Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back with Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1. The film focuses on an A.I. threat that sees various factions trying to obtain two parts of a key that holds the secret for controlling an A.I. that has grown self-aware and has access to anything and everyone.
Since nobody knows exactly where the keys are or how to use them, it becomes a race across time and nations as factions with their own dubious intentions are in play and some are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure they take possession of the keys.
This leads Hunt and his team of Luther (Ving Rhames), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), to the company of a thief named Grace (Hayley Atwell), who has become a player in a much larger game as she expected nothing more than to lift part of the key from someone and be well-paid for her troubles.
From Rome to Venice, Austria, and more, the team encounters dangers on all sides including a team from their own backers who are convinced Ethan has gone rogue and must be eliminated at all costs.
This all sets up to introduce an enemy from Ethan’s past which complicates the mission as revenge and accomplishing the task at hand are often in conflict in a situation where the players, rules, and scenarios change constantly.
The plot at times harkens back to some of the earlier films in having a complexity that at times can seem confusing but in doing so captures the problems facing the team as they often have to act on instincts and experience without full knowledge of the bigger picture and involved parties.
The film blends the action with the storyline well as Atwell is a great addition to the series while I would have liked to have seen more from Pegg and Rhames, I am sure they are going to have a bigger impact in the second part of the story.
The action is intense and frantic from a car chase in Rome to an intense sequence on a train which is one of the most adrenaline-inducing sequences in recent action films.; to say nothing of the amazing stunts Cruise performed.
It is rare for a series on its seventh film to still be fresh and entertaining but the Mission Impossible franchise continues to deliver and this is a mission fans will be glad they took.
4 stars out of 5
