Review: Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Review by: David North-Martino

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) is an American action spy thriller and the seventh installment in the franchise. The film was directed by Christopher McQuarrie and stars Tom Cruise, Haley Atwell (Agent Carter), Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Esai Morales (Caprica).

Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) deliver again in this tightly woven thriller.

This time Hunt and the IMF must track down a terrifying weapon that could destroy the world. Chills and thrills abound. Hunt is up to his usual exploits with some pretty incredible stunts.
Action set pieces don’t come across quite as visceral as the spectacle that was Mission Impossible: Fall Out (2018), even in IMAX, but they’re still impressive. Additionally, watching special features gave me an appreciation of just how dangerous these stunts were for Cruise to perform.

Although Dead Reconning can’t quite match Fall Out, it’s still a very strong entry in the franchise.

There’s plenty of fast paced action and the humor is nicely balanced. We also get 20% more of Tom Cruise running!

Luther (Rhames) and Benji (Pegg) fight for relevance as both basically have the computer geek role in this installment. Still, it’s aways nice to see them again. Pegg gets to inject a little more humor than in the previous installment.

Newcomer, Grace, (Atwell) gets a fully fleshed out origin story and character arc, and is a welcome edition to the team. She’s billed second to the top, and it makes one wonder where her character is headed in the franchise after part two’s mission is complete.

Alanna the “White Widow” (Kirby) is the standout here giving one of the best performances of the franchise. Her acting is so naturalistic and subtle, I’m afraid she tends to end up just under the radar.

The ending concludes the storyline enough to satisfy while ramping up the tension for the planned sequel.

Mission impossible: Dead Reconning Part One is a top entry in the series. If you’re a fan of the Mission Impossible films, Dead Reckoning is definitely recommended.

I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars. Watch it in IMAX if available.


Story Doctoring:

Some of the exposition in the beginning could be trimmed. Some scenes feel like an info-dump and would be better served by having the actors give necessary details during action scenes. The hidden antagonist has a goofy name and it would have been better to change it to something less over the top.

Rating: Four out of five stars.