Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) and the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, alongside an ensemble cast including Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, and Henry Czerny. In the film, Hunt and his IMF team face off against "the Entity", a powerful rogue AI.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Christopher McQuarrie
Written by	Christopher McQuarrie Erik Jendresen
Based on	Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller
Produced by	Tom Cruise Christopher McQuarrie
Starring	Tom Cruise Hayley Atwell Ving Rhames Simon Pegg Rebecca Ferguson Vanessa Kirby Esai Morales Pom Klementieff Mariela Garriga Henry Czerny
Cinematography	Fraser Taggart
Edited by	Eddie Hamilton
Music by	Lorne Balfe
Production companies	Skydance TC Productions C2 Motion Picture Group
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	June 19, 2023 (2023-06-19) (Rome) July 12, 2023 (2023-07-12) (United States)
Running time	163 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$291 million (gross) $219 million (net)
Box office	$567.5 million

In January 2019, Cruise announced the next two Mission: Impossible films would be shot back-to-back, with McQuarrie writing and directing both. Returning and new cast members were announced soon after, and Lorne Balfe, who composed the score for Fallout, returned to score. Filming began in Italy in February 2020 but was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed later that year and wrapped in September 2021, with other filming locations including Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. It is the first film in the series since Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) not to involve J. J. Abrams and the first film in the series to not be produced by Abrams's Bad Robot since Mission: Impossible III (2006). With an estimated budget of $291 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.

Dead Reckoning Part One premiered on the Spanish Steps in Rome on June 19, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 12, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. The film received critical acclaim and grossed over $567.5 million worldwide. Due to its overall budget and competition from the "Barbenheimer" cultural phenomenon, it underperformed at the box office. At the 96th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards. It earned two nominations at the 77th British Academy Film Awards and four nominations at the 51st Saturn Awards. A sequel is set to be released in 2025.

The Sevastopol, a next-generation Russian stealth submarine, employs an advanced AI, which is activated by a two-piece cruciform key. The AI deceives the crew into attacking a phantom target, only to be struck by their own torpedo, killing all aboard. IMF agent Ethan Hunt travels to the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Desert and successfully retrieves a key piece from Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent, and also fakes her death to ensure she survives a bounty placed by an unknown source. Back in Washington, D.C., Ethan infiltrates a U.S. Intelligence Community briefing for Director of National Intelligence Denlinger discussing the AI, known as the "Entity". CIA Director Eugene Kittridge states that the Entity achieved sentience and can manipulate cyberspace, allowing it to control global defense intelligence and financial networks. World powers compete to obtain the cruciform key to control the Entity, though the exact means of controlling it are unknown.

Ethan reveals himself and converses with Kittridge, where he deduces that Kittridge placed Ilsa's bounty and states his intention to destroy the Entity, knowing they would be considered rogue and are participating in a global race. Ethan and his IMF teammates Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the holder of the other key piece, while evading US agents. During the pursuit, the key piece is stolen by Grace, a professional thief, while Luther and Benji disarm a hoax nuclear device. Ethan suspects foul play after seeing Gabriel, a sadistic Entity liaison with ties to his pre-IMF past. Aborting the mission, the team scatters and Grace escapes to Rome. Grace is apprehended upon arrival, but Ethan rescues her from local authorities, US agents and Paris, an Entity operative. Grace escapes again, while Ethan meets up with Luther and Benji, with Ilsa rejoining them. With Benji and Luther providing support, Ethan and Ilsa follow Grace to Venice, where they infiltrate a party held by the arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis.

With the party masquerading as a brokerage set up by the Entity, all groups disclose their role in acquiring the complete key. Grace was hired by Alanna to steal the other key piece to produce the completed key, which will be sold to her buyer the next day on the Orient Express. Through the Entity, Gabriel proclaims that he will possess the completed key the next day and that either Ilsa or Grace will die. Ethan unsuccessfully attempts to dissuade Alanna from the sale, allowing Gabriel and Grace to escape. Ethan pursues Grace, but the Entity hacks into their communications and impersonates Benji, leading him into a fight with Paris, whom he spares. Concurrently, Gabriel incapacitates Grace and kills Ilsa, devastating Ethan, who vows to exact revenge. Grace agrees to impersonate Alanna and take the key during the sale. Luther leaves for an off-grid location to prevent interference from the Entity, advising Ethan to spare Gabriel to determine information about the Entity. On the train, Gabriel kills the engine crew and destroys the throttle and brake. With Paris, Gabriel meets Denlinger, who divulges information only he knows in an attempt to form an alliance between himself and the Entity.

