First Take: Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - there’s another maverick-like success coming

SYNOPSIS: Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands.

Spoiler free as usual. This message will self destruct in 5…

His mission, should he choose to accept it, is to promote the big screen experience. Tom Cruise has done so much for the industry these last 12 months, firstly with Top Gun Maverick, and now, after 5 years in the works and an intercontinental shoot which started in the midst of Italy’s toughest Covid restrictions, Mission is back. And we’re in the Endgame - the first of a two part finale to the series (or so we’re being lead to believe), this is the biggest and arguably most impossible one they can do. To that we say this: damn, this is a true big screen movie.

At the helm, as you would expect if you’ve seen the last 2 missions, is a man who has earned the shortened name McQ. Yes, Christopher McQuarrie is back directing (and co-writing with Band of Brothers exec producer Erik Jendresen) this two parter, and he is the ideal choice, having worked with Cruise for a long time now. This is by no means a short film, coming in at 2 hours 43 minutes, and a lot of audiences have struggled with this - but there is so much plot to explore in this runtime that it does feel justified, if a smidge excessive (only by 5-10 minutes though). It is shot brilliantly, although digitally (a departure from tradition) by Fraser Taggart, with every action setpiece looking right at home on screen 3, or even an IMAX screen, plus I also have to single out Lorne Balfe - returning to soundtrack another Mission after his iconic bongo-heavy score for Fallout - who takes things even crazier by getting 555 musicians (including orchestras in London, Rome, Budapest & Vienna; the Top Secret Drum Corps in Switzerland; 20 bongo players and a choir in Venice) playing on this score. Zimmer’s prodigy, my backside - he’s the real deal now.

On to the cast, and before we tackle Tom Cruise, we have to mention Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Rebecca Ferguson - we’ve seen them develop Benji, Luther and Ilsa respectively over the last few films, and knowing how Part 1 ends, a lot of narratives for them are being tied up from their respective introductions up to now. Joining the ride is Hayley Atwell, who is an inspired addition to a strong cast, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales as villain Gabriel, the return of Henry Czerny as his character from MI1, and we also have Vanessa Kirby back as the White Widow too, someone we still don’t know too much about after her role in Fallout. And then we have the modern day miracle of science himself. 60 years old. And pulling off stunts like he is, without a double, without any injuries (this time) is still a sight to behold - say what you want about him, but when it comes to Hollywood’s time honoured traditions of showmanship, Tom Cruise is one of a rare breed of showing exactly where that $300million budget has gone: on screen, with REAL effects.

THE VERDICT

He’s done it again. He’s only gone and done it again. One year after giving cinema its first billion dollar movie since Covid, Mr Cruise and his team have casually gone and delivered another guaranteed box office success. Action turned up to 11, a well thought out plot, and everything you expect from a Mission Impossible movie is all present and correct - all it needs is the screens to be filled during a busy week of competition with ‘Barbenheimer’ as the kids are calling it.

RATING: 5/5