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The last movie I reviewed for Film Cred was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, where the main characters hunt for half of a MacGuffin, to get to another MacGuffin that will help them find the other half of the MacGuffin. This storyline is trite on its own, but it wasn’t too fresh, as Transformers: Rise of the Beasts did almost the exact same thing three weeks before. Paramount is on a hot streak (they co-produced Indiana Jones with Disney); because its latest movie, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, is about…characters trying to get half of a MacGuffin to get to the other half. This MacGuffin is a key that will unlock an evil Artificial Intelligence program called “The Entity.” I’ll let you guess what kind of MacGuffin the Autobots and Terrorcons were after in Rise of the Beasts.
Maybe it was a coincidence that these movies were released close to one another, but it certainly wasn’t very inspiring. While some Mission: Impossible movies have revolved around a specific gadget threatening world destruction, Dead Reckoning Part One hits a new low. The movie is a cat-and-mouse game between Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, a sometimes-rogue IMF agent, and Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a professional thief, as they chase each other to get half of a key Hunt snagged from fellow agent and friend Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). Grace is working for Alanna Mitsopolis/The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) on retrieving half of the key Hunt has to obtain the other half to unlock The Entity. However, an old enemy from Hunt’s past, Gabriel (Esai Morales), resurfaces and plans to take the key and use The Entity for his own nefarious plans.
What are these plans? Who knows! This is part one, of course. From my understanding, Gabriel wants to use The Entity to control the world (how original). However, the AI program is already sentient, able to manipulate not only digital images (the film’s opening scene focuses on a submarine getting tricked by the program), as well as emulate the voice of a human being to trick its enemies. It makes for a terrifying antagonist, and it is especially prescient in a world with massive discourse surrounding the use of AI in our everyday lives. One of the key issues in the ongoing Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes is the use of AI in film and television productions. First, the studios accustom audiences to the practice by bringing back dead actors through deepfaking and AI. Then, they replace artists who work on credit sequences with AI and have a prepared excuse for why they used it for a specific project. What are they looking for next?
The prospect of AI replacing the humanity behind every great film and television show is a scary thought in and of itself. AI capable of manipulating individuals and controlling the world is even more terrifying. I might have enjoyed Dead Reckoning Part One more if the main villain was the AI program. You can’t trust any environment you’re in. The Entity is watching, and anything you say can be used against you. There are scenes in which the program controls Hunt’s every move, and you feel powerless watching them because Hunt doesn’t know that the software is replacing Benji Dunn’s (Simon Pegg) voice. That makes a far more engaging and unpredictable antagonist than anything Gabriel is, despite Morales doing his best.
Maybe they’re saving his arc for Dead Reckoning Part Two, but I was left largely unimpressed at how dull and one-note Gabriel was. Hunt has an unclear vendetta against Gabriel, who killed Marie (Mariela Garriga), a woman he was attached to over thirty years ago. Brief flashbacks of the murder are shown, but investing audiences in the drama is unsuccessful. All we know about Gabriel is that he’s bad, he wants the key and wants to kill Hunt. There’s a larger biblical subtext involving Gabriel treating The Entity like God and acting as its messiah (it doesn’t take long for you to put two and two together). However, it never delves deep enough into his relationship with The Entity, and the villain is cartoonishly constructed. The movie never gives one compelling reason to emotionally invest ourselves in Gabriel, unlike the franchise’s most recent antagonists, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) and John Lark (Henry Cavill), who were thrilling to watch on screen. Gabriel is the human figure behind the software, but there’s never a scene in which we feel the stakes are meaningful. Sure, he kills many people and puts Hunt and his team in dangerous situations, but there’s no sense of urgency in any of the action sequences because the villain is barely developed. Why does he want to blow up a train or thwart Benji with a fake nuclear bomb beyond his general hatred of Ethan Hunt? Who knows!