Originally an advanced cyber weapon developed by the US, the Entity went rogue following its deployment against the Sevastopol. The completed key unlocks a chamber inside the vessel containing the Entity's source code, allowing it to be destroyed or controlled. Gabriel subsequently kills Denlinger and tries to kill Paris as the Entity determined she would betray them after Ethan spared her life. Impersonating Alanna, Grace brings the key to Kittridge, revealed to be the buyer, and negotiates a $100 million sale alongside protection for herself, but pickpockets the key from Kittridge after cancelling the transfer. Ethan parachutes into the train to save Grace, but Gabriel acquires the key. Ethan and Gabriel fight atop the train, but Gabriel escapes and detonates a bridge ahead. Grace and Ethan detach the locomotive from the rest of the train, saving the passengers. Paris rescues both from falling and manages to tell Ethan about the key's connection to the Sevastopol before losing consciousness. Grace informs Kittridge of her desire to join the IMF. Ethan flees the wreckage by paraglider with the completed key, which he took from Gabriel during the fight, and rendezvous with Benji to continue the mission of finding the Sevastopol and destroying the Entity.

• Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an IMF agent and leader of an operatives team.
• Hayley Atwell as Grace, a thief and Ethan's new ally. Christopher McQuarrie described Atwell's character as a "destructive force of nature", while Atwell explained that her character's loyalties are "somewhat ambiguous".
• Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, an IMF computer technician, Ethan's best friend, and a member of his team.
• Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, an IMF technical field agent, Ethan's friend and a member of his team.
  • Pegg also voices the Entity, an all-powerful AI system.
• Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent who allied with Ethan's team during Rogue Nation (2015) and Fallout (2018).
• Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis, a black-market arms dealer and broker who goes by the alias "White Widow". Alanna is the daughter of Max, a deceased arms dealer originally portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave from the first film.
• Esai Morales as Gabriel, a powerful terrorist and Ethan's adversary who appears to be working with the Entity, an all-powerful AI system, to rule the world. He and Ethan had a fateful encounter with each other prior to Ethan becoming an IMF agent.
• Pom Klementieff as Paris, a French assassin who works for Gabriel; Paris is based on the character of the same name portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Mission: Impossible television series.
• Mariela Garriga as Marie, a woman from Ethan and Gabriel's past, seen only in brief flashbacks.
• Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, the former director of the IMF and current director of the CIA last seen in Mission: Impossible (1996).
• Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, a US Intelligence agent assigned to hunting Ethan and his team.
• Cary Elwes as Denlinger, the Director of National Intelligence.
• Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas, a US Intelligence agent and Briggs's partner assigned to track down Ethan and his team.
• Frederick Schmidt as Zola Mitsopolis, Alanna's brother.

Additionally, Charles Parnell, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, and Mark Gatiss appear as heads of US Intelligence agencies, representing NRO, JSOC, DIA, and NSA, respectively. Marcin Dorociński appears as the captain of the Sevastopol submarine.

Development and pre-production

On January 14, 2019, Tom Cruise announced that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films would be shot back-to-back with Christopher McQuarrie writing and directing both films for July 23, 2021, and August 5, 2022, releases. In February 2021, Paramount Pictures scuttled that plan.

In February 2019, Rebecca Ferguson confirmed her return for the seventh installment. In September, McQuarrie announced that Hayley Atwell had joined the cast. In September 2019, Pom Klementieff joined the cast of both the seventh and eighth films. In December 2019, Simon Pegg confirmed his return for the film, with Shea Whigham cast in both films. Nicholas Hoult was cast in a role in January 2020, along with the addition of Henry Czerny, reprising his role as Eugene Kittridge for the first time since the 1996 film. Hoult was cast due to Cruise liking enough his audition for Top Gun: Maverick (2022) to play Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, recognizing him as a supremely talented actor who just wasn't suited to play that role for that movie even though there wasn't a concrete story set for the seventh Mission: Impossible film back then. Vanessa Kirby also announced she was returning for both films. In May 2020, it was reported that Esai Morales would replace Hoult as the villain in both films due to scheduling conflicts. Morales was cast as Gabriel because of McQuarrie seeing his role of Camino Del Rio on Ozark; Hoult's recasting thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic with Morales led to drastic story changes since it was after Morales was cast that McQuarrie realized that Cruise and Morales being about the same age opened several story possibilities to tie in their characters to Ethan Hunt's backstory. Similarly, it was after Hoult's departure that the filmmakers came up with the concept of "The Entity".

Angela Bassett announced she would return as Erika Sloane in December 2020, but she was later removed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Sloane appears in the film in a photo on the wall of DNI Denlinger's office during an intelligence briefing. In March 2021, McQuarrie revealed that Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss and Cary Elwes had joined the cast. That same day, Greg Tarzan Davis was also confirmed to have joined the cast.

