Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (2023) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

We all know success can come to us with patience, which also means however that it cannot be done overnight.


PLOT


Formerly dubbed as a Part 1, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning is the first half of a two part story. An artificial intelligent system dubbed ‘The Entity’ has been activated by the Russians with a two piece cruciform key, but it goes awry when it quickly decides to deceive two submarines to attack each other. In a DC befriefung with the Intelligence Community, CIA director Eugene Kittridge shares with National Intelligence Director Denlinger that the Entity is capable of manipulating cyberspace to control global defense intelligence & financial networks. With the entire intelligence community racing to find both halves of the key hoping to control it again, the only concrete intel is that the disavowed MI6 agent Ilsa Faust intercepted one half in the Middle East and was presumed slain by IMF’s Ethan Hunt. Hunt however reveals himself in the meeting under the guise of another adjutant, incapacitating the board members with the nerve gas to confront Kittridge that he placed a bounty on Faust just for him to reach her and get the first half and stage her death which he did, knowing he’ll try to figure out how to destroy the Entity. Shortly after escaping under the guise of Kittridge, hoping to complete an ultimate goal, he regroups with common teammates Benji Dunn & Luther Stickell and they travel together to Adu Dhabi International Airport, intending to retrieve the second half of the key. When planning to intercept the intended buyer Otto Von Bork (Christopher Sciueref), the target gets pick pocketed by a skilled thief named Grace who has no idea what it is, but was hired to take it for her employer. Hunt convinces Grace to put both halves back in order to find out who Otto is planning to sell it to. Although Luther detects Otto’s half to be fake, the group still moves forward with the plan while Benji disarms a hoax nuclear device. In the midst of this, US Intelligence agents Jasper Briggs & Degas are tasked to stop Hunt and company. The put-pocket doesn’t happen due Otto being killed by and Entity disciple dubbed Paris. Hunt & Grace quickly retreat upon realization, especially when the latter notices his eldest ally turned rival Gabriel who is also associated with the Entity as a liaison. Just as he declares to abort, he pursues Grace who takes both halves and evades US Intelligence when leaving the airport. He’s able to reach her in Rome and save her from all parties after them both. Before ditching him though, Grace admits her employer hired her electronically and that she was instructed to follow him for the half key he had. With Ilsa regrouping with Hunt’s group, she joins him in following Grace to Venice. There, they infiltrate a party hosted by black marketeer Alanna Mitsopolis/White Widow, who has been aware for some time Hunt is not John Lark. At the party, the Widow admits to have hired Grace to get the other half and Gabriel speaks on behalf of the Entity that it knows she plans to sell the complete key to another buyer the next day at the Orient Express. He then claims to take both halves only after someone between Grace & Ilsa die by the end of the night, making Ethan decide who to save. Hunt tries to convince Alana to stop the sale, but her fears let it move forward. In the process, he does try to pursue Grace when she takes the first half for herself, but the Entity hacks his communications and impersonate Benji, leading him to a fight with Paris. He spares her just to get to Grace, but this leads to Gabriel killing Ilsa for real. With such a loss, Grace takes the chance to help by taking the guise of Alana during the exchange. The new plan would be that once Ethan gets the complete key and leaves the train with it, she would be taken in by Briggs & Degas and she’ll meet Kittridge for her protection. Luther then goes off grid to prevent interference, but advises Hunt to spare Gabriel for whatever info they can use to stop the Entity. With the mask machine malfunctioning before Ethan could sneak in under the guise of Alana’s brother Zola (Frederick Schmidt), he comes up with an alternative whereas Grace must go in to authenticate both halves alone. On the train, Gabriel & Paris hijack it by killing the crew and destroying the brake/throttle. Because of this, Hunt has to parachute onto the train only after motorcycling off a cliff. They then meet Denlinger who confesses it was originally developed by the US as their advanced cyber weapon. Together, the complete key unlocks a chamber inside the Russian submarine that was sunken, Sevastopol, where the Entity’s source code can be accessed. Gabriel chooses to protect this information by killing him and trying to kill Paris since off of Ethan sparing her, the Entity predicts her to betray him. Once intercepting Alana, Grace takes her place and meets the buyer that was Kittridge all along. She gives her her own passport where she instructs him to protect her before selling the key and quickly pickpocketing it right after confirming it’s legitimacy. Kittridge doesn’t realize what happened until the real Alana wakes up. By the time Hunt gets on the train, he saves Grace from Zola chasing her for the key but Gabriel quickly gets it. As he instructs Grace to figure out how to stop the train, he pursues his rival and is able to get the key back after a lengthy fight on top of the train. Gabriel would not realize it until jumping off the train to avoid being captured by Briggs & Dejas. He does so due to detonating a bridge ahead of the train. Briggs & Degas are able to escort civilians to the back of the train for their safety and once Ethan & Grace realize the train can’t be stopped, they race to the back until Paris saves them from falling. Before collapsing in shock, she would warn them of the Sevastopol. As Grace stays with her to approach Kittridge on wanting to join IMF, the film ends in a cliffhanger with Ethan leaving the wreckage via paraglider and rendezvousing with Benji still determined to destroy the Entity.


