TL;DR – While the individual set piece moments are as good as ever, the connecting tissue feels a bit flat this time.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review –

When I think back to the Mission: Impossible franchise, the first thing that comes to mind is solid consistency. You can know what to expect from the film before you walk in the door, and they nearly always deliver, yes, even M: I 2. I was delighted to see the next entry, even when a ‘Part One’ moniker is often a bit of a red flag and while those solid aspects are still there, some elements were lacking.

So to set the scene, we are under the Bearing Sea with the Russian submarine Sevastopol as it tests its new AI stealth drive. This drive has allowed it to approach the navies of every world power without being detected. However, when they are heading back to port, something odd happens when an American submarine suddenly sees them but disappears from their monitors after they fire torpedoes. But destruction soon follows. Two keys lead to the sub’s heart, and one ends up in the hands of Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) in the Yemeni Desert. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) tasks Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to obtain the key that every nation in the world wants because, with it, they can control the AI that is currently destroying every intelligence apparatus they have.    

Without a doubt, one of the strengths of this series, and in this film, is its ability to create exciting characters you want to follow. We have seen Ilsa Faust in Rouge Nation and Fallout, yet they still made her iconic in those opening desert sequences. Hayley Atwell is a delight as Grace, who just so happens to pickpocket the wrong item and gets wound up in a world she is unprepared for. This film would also not be anywhere as good as it was without Pom Klementieff absolutely destroying every scene she is in. Seriously, Pom is the MVP of this film, and I will watch anything she is in. This is a film that has one scene with all the heads of US intelligence agencies and then populate it with Cary Elwes, Charles Parnell, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, and Mark Gatiss being fantastic.

Also, we all know you are here for the action set pieces and wonder if this will be the film that Tom Cruise goes too far in. Well, I am glad to say that each action set piece also works, if not better than anything we have gotten before. There is a desert assault as a sandstorm races in, an infiltration of an international airport, and a car chase through the streets of Rome, just to name a few. There is also the final action set piece on a train in the Austrian Alps that I usually would not have mentioned in a review because of spoilers, but then I don’t think anyone would not have seen the behind-the-scenes look at the motorbike jump by now. I think my favourite of the bunch was the Rome car chase, as it had the right chaotic mix of competing people trying to capture Ethan to make it a riot of action.

However, while each set-piece action sequence was a delight, they exist almost like individual bubbles in the film, loosely tacked together with the over-arching plot line. Unfortunately, that plot line is the weakest element of the film. An AI that has achieved sentience that is now using Gabriel (Esai Morales), the man that forced Ethan to become an agent all those years ago because he framed Ethan for the murder of Marie (Mariela Garriga) as a henchman to do its evil bidding. Well, it works on paper, but the reality is lacklustre. There are one or two moments where it forces people to use old-school analogue tech or breaks into secure communication, which was interesting. However, it is usually a bland noise in the background. Add to this a forced backstory with Gabriel and their unfortunate lack of any real present compared to the infinitely more interesting Paris, and your main hook falls incredibly flat.

The lack of a robust and thorough narrative made the film drag, and only so much Tom Cruise running can make up for it. It also leaves little space to hide behind, so some of the narrative choices felt frustrating. All the purported predictions of the AI never felt grounded in reality. While it was interesting at the start to have so many different groups going after Ethan and his team, it gets messier as the film continues. Also, it must be said, but a character gets poorly done by.

In the end, do we recommend Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One? My answer is still yes, even though there are more provisos than in the last couple of films. When it is going gangbusters, it is a delight. However, there is much more of a slog to get through this time. If you liked Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, I would recommend to you Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Directed by – Christopher McQuarrie
Written by – Christopher McQuarrie & Erik Jendresen
Based on – Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller
Music by – Lorne Balfe
Cinematography by – Fraser Taggart
Edited by – Eddie Hamilton
Production/Distribution Companies – Skydance, TC Productions & Paramount Pictures
Starring – Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham, Cary Elwes, Greg Tarzan Davis, Frederick Schmidt, Charles Parnell, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, and Mark Gatiss     
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: PG; Germany: 12; New Zealand: M; United Kingdom: 12A; United States: PG-13