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[DISCUSSION] Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (Spoilers)

Premise:

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

Directors:

Christopher McQuarrie

Writers:

Bruce Geller, Erik Jendresen, Christopher McQuarrie

Cast:

Tom Cruise 	    ... 	Ethan Hunt
Hayley Atwell 	    ... 	Grace
Ving Rhames         ...         Luther Stickell
Simon Pegg 	    ... 	Benji Dunn
Rebecca Ferguson    ... 	Ilsa Faust
Vanessa Kirby 	    ... 	The White Widow
Esai Morales        ... 	Gabriel
Pom Klementieff     ... 	Paris
Henry Czerny 	    ... 	Kittridge
Shea Whigham 	    ... 	Briggs

RELEASE DATE	RUNTIME	ROTTENTOMATOES	IMDB	METACRITIC
July 12th, 2023	2hr 43m	98%	8.2/10	81

17 comments

canthidium

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Watched this earlier today and I really think my expectations were too high. I love this series and every entry has been better than the last. Fallout is one of my favorite action movies ever and I think I was just too hyped for this. It wasn't disappointing but it just didn't hit me like I thought it would. Also I saw that bike stunt so many times already that it skewed my excitement for it.

I do feel a little weird about killing off Ilsa and kinda replacing her with Grace. Felt like Ilsa was too overpowered and they wanted a more inexperienced team member. But the fight between Ilsa and Gabriel was pretty meh. I know that wanted to show that Gabriel was a huge threat to her and a great fighter, but it just felt like Ilsa was holding back. Haley Atwell was great, though. Her character felt very real in this universe.

That being said, I enjoyed it immensely. It was a wild ride all the way though. And I'm happy this part felt like a complete story arc and now we have the big threat to deal with for the next one. This movie is definitely not going to make the general public feel any better about AI.

Gabriel was a good villain, but he didn't come off as terrifying as I would have liked. I think a lot of it is just that he's a "new" character. Sean Harris as Solomon Lane in the previous movies was absolutely terrifying to me with how calm he always was. Gabriel felt a little forced to me, like the movie kept telling how badass he was, but not really showing.

I loved seeing Kittridge again and the whole meeting scene with Ethan in the mask was so tense. I kept expecting that guy to be a Terminator or something. I don't think he blinked once. And the conversation with Kittridge and Ethan was a good callback with the "I understand you're very upset" line.

This movie was a lot more tense IMO than others, at least the first half. It felt like anything could happen throughout a lot of it. The action was great, but as I said I just kept waiting for it to blow me away and I think I over-hyped it for myself. I still had a lot of fun and can't wait for the next one even though I think I like Fallout a little better.

tparty

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I have to agree with going in with high expectations, I came out a bit let down. It did feel not as tight as the last few films. The bike scene, it seemed like they did not show a lot of footage of it so maybe the best shots were all in the promo/behind the scenes stuff in the end.

Killing Ilsa was pretty bad, she already had so little dialog in this one and then they just have her die and barely acknowledged. I feel like it has to be a fake out again, or maybe that's wishful thinking. The rest of the script was poor so why expect something more now. I feel like her fight with Lane in the last film was much better done and Lane seemed like a much more skilled fighter. Overall Lane always seemed like more of a that and a well definite antagonist.

With Grace she had good moments butt they made her a bit too damsel in distress at times. Occasionally very competent but other times useless. Like when she goes to stop the train then Ethan just finds her sitting there like she has no other ideas of her own, guess I'll just die here.

There were great action parts and I enjoyed it overall. The car chase and climbing the train particularly for me. Hopefully they bounce back with a tighter story and dialog for the next part.

canthidium

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I am assuming Rebecca Ferguson wanted out due to her commitments to Dune and Silo and whatever else she has going on. I can't imagine they would fake her death twice. I do hope she stays dead just because it would feel cheap to bring her back, as much as I love her in this series. I agree that Solomon Lane was a much more defined antagonist.

I didn't mind Grace being unable to do a lot. She's just a thief after all. I actually kind of liked that she wasn't just another Ethan, good at everything. But it really did feel like they fridged Ilsa to bring her in. I also couldn't help but wish they brought back Thandiwe Newton's character from MI2, Naya, instead. She was a skilled thief as well. I'm a little biased though, because I fell in love with her in that movie. But, that would have brought other complications, since she was also a love interest, and Newton is older.

The car chase I loved, and the train was cool. Especially Ethan just flying right into the car, although in reality he should have broken every bone in his body, haha.

weew

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I'm not too invested in the MI franchise, I just like to see it for massive crazy stunts. On that note, at least, it delivered. It was fun enough.

Gabriel just seemed too much like a generic bad guy. Like, he's evil because he's just evil!!! Oh also it's personal. Meh. I think it would have been more interesting if they were chasing a ghost. Like the AI, instead of erasing Gabriel, created a whole fictional character that kept appearing in everyone's radar. And neither side realizes until the end of the film.

canthidium

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I think that would have been great. Like he shows up in their glasses like he did, except it's actually him messing with the team.

weew

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exactly. He shows up in cameras, satellite, video messaging, email, etc. Traces everywhere, but he doesn't exist. Sometimes spoofing real people like Luthor did at the beginning of the film.

