A menacing superweapon that has the rich and powerful vying for control over it isn’t a novel concept in the word of action movies. For the longest time, the genres of action, thriller, and horror have churned out films warning humans about the dangers of overdependence on technology.
The phrase, “So, you mean it’s sentient?” is almost a given in these films and it also makes an appearance in Tom Cruise’s latest Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the seventh film of the franchise.
In a world where franchise offerings are suffering from audience fatigue, director Christopher McQuarrie and co-writer Erik Jendresen’s MI-7 might be one of the few films that keeps the appeal of a franchise going.
The action set-pieces are brilliantly choreographed and the scale at which they’re mounted leaves the rest of the installments behind while still containing a nostalgic nod to the Brian De Palma original.
And it doesn’t hurt that the dizzying pace is complemented by absolutely stunning sound design.
Like all Mission: Impossible films, Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is on a mission – he and his team (Simon Pegg as Benji and Ving Rhames as Luther) have to retrieve one half of a special key that has the power to control a rogue A.I. threat, known simply as the ‘Entity’.
Their mission (if they choose to accept it) would also be to figure out what the key unlocks and how possession of the key could help them diffuse this “godless, stateless, amoral” threat.
Hunt then comes in contact with every player with a stake in the game, starting with Ilsa Faust (a remarkable Rebecca Ferguson). However, Hunt’s main deuteragonist is a pickpocket named Grace (Hayley Atwell) who believes she’s on a mission that’s almost second-nature to her but gets dragged into a much more nefarious big picture.
Atwell and Cruise’s back-and-forth, primarily in action sequences, is part endearing and part hilarious. The actors mesh together beautifully to create a near unforgettable duo. Then there’s a face from Hunt’s past, Gabriel (an expertly intimidating Esai Morales). To add to that, there are agents who are trying to nab Hunt, considering him to be a rogue agent and Vanessa Kirby returns as the alluring White Widow.
One qualm with the film is that it woefully underutilises Kirby’s talent, a feeling mirrored by the treatment actor Pom Klementieff gets.
As a silent assassin, Klementieff uses a venomous charm that is reminiscent of a somber Harley Quinn. Despite well-sketched-out characters, most of the actors other than Cruise get the short end of the stick.
But if you’re there to exclusively watch Tom Cruise, that’s a treat for you I’d assume. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has threads of films like The Italian Job and Bullet Train intertwined in its fabric but the film’s best offering, unsurprisingly, is Cruise himself.
Cruise swings, fights, and shoots with aplomb but there is an added shade to his character – one of a man who once accepted an alternate life and has accepted and braved both the wins and the consequences.
By placing Hunt’s empathy against Gabriel’s cutthroat quality, the film highlights why Hunt is a character that can carry such a franchise on his shoulders.
The film is not without flaws – some of the dialogues are repetitive, not just within the movie but across several films in the genre and there is a sizable demand for a suspension of disbelief (lest we forget we’re in a world where rubber masks are indistinguishable from an actual human face).
Some of the scenes, too, as rewarding and fascinating as they are, feel rather stretched out but the film’s wins highly overpower its flaws. So, despite a runtime of over 2 hours, will people tune in for a part 2? I believe people would find it tough not to.
After all, like the film kept reiterating, finding the key is ‘just the beginning’.
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