Sometimes it takes a while to have two forces meet. During the ’80s when teen films dominated the theater marquee, Tom Cruise became the most likable and bankable of his peers with Risky Business. Most people remember Esai Morales as the brother from La Bamba. But Bad Boys was the movie that really made an impact on fans of the era. Morales gave a startling performance as a teenage drug dealer willing to get thrown into juvenile prison in order to personally kill Sean Penn as revenge for his brother’s death. He had no limits as he ruthlessly sized up his target. Quite a few fans of teen movies wanted to see Tom Cruise and Esai Morales face off. Little did we know that the two would finally meet 40 years later with the fate of the world at stake. Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is their battlefield.
The Russian submarine Sevastopol lurks beneath the ice-covered waters. This is the cutting edge of the nation’s stealth fleet. It has been on a tour of nations seeing how close they could get without any detection. Even more cutting edge is an AI computing system that was data mining during the voyage. The crew is happy to be heading home when they detect a torpedo coming straight at them. How could this be? What nation has cracked their cloak of invisibility. The captain orders a counterattack. Once their weapons are launched, they discover the enemy torpedo doesn’t exist. Who was behind this phony attack? Turns out the enemy was within them. The AI system has become sentient and decided to take control of its fate. The sub’s fired torpedoes come back at them and kills the crew. The bodies of the crew float out of the hull and become trapped beneath the ice. This includes the two officers that have the special keys dangling around their necks. Later Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) meets Ilsa Faust (The White Queen‘s Rebecca Ferguson) in order to retrieve one of the two keys. He also uses the moment to fake her death since she’s considered a rogue agent. During a briefing for Kitteridge (The Ice Storm‘s Henry Czerny), the director of National Intelligence and attended by Charles Parnell, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, and Mark Gatiss, they discuss the AI program that’s inside the sunk sub that’s now called The Entity. It has become a threat to the world while trapped somewhere deep. The threat to the room turns out to be Ethan Hunt who has snuck into the meeting to have a surprise time with Kitteridge. He has a lead on the second key which will allow them to destroy the Entity. He heads to Abu Dabi airport with his elite crew that mainly consists of Luther (Pulp Fiction‘s Ving Rhames) and Benji (Shawn of the Dead‘s Simon Pegg). During their time in the airport, they find themselves dealing with three different forces. An American intelligence officer and his crack unit out to take out Ethan Hunt. Grace (Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell) is a thief out to snag the key. Most importantly is Gabriel, a terrorist who has had encounters with Ethan before. He has a vicious assistant named Paris (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘s Pom Klemnetieff). This trip to the airport isn’t going to be end well in first class. Can Ethan get both keys to continue his vital mission?
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is one exciting sequence after the next. Tom Cruise and company have this paced like a classic James Bond flick. Cruise is racing around a few of 007’s locations including Venice and the Orient Express. Even though we’re only getting the first half of the film, there’s such a rush with the train action that you want to take a breath to grab your breath. You might remember what Brian De Palma and Tom Cruise did with a fight on a train in the first Mission: Impossible movie. This is not a retread of that rail thrill ride. Director Christopher McQuarrie has come up with a lot of ways to have things get rough and nasty on the rails. Even before Ethan gets on the train, we get a massive stunt involving a motorcycle and parachute. Easi Morales is such a worthy opponent as he doesn’t overplay his villainous Gabriel. He gives off a cold-blooded charm as he wields a knife. He’s been waiting a long time to get a chance to mix it up with Tom Cruise and we’re rewarded.
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 2 is now scheduled for the summer of 2025 so you’ll want to rewatch the film a few times. The main bonus features are on a second Blu-ray disc. There’s also 4K UHD and DVD release of the movie.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The image is sharp as you see the various European locations. Venice alone is worth the price of upgrading the image. The Audio is in English in Dolby Atmos and Dolby TrueHD 7.1. You’ll want to crank the volume to keep the tension as high. There are also dub tracks in French, Spanish, Japanese and French Canadian. The subtitles are in English, Danish, Spanish, Japanese, French, Dutch, Norwegian, Finish and French Canadian.
Digital Code so you can watch the film online.
Isolated Score Track option lets you just take in the movie with only the music propelling the action.
Commentary by director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton has the duo get deep into the film. McQuarrie talks about how co-writer Erik Jendresen lives on a boat. He gets into the development of The Entity. he lets us know what’s written on the torpedo in the opening scene. The editor talks about the coverage and building the assembly edit. They discuss sweat on various actors to create Sweat-con instead of Def-con. There are subtitles provided for their commentary.
Abu Dhabi (3:55) has them show off the airport sequence. They go to shoot all over the real airport. They also got to borrow US military Ospreys. Later they shot in the nearby desert after they built a town. They used a jet engine to blow sand.
Rome (4:12) gets into the chase scene with Tom Cruise handcuffed to Hayley Atwell. They talk about the issues of getting street closures. We get to see the camera rig that captures the speeding action on the ancient streets.
Venice (4:12) gets into how they’ve been wanting to shoot in Venice for the series for a while. There’s talk of logistics on how there’s not trucks allowed to bring in the movie equipment. There is a breakdown of the lighting effects on landmark buildings.
Freefall (9:05) gets into the dangerous motorcycle jump off a cliff in Norway. Tom has been wanting to do such a jump since childhood. We see all that Tom Cruise did to set up and prep for this real stunt that wasn’t just green screen in a studio space.
Speed Flying (4:17) gets into the dangers of the parachute stunt at the end of the film. Tom could have gone smacking into the side of the mountain.
Train (5:32) gets into shooting the last part of the movie on the steam engine train. They had to build the train that fell off the bridget. They show off all the stuff that could have gone wrong during the shoot.
Deleted Shots Montage—Director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton share some of the breathtaking, never-before-seen footage that didn’t make the final film.
Editorial Featurette: The Sevastopol—Director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton take viewers through the intense opening scene.
Paramount Pictures presents Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie & Erik Jendresen. Starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby & Esai Morales. Running Time: 163 minutes. Rated: PG-13. Release Date: October 31, 2023.