Owl_Master

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I really loved the movie. Pom is so badass as Paris. I'm really happy she survive and we will probably see more of her in the part 2.

There was more humor during the movie and I liked it. The car scenes with the Fiat were funny.

weew

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I didn't even realize it was her until I looked up the cast

she was great

canthidium

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Even with the issues I had, I had a blast with the movie. I do think it is the weakest of the McQuarrie films, but it's still enjoyable as hell. The entire airport scene was super well done.

architect

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I don't understand the plot, can you please explain?

The goober. The countries want it to control them. Ethan wants it so we can destroy the entity. Why does Gabriel(the entity) want it ?

Why can't the entity nuke Rome when two parts of the key are on Rome(or Venice) and be done with it.

Ona side note,am all knowing entity can't get to its own source code or recreate it ? I have a feeling that the entity wants Ethan to get the key for some unknown reason.

weew

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Gabriel's just a nihilist/sadist who likes seeing people suffer I guess. And the Entity recognized that he was good at it and recruited him.

Also I think it's pretty silly that somehow the source code is on a test copy on a Russian sub? Not the lab that they originally made it? Whatever, it's a macguffin.

The entity can't, and probably won't, launch nukes. it's probably more vulnerable than the characters are claiming. It's just that nobody wants to destroy it right now, they all want to control it. If it launched nukes and everyone realizes it's uncontrollable, it's gone.

ConditionOverload

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Really enjoyed this movie and thought it was a great action flick. Great action set pieces and stunts. Though I wish the motorbike stunt didn't have so much exposure prior to the movie just so that we could be in awe of it during the movie.

Still shows that this franchise does action the right way and I still think it's worlds better than the Fast and Furious franchise, at least after F6 anyway.

Can't wait for part 2!

weew

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I only just got the significance of the title, but there take wasn't a whole lot of "dead reckoning" in the film. Maybe Part 2 will have more of then "flying blind", so to speak.

In any case, I had fun with the movie. Fantastic visuals and score, great action, fun twists and turns. But to me, there are two main weak spots.

First... Gabriel. He just seems so generically bad. He's just evil because he's evil. He barely even counts as a one-dimensional character.

Second... the macguffin. Yes, it's the nature of a macguffin to be generally pointless and only exist to advance the plot. But the whole key thing doesn't make sense.

They need the original source code to take control of the Entity. But the copy on the Russian sub is neither the source code nor is it original. They admitted straight up they lost control of it, it evolved and did its own thing and sank the sub. So it's already out of control.

And the key itself! It pretty much just opens a box. Just get a damn crowbar! The AI is on the memory chips anyway! They don't need the rest of the sonar machine to work.

echoplex21

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This felt like Age of Ultron without the Avengers. If there was something like the Entity in the real world, it would’ve wiped everyone off in a manner of seconds I feel like. But again that’s a little nitpicky at the end of the day because it’s a spy movie.

To be honest the movie was a little disappointing coming off 4, 5, 6 which were some of the best spy movies I’ve seen in a while (Fallout especially). It’s definitely not a bad movie but I had some gripes. Killing off Ilsa just felt like a bad decision, they built her up the past couple movies but all of sudden dropped her like it was nothing. The reaction after the death made no sense to me where the characters (especially Ethan) seemed to be fairly indifferent. I’m hoping this is a fakeout for the sequel where she will come back. It’s either that or Cruise and McQuarrie felt some type of way that Rebecca Ferguson had Silo and Dune already booked but that’s just speculation. Even Renner and Angela Basset are still alive in universe with their conflicts filming.

I was also not a huge fan of Grace’s character. Half the movie felt like Ethan just having to deal with her fuck ups and weird selfishness. You have someone trying to protect you and you’re ditching him and fucking him over every five minutes (I don’t think this is an exaggeration). Gabriel saying it’s either Ilsa or Grace you have to save felt out of left field; one is his romantic partner and the other is some random person he had maybe half an hour of interaction with. If I was Cruise and saw Grace’s antics constantly screwing over the team and getting Ilsa killed, I would not trust her with anything. Yet they’re clearly setting her up to be his future LI. Her “redemption” where she doesn’t take the money was also poorly done. Logically her declining the money also doesn’t make sense especially regarding suspicion. Why would she do that? She could’ve continued the mission regardless.

Gabriel was also a very disappointing villain. Not sure why we had to build this adversary from Ethan’s past we’ve had no clue about until this movie. I actually loved him in Titans as Deathstroke so he definitely has charisma. His writing was just poor and shallow and I just don’t care about him especially after Cavill and Sean Harris.

Positives though, action was great. Again not as good as the previous movies but still very well done. The core team of Luther, Benji, and Ethan’s chemistry is still as great as ever. Paris was great and loved this role for Pom (huge departure from Mantis). Can’t wait to see her in the next movie. Briggs and his subordinate were hilarious and their chemistry was refreshing. Speaking of which, the humor in this movie was great. This was definitely the most I’ve laughed during a MI movie that’s for sure.

Over all definitely a good movie. Just disappointing and not at the sky high level from the past three installments.

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