Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 43 minutes, Director – Christopher McQuarrie
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team find themselves in a race between multiple hostile groups all searching for a key to a potentially world-dominating AI power.
The Mission: Impossible franchise, particularly under Christopher McQuarrie who returns for his third instalment, has already proved that it can do chase scenes. There are plenty on display within Dead Reckoning Part One. Whether an extended car and bike chase through the streets of Rome or fast-paced walking through an airport there’s plenty to be caught in the tense grasp of. What this seventh outing for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team displays is the ability to make an effective almost three-hour chase, or rather race.
Multiple hostile groups are all looking for a key which could give them access to an AI power which could allow them to control the world. Our core focus is on Hunt and co. – once again Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson, this time with the addition of Hayley Atwell’s international criminal and ace pickpocket Grace – going from location to location in the hope of capturing the key, and finding out what it unlocks, in order to keep it safe from the wrong hands. Every now and then we cut to the likes of Esai Morales’ Gabriel, who appears to already have the power of technology on his side, and the excellent pairing of Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis’ agency workers Briggs and Degas – both of whom have very different methods of working.
The cuts to the other parties are often brief and occur at the same moment as unfolding action, not to show another perspective of the same thing, but to add to the tension that someone may be ahead in the race. The glimpses of such figures are effective and help to draw you in to another layer of tension amongst the various high-stakes action sequences which unfold, without feeling as if they begin to dominate the narrative or get distracted away from the main action. McQuarrie and co-writer Erik Jendresen, alongside editor Eddie Hamilton, know where the focus should be; and that’s on our central group of IMF agents, everyone else is an uncertain threat and the way they’re worked into the story certainly shows this.
While with so many figures it may take a bit of time for the film to properly get started, truly kicking in with the first major set-piece after the opening credits. Where the tension is truly built up is in the matter of consequences and stakes, put in place against Lorne Balfe’s rising score to truly enhance the suspense. It’s an effective point which grows the narrative tension over that of just the action and makes the most of your engagement, particularly as a bridge between one set-piece or revelation to the next scene, or rather chase and fight sequence/s.
There’s plenty going on in each instance to keep the overall flow consistent and engaging. Everything revolves around and remembers that central narrative, particularly when involving multiple parties at once. There’s an even mixture made up from the characters, especially during the likes of chase scenes and the nerves and uncertainty of a key set of events on a train – made up of multiple well-strung-together events and stages. All helped by a good dose of masks and gadgets – the former of which is particularly fun to see appear multiple times throughout the film. Dead Reckoning has plenty of fun, small details here and there, and they simply add to the intrigue of how the central race-to-the-key plays out – especially when not all motives are full known or clear.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One knows that the main interest and tension lies within Ethan Hunt and the IMF team. Knowing how to inject other parties into the story with plenty of rising suspense and strong action set-pieces. It might take some time to get going, but once it does, strap in.
Just A Little Bit Random 