I fully understand that this is the first installment and that more will be revealed in the second. But therein lies the problem. Like other films attempting this story structure, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One consistently teases what’s to come instead of clearly defining the threat and its importance. In this case, audiences should know where Gabriel comes from and why he wants to use The Entity. Say what you will about Fast X, but at least it gave us a sense of Dante Reyes’ (Jason Momoa) quest for revenge. We understood why he was going after Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and targeting his crew individually. Why does Gabriel want to use The Entity beyond the clichéd world-dominating arc? This question should be settled immediately before we get into the film’s out-of-this-world action. It feels inexcusable for a movie to not develop its villain properly with a 163-minute runtime. You have the time to balance character-driven drama and action, but the movie has such a thin plot that it prefers to dazzle audiences with impeccable setpieces.
While not as technically masterful as Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Dead Reckoning Part One is entertaining thanks to its long and meticulously crafted practical action, which makes all the difference in the world. The film’s fun Rome car chase serves as an aperitif for what’s to come. However, it isn’t as nearly impressive as 2023’s other Rome car chase in Fast X. It’s after this scene that the film becomes an action extravaganza, crafting two spectacular setpieces in Venice and on the Orient Express traversing the Austrian Alps, with the latter containing Hunt’s already iconic (and very real) BASE Jump, which is unreal to witness on an IMAX screen.
No one does it like Tom Cruise. He is a movie star first and an actor second. He loves the camera and consistently embraces it like no one else. He perfectly knows when to make the audience laugh and when to enthrall them. No other actor has that power, not even the best ones working today. Cruise is a one-of-a-kind showman and the last of his kind. Some have debated whether there are any movie stars left, and the notion of the star seems to be pretty much gone from any film discussion on social media. Cruise is the only remaining movie star who can consistently ensure a financial hit at the box office with only his presence attached to the project. The Mission: Impossible franchise would be nothing without Cruise’s death-defying stunts and pure showmanship, and he is the main reason why Dead Reckoning Part One, amidst all of its flaws, remains entertaining throughout its bloated runtime.
He’s paired impeccably well with Atwell, who gives the best performance of her career. Those who have been paying attention to her in the MCU or in shows like The Pillars of the Earth and Conviction know how great of an actor she has always been, but she has never been allowed to showcase her talents quite like this. She has an impeccable sense of comedic timing that matches Cruise’s and can hold her own during many of the action scenes. The chemistry between Ethan and Grace is off the charts and greatly rivals any of Cruise’s other female co-stars, even Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, who is unfortunately underused. Cruise also shares terrific banter with Simon Pegg’s Benji and Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickell, but you already knew that. Rhames and Pegg have been fan favorites since the third installment, and they continue to be just as amazing as they were since the two joined forces.
Other entertaining supporting players include the welcomed return of Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge, who has the most compelling side character arc, and one I can’t wait to see get expanded on in the second part. Shea Whigham and Top Gun: Maverick’s Greg Tarzan Davis are also very fun to watch as agents who try to hunt Ethan down but always fail at doing so. The comedy is a major highlight, always perfectly timed and harkening back to the silent movie era.
That’s always been something that McQuarrie has excelled at more than any other filmmaker who has helmed a Mission: Impossible picture, and he pushes it to great lengths during its final act, which has several references to silent cinema, from Safety Last! to Sherlock Jr. His film knowledge always shines through his setpieces, even if the storytelling here isn’t up to the standards his previous two Mission films were.
Part Ones are always tricky to do. Few have actively succeeded at being anything other than characters consistently spoon-feeding exposition while abruptly ending in a cliffhanger. Unlike a recent Part One that came out last month, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One has a classic three-act structure and satisfyingly ends this part of Ethan Hunt’s journey while leaving many questions unanswered. However, one could’ve appreciated the film more if the villain felt less one-note and the story was more inspired than MacGuffin hunting again. No matter how great the craftsmanship can be, there’s nothing more uninspiring than hunting for half of a MacGuffin to find the other half. We’ve had three of them in the span of a month. Make it stop
