Film: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

It is rare for a series to reach seven films and be going so strong but after Fallout in 2018, the Mission: Impossible series is stronger than ever and, like its leading man, seems to be getting better with age.

We have come a long way since 1996, for the film series inspired by the TV show, that has since gone on to become its own phenomenon, and at a point when the summer blockbuster - what with inflated budgets and box office crisis - looks to be in a rough rut, trust one of cinema’s biggest advocates to come along with a mission to do the appropriately impossible, and take things to another level. Mission accomplished!

In this high stakes thrill ride, the seventh film in the now iconic action franchise, agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team are tasked with tracking down a deadly weapon that could spell an end to humanity if it lands in the wrong hands. While a new foe emerges, Hunt is forced to truly face the impossible, a mission that questions his strict moral code, can the mission ever matter more than the lives of those he cares about?

Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is blockbuster action thriller cinema done right. At a time of writer’s and actor’s strikes as a result of corporate greed in the face of soulless tech, Cruise's dedication to the cinematic artform could not arrive at a better or more scarily apt time. His love of the art of big screen filmmaking is unmatched and rather flummoxing in its scale, and wholly needed right now.

This mighty first act of an epic nailbiting two-parter story is in many ways a tribute to the power of movies, as delivered by human hands. This mission poses Ethan Hunt's most formidable adversary yet in a story challenging the imposing shadow of AI technology and centralising heart, soul and morality, over greed, cold robotic calculated decisions and the brutal emptiness inherent in those decisions. It is hard to envision a better time to be discussing such things through the absorbing power that such a big screen experience can offer.

Dead Reckoning Part One is a brilliantly constructed thrill ride, a rollocking silver screen cavalcade of entertainment, with great performances, high stakes and unforgettable set pieces that makes you question how Cruise does it at this level and how he didn't kill himself in the process? The action sequences and thrilling set pieces are conducted as elegantly, gracefully and emotionally as an orchestra, and Cruise is the one leading the music for his directorial conductor and devoted audience.

Director Christopher McQuarrie and the actor have triumphed together once again, and for some potentially divisive wild turns this film may have, the greatest feat the film delivers - aside from that money shot daredevil stunt (which somehow was underplayed in the adverts) - is that this feels like a definitive ‘how to do a Part One’ story. The film feels satisfyingly complete, yet tantalisingly open, and you simply cannot wait for Part Two but also don’t feel short changed.

Franchise regulars Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and returning Rebecca Ferguson are all just fantastic, while newcomer Hayley Atwell making a superb first impression, as does Guardians of the Galaxy star Pom Klementieff, and the villain of the piece is the franchise’s best and most frighteningly overpoweringly relevant creation.

When Lorne Balfe’s super take on Lalo Schifrin’s classic music kicks in, after an already weighty prologue, you know for sure that the fuse has been lit and where it leads is going to be an utter joy to find out. Prepare yourselves people! If you argued it before, after this, you simply cannot deny Cruise's utter dedication to and love of cinema, he exudes it in every essence of his work. This once again is a mission you will have no problem accepting.

This review will self destruct in 5…4…3…2…1…