THOUGHTS


I’ve loved the action genre for so long because they’ve always been exciting in one way or another. Making a two part story for this franchise was ambitious because you want the pacing to be just right and the anticipation has to be worth it. Thus far, director Christopher McQuarrie  and co writer Erik Jendresen were able to nail it the way he wanted. It feels hard to not be hooked in when the editing & cinematography are put together so well that you’re felt so ecstatic in experiencing each sequence and the next whether it was seeing actor Tom Cruise sprint on top of the Abu Dhabi International Airport rooftop, get a third person perspective of seeing him drive while handcuffed to his co-star, see him fight another on top of an actual train or seeing him motorbike into a base jump. All these moments were so damn thrilling and it’s impossible to deny it. The Oscar nominated visual effects were even put to good use when having us believe the Orient Express was crashing or removing the ramp that was used for the jump. Lorne Balfe returning to compose was the right call because his score was just as thrilling as what we got from Fallout. While I stink that was the better entry, this one still deserves respect in its own right because the main threat being an AI is quite fitting. I wouldn’t say because of how it affected the entertainment industry to the point that it caused the SAG AFTRA strike, but it’s presence in the story alone taught us the importance of free will. Even when there are times where you feel like there are moments that are predetermined in life as it goes by, there is no shame in testing the limits in how much will you have. Ethan Hunt has been the embodiment of that belief and Cruise gives another stellar performance to remind us. With each stunt and each action he makes, he’s able to do it with selflessness and think about it how it’ll affect others. Little would the audience expect his motivation to originate to come from an old act of betrayal. You can joke around and say Gabriel is his polar opposite for embracing the gray hair, but Esai Morales makes it much more than that. The real difference is that he is much pragmatic and uses it to become all the more ruthless. From what we see, he killed Ethan’s first acquaintance Marie because it was his way to be an agent of chaos and siding with the Entity was an easy decision because he feels sure he can use it as his own tool the way he thinks he could. Seeing Ethan take it from him is a relief because had he still kept it, it could’ve been worse already for the world as we know it. He is definitely smarter than the way Denlinger presumed himself since Cary Elwes made him way too confident to explain the origin of the Entity. His biggest flaw is walking into a trap because his intent to cut a loose end out of Paris only foreshadows his downfall. The fact Hunt still spares him when he had an appropriate excuse to get even proves how unlimited his selflessness remains. His motivation to remain so definitely comes from the most reliable of allies he’s ever had. Ving Rhames & Simon Pegg are still a match made in heaven as Luther & Benji respectively because their kindness & loyalty remind him the humanity that is worth saving despite all the bad they face every time. Rebecca Ferguson was still a great part to the crew as Ilsa because she had always matched Ethan’s resourcefulness and determination to do the right thing because not even she knows outsiders willing to go as far as her. With one friend of such value, it became an ultimate blow to lose her too. It was instantly tough to watch because she was also able to remind Hunt that all the determination put to all the made goals are worth it when you make them. Without her, he’d feel lost but luckily doesn’t ever get there due to seeing so much her in Grace. I think he does because Hayley Atwell made her someone who was proud to put her resources to good use, but it was meeting Hunt that put her in the right track she should’ve been in much sooner. And she realizes that the more she spends time with him because in a way, she’s inspired in how far he’ll go for the greater good. She takes