Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review: Tom Cruise Fights A Rogue 'AI' Threat, Delivers Riveting Action

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One offers an invigorating and electrifying experience, and is worth watching more than once. It is a movie that will continue to be hailed for years to come.

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One Review: Ethan Hunt is back to set out on a mission only he is capable of accomplishing, and this time, not against a human threat, but something which has become "sentient". Could you guess who the antagonist in the first part of the Mission: Impossible franchise's seventh instalment is? I believe you guessed it right. The villain is a nefarious AI, termed "The Entity" in the movie. While Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One went on floors in 2020, and finished filming in 2021, a time when AI was not considered as Machiavellian as it is today, the idea chosen by writers Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen fits well into the most-debated subject matter in present-day. 

AI becoming a menace after going sentient and rogue is a theme adopted by hundreds of science-fiction movies including 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator franchise, but Tom Cruise's film being released in the year the world is worried if singularity — an event in which AI becomes self-aware, and so powerful that it would become difficult for humans to control it — will soon become a reality makes the audience feel more connected to the movie. 

Surprisingly, another scene feels extremely relatable to current times. The film opens with an underwater sequence in the Bering Sea, where a Russian nuclear submarine called Sevastopol is destroyed by its own torpedoes that had been released to attack an object which appeared like a threat, only to realise that it was a false alarm. The incident has a striking similarity to the Titan tragedy, which occurred a few weeks back. 

It was "The Entity" that had breached the Russian submarine's systems to ensure that everyone onboard was killed, and the two parts of a "key" would be released into the sea. 

The entire plot revolves around the hunt for this key because it can unlock something that carries unimaginable power. However, the key has an old-fashioned design and does not appear to have the ability to unlock tremendous power, but looks like something that could be used to open a box of treasure from the early 15th century.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is tasked with finding one of the parts of the key, which Ilsa Faust had stolen (Rebucca Ferguson), making her the target of several bounty hunters. As always, the tape self-destructs after Hunt has listened to the entire message describing his next assignment for the Impossible Mission Force (IMF). 

During his search for Ilsa, Hunt fights with mercenaries in the middle of the Sahara Desert, amidst high-speed dust storms which make the action sequence more intriguing. 

It turns out that Hunt is not the only person coveting the key. Other people fighting for it are Grace (Hayley Atwell), who is a professional thief tasked with stealing one of the parts of the key, Gabriel (Esai Morales), a pawn for "The Entity", and Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby), a black arms dealer known as the "White Widow".

Hunt not only has to compete for the key, but is also running from Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigam) and his partner Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), who are after Hunt because they believe he will misuse the key. 

The first part of Mission: Impossible 7 also brings Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) back after 27 years. He appeared in Mission: Impossible (1996) as the director of the IMF, but was not seen in any other instalments of the franchise. 

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One delivers more than one expects from an action film. The action sequences are engrossing, and keep the audiences hooked to their seats. Be it Hunt's first fight sequence in the movie in the middle of the desert, or the cat-and-mouse chase in the airport at Abu Dhabi, where technology experts Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) are trying their best to help Hunt using "AI", the film is gratifying at all times. Dunn and Stickell also solve riddles and psychometric tests to evade a threat, which Hunt says he should be "bothered" about.

One of the most interesting scenes from the movie is the one in which Hunt and Grace fall down a flight of stairs in Rome, while they are in a yellow-coloured Fiat 500. The sequence bears resemblance to the iconic "stairway shootout" scene in Brian de Palma's The Untouchables (1987). In both the movies, a baby in a pram is shown on the stairs, and the protagonists of both the films try to save the child. 

In Venice, some of the people interested in the key gather at a party, which gives the vibes of a James Bond film, because the movies of this franchise based on Ian Fleming's books are famous for fight scenes in lavish parties. 

The most captivating scenes in the film are the train-top fight sequence, and the one in which Hunt and Grace move from one coach to another in order to keep themselves from falling off a bridge into the stream with the coaches that have detached from the train. This scene truly gives the audience an adrenaline rush as Hunt and Grace try to defy the laws of gravity to save themselves.

In one scene, Hunt jumps from the top of a mountain to enter a moving train! Scary, isn't it? But it seems there is nothing Cruise cannot do, and while some signs of ageing are visible on his face, him being a 59-year-old during the time of shooting does not seem to have reduced his energy, for he fights with the vigour of a man in his 40s. 

He is charming as always, and delivers riveting action in a unique way. His mere presence makes every scene zestful. 

Atwell has played Grace gracefully, and does justice to the importance of her character in the film. As a new entrant to the Mission: Impossible franchise, and considering Grace's skills, it is safe to assume that a lot is in store for her character. 

Pom Klementieff plays Paris, an assistant to Gabriel, and does a wonderful job portraying the character of a merciless assassin. 

Gabriel had a past connection with Hunt, as revealed in the movie. However, Gabriel does not appear as deadly as he is supposed to be, considering that he is the messiah for "The Entity". This could be probably because he is just a pawn, and the real antagonist is the "The Entity", which has a "mind of its own". 

Certain dialogues feel unnecessary because of the use of forced humour, which is not humour in the true sense of the word. Also, the number of times they refer to the rogue AI as "The Entity" sounds nondescript.

The background score, composed by Lorne Balfe, is undeniably spellbinding. The original Mission: Impossible theme written and composed by Lalo Schifrin is an emotion for anyone who is an admirer of the film series, and gives listeners an inexplicable feeling.

Overall, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One offers an invigorating and electrifying experience, and is worth watching more than once. It is a movie that will continue to be hailed and widely recognised for years to come.

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One releases in theatres on July 12, 2023.