Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Everybody went all out last summer for Tom Cruise's return as Maverick. But will they do it again when his superspy alter-ego, Ethan Hunt, accepts his latest Mission: Impossible? His latest mission is too big for one movie to contain; thus, we have Dead Reckoning Part One.

This time, Ethan his fellow spies Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickwell (Ving Rhames) are on the hunt for a key so important, the IMF won't tell them what it does. Except we already know. The key controls "The Entity," an evil AI housed in the submarine Sevastopol, which sits at the bottom of the Bering Sea after it tricked the crew into torpedoing themselves. The key splits in halves, and fellow agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) has one of them. Ethan gets Ilsa's half after he gets some bounty hunters off her trail. It's off to the races.

They try to get the other half at the Abu Dhabi Airport. But the mission turns impossible when a few factions intervene. One of them is Gabriel (Esai Morales), Ethan's old enemy and The Entity's favorite human. Agents Biggs and Degas (Shea Wigham and Greg Tarzan Davis) pursue Ethan as a rogue agent. A professional thief, Grace (Hayley Atwell), gets involved with Ethan and his team as an unofficial newbie. Not everyone's going to make it out alive.

Director Christopher McQuarrie sits firmly on the franchise's formerly rotating director's chair. He and his co-writer Erik Jendresen provide more opportunities for Ethan to show off. Its most advertised scene is Ethan driving a motorcycle off a cliff and parachuting to reach the Orient Express. It's pretty cool, but his dynamic entry on the train itself is spectacular. An earlier car chase in Rome is pretty thrilling and amusing. Ethan's infiltration of an Intelligence Community meeting and Benji's disarming of a suitcase nuke are the film's tensest moments, by far. The film runs an unusually massive 163 minutes, but you'll rarely be bored.

I think it's because of the cast. Ethan and his team once again form a great ensemble of agents. They and the new characters get plenty of time to shine. Of the new characters, Grace and Gabriel's henchwoman Paris (Pom Klementieff) get the most meaningful character arcs. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) returns from the first film, now higher up in the Intel community, and his worthy opponent relationship with Ethan is quite interesting. Agent Biggs and Degas's compelling subplot gets its best moment when they help Ethan evacuate the Orient Express. Director Denlinger is a perfectly smug villain, but you may not recognize his actor unless you look at the credits: Cary Elwes. 

This may be a part one, but its story isn't lacking. Ethan and Gabriel's rivalry concerns a woman named Marie, who's only seen in flashbacks. We don't know who she was to them. But we're intrigued enough to stick around for Part Two to find out. It's also a rare part one where the good guys win. You'll just have to wait to see how the villains catch up. Part Two is supposed to come out next year, but who knows with the Double Hollywood Strike going on (Go SAG and WGA).

This part is still a great spy thriller. Its runtime is barely noticeable thanks to its characters and set pieces. A good time is guaranteed for many if you choose to accept Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, as your next movie mission. Now, if you excuse me, it's time for the next review.