his advice to join IMF because this was her own path of redemption otherwise losing Ilsa would’ve been all for nothing. With this decision, she’ll have a new advantage in helping Ethan more than she already intends. In a way, Paris’ arc matches hers significantly because despite not being so talkative, Pom Klementieff presented her as someone who was using her skills for the wrong side. Unusually, Gabriel cutting ties with her was a blessing in disguise because it paved the way for her own redemption path. It was still a delight to see Vanessa Kirby again as the White Widow because this was the first time we’ve seen her somewhat vulnerable. She doesn’t know how the Entity works, but was willing to sell it to whoever to save herself. That may have sound selfish, but is also reasonable if you were in her shoes, which makes her cunning nature appear much different from her mother Max. Because of this, it makes her journey in The Final Reckoning all the more interesting. While I thought it was cool for Shea Wingham & Greg Tarzan Davis having a mentor-protege relationship as Briggs & Degas who slowly catch on Hunt’s actions are reasonable, I couldn’t stop being amazed for Henry Czerny returning to the franchise as Kittridge for the first time since the very first film. He’s still interesting to follow because with all the years that have progressed, he trust Ethan’s process better than anyone but chooses to act cynical for the most part because that’s how intense the spy life remains. It was smart for him to buy the key because it’d give him a chance to hide it since he wouldn’t know how to destroy the Entity. But since Ethan was able to get his hands on it, it saves him trouble from Gabriel at the moment. And he gives Grace a chance in the end because solely off of knowing Ethan sent her, he catches on she’s worth trusting which all becomes worth it by the time of The Final Reckoning. While I give this movie a fair amount of credit, there were still a few moments that bothered me way more than the pointless title change. For example, why haven’t the Russians made a new key if the cruciform halves were made from them? If they wanted the power of the Entity for themselves, that would’ve been an easier way to go about it. In all honesty, Ethan should’ve kept Kittridge out of his way by not reaching him before going rogue again. Not letting him know he had half of the key would’ve been made things a little smoother for him. Luther even pointlessly asks how big the fake nuke is because it’s bad either way and what matters more is cracking the riddles than guessing the size. For a weapon like that, size doesn’t matter because it’ll get the job done for the bad guys. That honestly felt worse than him and Benji still using computers when they knew the Entity could hack them. Moving on, Grace messes up not telling Ethan sooner about Briggs & Deras following him, but she knows Hunt is her ticket out of there and should’ve taken the opportunity sooner rather than later. Also, how come there wasn’t an option for Hunt to score a safe plane? That sounds just as good as a safe car because he can rent the plane all to himself, meaning no one would really follow him at that point. I don’t want to doubt Ethan at all, but his observance being the one time Grace cuffs him to the car is insane because he should’ve not kept his eyes off her once they made it to the train tracks. Him even quickly guessing Grace hid the key in Zola’s pocket during Alana’s party is a stretch because saying it’s the last place really narrows it down when he knows she’s that good of a pick pocket. Lastly, how did Paris know she knew where Ethan was to save him? I know we need an excuse for her face turn to be legit, but considering she could’ve been pretty far from her cabin, it’s kinda crazy we don’t see when exactly she knew when to reach him. Ignore these issues though, then you’re still in for a good time. In conclusion, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning is another great entry in the franchise for changing up the scenery to create new surprises of suspense. If you’re still a fan, then don’t waste any more time and watch this now.