SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

At long last! I’ve seen the seventh instalment of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ film series, which is ‘Part One’ of a double bill story, called ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Part One’ at the cinema. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this film since I did in-depth reviews on the ‘M:I’ films in 2020. 🙂

In fact, this double bill two-part story in the ‘M:I’ film series has taken a long time to make, due to the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022. I’m glad the cast and crew have been able to make these films back-to-back despite the delays in production. I’m currently looking forward to the second film.

Just a heads-up, I’m planning to do an in-depth review on both ‘Parts One and Two’ of ‘Dead Reckoning’ together in 2025 once the films are available on Blu-ray. It’ll be very interesting to review each film in a single review compared to reviewing the movies individually like most double bill films.

So, how do I rate ‘Part One’ of ‘Dead Reckoning’? I found it a good action-packed movie. It has all the elements you’d expect to see in a film, co-written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Tom Cruise leads an excellent cast throughout and the story and action scenes are very compelling to watch.

With that said, I don’t think ‘Dead Reckoning’ so far is as good as ‘Fallout’, which was released in 2018. Now, we’ve yet to see ‘Part Two’ and I’m hoping things will resolve in a satisfying conclusion. But I feel that ‘Fallout’ has a more satisfying conclusion for the ‘M:I’ film series compared to this film.

This is down to one of the main characters getting killed off in ‘Part One’ in ‘Dead Reckoning’, which I was disheartened by (more later). Mind you, I have read that there’s a likelihood Tom Cruise will go on to make more ‘M:I’ films after ‘Dead Reckoning’ till he’s 80, much like how Harrison Ford makes films. 🙂

‘Dead Reckoning’ is a quite a topical double bill of a film so far. In ‘Part One’, Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt and he goes rogue when he and his IMF team are confronted by a mysterious and all-powerful foe called the Entity. He and his friends have to find two parts of a key to thwart the Entity.

Now this is quite a departure from having a dangerous human villain like Owen Davian in ‘M:I – III’ and Solomon Lane in both ‘Rogue Nation’ and ‘Fallout’. Here, we have a villain in the form of an AI intelligence. I don’t know how this AI intelligence came to be, but I found this a frightening concept.

So far, I think the Entity has something to do a Russian submarine called the Sevastopol that crashed under the sea. I’m intrigued as to where the ‘Dead Reckoning’ story will go next. Ethan managed to acquire the two-part key at the end of ‘Part One’, as he and Benji head off to continue their mission.

Speaking of the cast, as well as Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, there’s new cast member Hayley Atwell as Grace, a burglar who becomes Ethan’s new ally in the ‘M:I’ film series. There’s also Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell and Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, who I was pleased to see return and help Ethan out. 🙂

There’s also Rebecca Ferguson who returns as Ilsa Faust. I was saddened and disappointed that Ilsa got killed off in the film. After all the build-up to her character in ‘Rogue Nation’ and ‘Fallout’, I was hoping that she would provide a huge impact throughout both parts of the ‘Dead Reckoning’ story. 😦

And yes, I get that the missions Ethan goes on are always dangerous and this was all part of the Entity’s doing to break him when killing one of his most beloved friends. But couldn’t the filmmakers have saved Ilsa’s death for ‘Part Two’ of the story in order to provide us with the emotional impact?

For all the criticisms I gave ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’, I at least remember Natasha Romanoff’s impact throughout both films before she got killed off in ‘Endgame’. I don’t think Ilsa’s going to get mentioned or have a return appearance in ‘Part Two’, unless I’m wrong here.

The reason why I think Ilsa got killed off was because it was to pave the way for Hayley Atwell’s Grace to join Ethan’s team. Now, I like Hayley Atwell and I enjoyed the part she played in ‘Part One’ so far. But I felt more of a connection to Ilsa in the previous two films than I do with Grace in ‘Dead Reckoning’.

With that said, the action scenes featuring Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell together are very compelling to watch, including when they drive around in a Bumblebee Volkswagen Beetle car (I’m sure that’s a call-out to ‘Transformers’ 😀 ) and when they escape from a falling Orient Express train.

The film’s cast also includes Vanessa Kirby who returns as Alanna Mitsopolis from ‘Fallout’ (She happens to be the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave’s Max from the first ‘M:I’ film); and there’s Esai Morales as Gabriel, a powerful terrorist who wants to use the Entity AI intelligence to rule the world.

There’s also Pom Klementieff (Mantis from the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ films) as Paris, a French assassin who works for Gabriel. I found it amusing and terrifying when Pom Klementieff as Paris gets to be berserk, especially when chasing after Ethan and Grace in the streets of Rome in many cars. 😀

The cast also includes Mariela Garriga as Marie, a woman from Ethan and Gabriel’s past; Henry Czerny who returns as Eugene Kittridge from the first ‘M:I’ film; Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, who is an enforcer tasked with hunting down the rogue Ethan; and Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas, Briggs’ partner.

Frederick Schmidt returns as Zola Mitsopolis, Alanna’s brother from ‘Fallout’; Cary Elwes stars as Denlinger, the Director of National Intelligence, and there’s Charles Parnell, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma and Mark Gatiss (Yes, he’s in this movie 😀 ) as the heads of the Community in the film’s opening.

Despite this being ‘Part One’ of a two-part story, I’m surprised and disappointed the film didn’t end on a dramatic cliffhanger to make us want to go and see ‘Part Two’. At least ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ have dramatic cliffhangers to make us want to see more.

I’ve said quite a lot about this film and I think this is the best place to stop. Overall, ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Part One’ has been a compelling film to watch. I’m sure I’ll be seeing this film again soon, especially in time to check out ‘Part Two’ when it’s released at cinemas in 2024.

I can’t say ‘Part One’ is an entirely satisfying film and again, we’re only halfway through the ‘Dead Reckoning’ story for me to make an overall judgement. But the story, characters and action scenes are thrilling enough, and as ever, Tom Cruise does deliver 100% throughout his performance as Ethan.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