‘Mission: Impossible’ as a franchise just might be the most successful in achieving its, pun intended, mission. While other action blockbuster intellectual properties have ambitions that go way beyond just the movies themselves, Tom Cruise’s ‘M:I’ series is content to entertain, one movie, one set piece, one moment at a time. Nearing 30 years since Cruise appeared on screen for the first time as Ethan Hunt in 1996, audiences have seen huge franchises come and go, reboot, and reimagine. Even James Bond, which this series most closely compares, has turned over twice during this time. The only conceivable reason for this is that ‘M:I’ consistently puts extremely competent, incredibly staged, and entertainingly fun content into the world. It’s latest installment, ‘Dead Reckoning Part One’, is no exception – quite frankly, it’s yet another banger.

Don’t let the ‘Part One’ give cause for concern. This movie is a complete work in and of itself, with all the hallmarks of the best the series has to offer. There are multiple gorgeous locations, filmed in reality, beautiful people, breathtaking stunts, a joyfully convoluted plot, and lots of masks. As with most M:I movies, there is a MacGuffin driving the narrative. This time it’s a neat-looking inter-locking set of keys, that once linked do . . . something. It’s actually a component of the story that no one in the movie actually know what it does – it’s a meta so-what that’s actually kind of refreshing. Basically, the villain of this first part entry in a two-parter is ‘The Entity’, a self-aware AI that destroys a sub carrying something that could threaten its existence. The fact that a movie that started production during the pandemic was prescient enough to end up referencing two topics currently trending in the news is more than a coincidence, rather it’s a representation of the current zeitgeist.

M:I films may have been light on resonant thematic elements to this point, but Cruise and his rotating, now standard-bearing directors have always been interested in driving action with real stunts, always pushing the envelope to engage audiences. As this is the third entry helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, there is some continuity of character, look and feel. Back are the just askew camera mounts that capture the actors riding motorcycles for real and behind the wheels of various luxury vehicles. Also back are a large cast of supporting characters, along with some new friends and foes. The welcome returns of IMF teammates Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are joined by a wonderful Hayley Atwell, as professional thief Grace, a rookie to the spy game. New foes Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, and Shea Whigham are all here to showcase respectively, demons from Hunt’s past, a driving madness, and dogged government pursuit. Throw in a returning Henry Czerny as boss man Kittridge, and ‘Dead Reckoning’ becomes a delightful, if maybe a little overstuffed stew of new and old. The movie drives to an absolutely gasp-inducing final sequence aboard a train that both calls back and surpasses the original film, but also serves the narrative theme of analog v digital very nicely. Leaving off on more of an ellipse than a cliffhanger (think more ‘Empire Strikes Back’ and LOTR than ‘Across the Spider-Verse’), ‘Dead Reckoning Part One’ is a completely satisfying representation of everything that makes the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise so consistently great . . .

Directed By: Christopher McQuarrie

Written By: Erik Jendresen & Christopher McQuarrie

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 163 min.

* * * 1/2 (out of 4 stars) -OR- A-