McQuarrie revealed that for the flashback segments, he considered making them reflective of the 1989 setting akin to "Tony Scott’s Mission: Impossible", down to de-aging all the actors and featuring Julia Roberts as the girlfriend murdered by Gabriel. However, he stepped back once discovering how pricy the effects would become, while also feeling a younger Cruise would be distracting to audiences. McQuarrie had also chosen to have Ilsa Faust die in the film while working on Top Gun: Maverick (2022) with Cruise, which he had co-written. He felt the decision would show the "stakes have to be real" and described Ilsa and Ethan's relationship as being "doomed to be together and yet doomed never to be together".

Filming

Under the working title Libra, filming was scheduled to begin on February 20, 2020, in Venice, set up to last for three weeks before moving to Rome in mid-March for 40 days, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, production in the country was halted. Three weeks later, stunt rehearsals began in Surrey, England, just before a hiatus. On July 6, 2020, after another hiatus, crew arriving in the UK were permitted to begin filming without going through the mandatory 14-day quarantine. The set was located at Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire.

The following month, permission was granted for filming in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. That same month, a large fire broke out on a motorcycle stunt rig in Oxfordshire. The scene had taken six weeks to prepare and was "among one of the most expensive ever filmed in the U.K." No one was hurt in the incident.

Filming began on September 6, 2020, when McQuarrie started to publish pictures from the sets on Instagram. The film was shot with Sony CineAlta Venice cameras, making it the first film in the Mission: Impossible franchise to be shot digitally. In September 2020, filming took place in Norway, including the municipalities of Stranda and Rauma, with Cruise seen filming an action scene with Esai Morales atop a train. On October 26, 2020, production was suspended in Italy after 12 people tested positive for COVID-19 on set. Filming resumed a week later.

In December 2020, during filming in London, an audio recording of Cruise shouting at two crew members for not following COVID-19 rules on set was released online. Cruise was likened to his character Les Grossman from Tropic Thunder (2008) as a result. The response from the general public and that of many celebrities was supportive, suggesting that his tone and seriousness were warranted given the extreme circumstances and burden of ensuring production not be halted again. On December 28, 2020, Variety reported that the film would conclude principal photography at Longcross Film Studios in the United Kingdom, with production shifting from Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden. In Longcross, which is in Surrey in southeast England, production was allowed to continue under strict COVID-19 protocols. In February 2021, filming concluded in the Middle East and the crew returned to London for "finishing touches".

On April 20, 2021, filming commenced in the small village of Levisham, North Yorkshire, at North Yorkshire Moors Railway, for a sequence set in the Alps in Austria with a train going 60 miles (97 km) an hour toward a bridge being blown up, as a reference to the climactic train wreck scene in the silent film The General (1926). In August 2021, filming commenced in Birmingham at the city's Grand Central shopping centre, with Cruise and Atwell spotted by onlookers. In September 2021, the film's gaffer Martin Smith confirmed on Instagram that principal photography had officially wrapped.

Other locations for the movie included a terminal still under construction at the Abu Dhabi airport and various sites in the Italian cities of Rome (including the 20-minute-long car chase) and Venice.

Filming for the parachute and speed flying sequence took place in the Lake District over the Buttermere Valley in the summer of 2021 and 2022. The fells of High Crag and Robinson were used as launching points for shooting the speed flying scene, with landings taking place near the shore of the nearby lake. The train scene with the motorcycle jump was shot in Norway, with the fight scenes agreed on with the Norwegian government.

Polish bridge controversy

 

During the pre-production in late 2019, the Swiss government refused to authorize any explosions for the train sequence in the Alps; as a result, the Skydance Media production team embarked on location scoutings in different countries to find an unwanted railway bridge. Among those asked to help with staging a "full-scale train crash" was Polish-American film producer Andrew Eksner. In November 2019, the Polish State Railways proposed Eksner use a 151-meter (492 ft) long, 1908 German-era riveted truss bridge on Lake Pilchowickie [pʲilxɔvʲit͡skʲɛ] [pl; es], in the Jelenia Góra Valley, in Lower Silesia. In December 2019, Paramount Pictures producers including McQuarrie landed in southern Poland, accompanied in deep secrecy by officers of the Polish engineering troops. McQuarrie documented the visit on Instagram.

Officially opened in 1912 by Wilhelm II, the proposed bridge survived World War II mostly intact, and was used by trains until 2016. Despite publicly praising the bridge as "extremely valuable," an expert misrepresented conclusions of a commissioned report, that instead of renovating, it would be best to demolish the bridge and build a new one. In March 2020, after the rejected Eksner spread the information, local authorities and museum officials were appalled by the producers' intention to physically destroy the bridge, instead of using CGI effects. The filmmakers and government officials said the bridge was intended for demolition.

