
