A scene from 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1' (Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

If you’re a cynic about the state of cinema today and think this movie is the kind that will self-destruct in five seconds – Well, you’re out of luck. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning is a fast-paced action film that manages to deliver some genuine thrills, sprinkled with a surprisingly welcome dash of humor. Tom Cruise is back for possibly the penultimate time as IMF Agent extraordinaire Ethan Hunt. Hunt’s jolly band of agents returns, including Ving Rhames’ mild-mannered and very rational Luther, and Simon Pegg’s perpetually high-strung Benji. Also returning from the previous films is Rebecca Furgeson as ex-MI6 operative Isla Faust. Joining them for the first time is Haley Atwell of Agent Carter fame, playing Grace, an expert thief who gets in way over her head.
This time the target of everyone’s interest is a cruciform key that unlocks, well, I will leave that to you, as what exactly it grants you access to is a running thread in most of the film. The action not only lives up to but well exceeds expectations, with edge-of-your-seat car chases, tight hand-to-hand combat and copious shots of Tom Cruise doing his signature sprint. There are exotic locations, as always, coupled with nail-biting stunts.
But it's the punctuation of the action with humor that was a pleasing revelation. The Mission Impossible movies have always had their more light-hearted moments, mostly with a comically frantic Benjie rushing to save a teammate while complaining about it. In Dead Reckoning the funny moment meter was turned up a couple of notches, not too much, not slapstick at all by far, but just enough to ease the tension now and then. The humor ends up drawing you in even more and actually adds much to the movie’s action set-pieces. 2023 seems to be, intentionally or not, a year of much nostalgia for moviegoers, and a year of endings as well. From Fast X’s mayhem and resurrections to The Flash’s multiversal crowd-pleasers, many of the 2023 films are wrapping up their respective franchises/universes, while at the same time bringing back elements from their past incarnations. Dead Reckoning does its share of this by re-introducing us to Henry Czerny’s Agent Eugine Kitridge from the very first Mission Impossible movie way back in 1996.
Czerny plays Kitridge’s ruthless, single-minded opportunism with aplomb, as you’re never quite sure if he’s downright evil or just looking out for number one. His scenes with Hunt are fraught with tension, and viewers who have been fans from the beginning will notice that Director Christopher McQuarrie even uses the low angle slightly off-kilter shots employed by the original’s director, Brian De Palma. It is a fun call-back to the one that started it all, giving a vibe that Ethan’s story is about to come full circle. Thankfully, there will be one more, as, if you’ve noticed the title, this is just Dead Reckoning Part I. Part II’s release date hasn’t been disclosed, but it is a safe bet it will probably be the same time next year. What comes next is anybody’s guess. Will it be bigger and better than this one? You bet, it will. Your mission and you had better choose to accept, is to watch Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part I, out in theaters now.