Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One or Mission Impossible 7 is the seventh installment of the infamous spy action thriller franchise Mission Impossible. Starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Simon Pegg as Benji, Ving Rhames as Luther, and Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust as always, this film also sees Hailey Atwell as Grace and Pom Klementief as Paris. Also starring Vanessa Kirby as the arms dealer Alanna aka The White Widow from the previous film and Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge from the 1996 film, this film is directed by Christopher McQuarrie and is produced by McQuarrie and Tom Cruise.
This time, The IMF is in search of a key which would unlock something, and would further allow governments of all the countries to stop or gain access to a rouge AI named the 'Entity'. The antagonist 'Gabriel' played by Esai Morales is shown as a humanised form of what the actual villain i.e the Entity would look like in the next film. Nothing much is given away about the Entity by the makers, and it's power of precognition, or knowing the intentions of Ethan Hunt and misguide him, or to make the characters hear it's voice (sometimes as a man and sometimes as a woman) are some strange things shown here, which will definitely be given shape and justification in the next installment of the franchise.
First thing first, performances do all the talking. Although there's no question for the performances to go wrong with such a star cast, the performances are truly commendable. Talking about the direction, it's great. More so due to the attempt of making this film different from the previous installments, (which is widely evident as well). This film is much more dialogue heavy than any MI films out there and it's mainly to explain the threat that looms over the world because of the Entity. The dialogue heavy nature is really good in the first half, but feels a bit stretched in the second half. The action is just insane. Tom Cruise doing all those abnormal stuff and making it all look so easy at the age of 60 is truly amazing. And the showstopper of them all is the scene where Tom Cruise jumps of the cliff with a motor bike. Hands down, one of the most dangerous yet intriguing action scene, probably in the history of world cinema. Also, this film hasn't been treated as a complete action film. There are many scenes, especially the airport scene, where there's no action but one can easily feel the tention being built, and that's very enjoyable. The comedy (dark comedy) is very well executed and placed here. The previous film of the franchise was quite serious and had almost no comedy, but this film has plenty of it, often playing a relief factor when the tention builds up too much.
The screenplay is nice, giving space to all the characters. The character Gabriel who tends to be villain here is shown to be very cruel and bitter, which looks terrific. Also, his past angle with Ethan Hunt justifies his cruelty. He remains alive till the end and so we can expect to see Tom Cruise taking on him with all his might in the next film. The music is too good, and is used very wisely here. Several scenes are made completely music free to make us savour the rawness of the scene. The Mission Impossible theme in the previous films was played using guitar or synthesiser, but this time it's paired with Darbuka and the output is a relishing treat. The cinematography alongwith the editing shines as ever. The chase sequences, the way they're shot, the entire train sequence, the editing which keeps the audience at the edge of their seats throughout a 165 minute long film deserves praise higher than ever.
There were some minor issues which I personally felt. Firstly, the fate of the character Ilsa in this film isn't something I would rejoice. Ethan needed her in the future for sure but things went other way. Also, after the Paris sequence where everything happens to Ilsa, the film's colour grading becomes blue from yellow, indicating the change in mood. The makers called it a day to Ilsa probably to justify that even Ethan Hunt is a human and even he can fail, and also to justify the Entity's threat to humanity. But, they could've treated the character better for sure. Not sure whether what happened is final, because a scene in the film says that Ethan needs to be always a step forward to defeat the Entity. Things may turn out to be pre planned as the IMF preferred Ilsa to get embroiled in a fight and stay low key (in disguise maybe) after her planned fate, for the sake of greater good. If this is true, then she's gonna be in MI 8. But if it isn't, then we've nothing to do. Secondly, it's not the first time director Christopher MCQuarrie has split a large story into two halves. He did this with Mission Impossible Rouge Nation and Fallout as well, where Solomon Lane is captured in the former and killed in the latter. Due to this factor, MI:5's ending felt more like a beginning from where the story could go anywhere, and that happened indeed with Henry Cavill as August Walker creating havoc in MI:6. The ending of this film feels like and is definitely a beginning to something. But this time around, this tried and tested approach somehow feels a bit incomplete which wasn't the case with MI:5. I even felt the build up for the final showdown to be missing here unlike other MI films. All other MI films have an iconic action scene in the middle of the runtime, and a simple but extremely high staked action in the climax where every character is involved. Here, the climax (although terrific with the train sequence) felt a bit long which probably cut short (only a bit) the excitement of the ending action for a MI film.
All being said, this film is again a golden page to the Mission Impossible legacy that started 27 years ago. It's a big screen action spectacle which is a definite watch at the theatres. The idea of not giving away anything about the main villain is an indication of a huge creative liberty that the makers will take in the next film, which has previously occurred, when Henry Cavill entered the party for a nail bitting and MI trademark ending to MI:6. The director during the screening said that they are developing ideas for future installments of the franchise after MI:8 and I just pray that his statements come true. Hopes are higher than ever as MI:8 releases in less than eleven months from now. Until then, it's your wish to choose whether to accept or decline this film in the theatres. If you ask me, there's no question for declining.