By July 2020, history and railway enthusiasts, scientists and filmmakers protested, along with the regional Monuments Heritage Office, members of Polish parliament, and the International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage. Activists and NGOs launched a petition against the destruction. As it was long registered provincially, and being added into Poland's national Registry of Cultural Property, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage confirmed it was pushing the bridge to play in the movie, with a "small section" to be demolished onset, before revitalizing the related local heritage railway line altogether. Following the backlash, the General Conservator of Monuments assured "there was no question" of destroying the bridge.

In August 2020, as the story turned international, McQuarrie said there was never a plan to blow up the bridge, and that only unsafe and partially damaged portions could have been destroyed, which allegedly needed to be rebuilt, concluding: "To open up the area to tourism, the bridge needed to go." He later added that "there was no disrespect intended". The production company did not pledge to cover construction costs of a potential new bridge, nor the renovation of the historic one. Eventually, cultural property registration procedures for the Lake Pilchowickie bridge were finalized, effectively preventing it from any damage. In May 2021, Eksner sued the Paramount production crew including McQuarrie and Cruise for breach of contract.

Filming of the train wreck scene was expected to take place between April and June 2021 on a constructed set in a disused quarry in the Peak District National Park in Stoney Middleton, with a railway line and part of a bridge over the cliff edge. After two weeks of suspended filming, the scene was filmed on August 20, when a mockup Britannia Class locomotive was propelled off the cliff into the quarry.

Post-production

Industrial Light & Magic returned to provide the visual effects for the film, having done so for the first Mission: Impossible film (1996), Mission: Impossible III (2006), and Ghost Protocol (2011), with BeloFX, Blind LTD, Clear Angle Studios, and Halon Entertainment being the additional vendors for the film. In one of the later test screenings for the film held by McQuarrie, Edgar Wright asked him about a specific audio cue that McQuarrie felt obvious but upon Wright's question, realized that the audience hadn't noticed it, which led him and Cruise to change the "entire" movie.

In early May 2020, Lorne Balfe was confirmed to be returning to compose the score for the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films, after previously doing so for Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018). Balfe's music from the teaser trailer was digitally released as a single on June 23, 2022, through Paramount Music.

A trailer for the film debuted exclusively at CinemaCon on April 28, 2022, including an introduction by Cruise filmed while he was flying in a biplane. The trailer was leaked to social media on May 21, 2022, and was officially released online on May 23, 2022. The CinemaCon introduction was released officially on September 8, 2022. Sam Barsanti of The A.V. Club gave the trailer a positive review and highlighted the many action scenes in it. JoBlo.com also gave the trailer a positive review, saying that the "action on display is truly amazing" and praising Cruise's dedication to entertaining.

A behind-the-scenes look at the film debuted ahead of IMAX screenings of Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). The full preview was released online four days later, on December 19, 2022.

In Japan, the movie collaborated with the anime and manga series Spy × Family via the Spy x Family anime film Code: White. The projects revealed a parody poster, in which the main characters from the anime series replace the movie cast, and also released a "collab highlights video", narrated by the voice actors of the titular Forger family.

 

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One had its world premiere at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome on June 19, 2023, and was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on July 12, with special "Early Access Fan Event" screenings held on July 10. It was released in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, RPX, and other premium formats. It was previously set to be released on July 23, 2021, November 19, 2021, May 27, 2022, and September 30, 2022, before being delayed to July 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and production shutdowns. In April 2023, Paramount announced at CinemaCon that the film would be released two days earlier, on July 12. The November 2021 and May 2022 release dates were given to Top Gun: Maverick (2022), another film starring Cruise that was also delayed by the pandemic. It premiered in Sydney on July 3, 2023, and released in Australia five days later.

Home media

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was released for digital download on October 10, 2023, while Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD versions were released on October 31, 2023. The releases include behind-the-scenes and editing featurettes, a deleted scenes montage and an audio commentary. It began streaming on Paramount+ on January 25, 2024, with Part One removed from the title due to the sequel abandoning its original title.

Box office

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One grossed $172.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $395.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $567.5 million. Variety reported that given the film's massive budget, it would "likely not turn a profit" in its theatrical run, later estimating that it would lose the studio around $100 million if it did not cross $600 million worldwide. The film was described as a box-office disappointment. Paramount received a total of £57 million in COVID-19 insurance payouts related to the film from Swiss insurer Chubb.

In the United States and Canada, Dead Reckoning Part One was initially projected to gross around $90 million from 4,327 theaters over its first five days, as well as another $160 million from 70 international territories, for a five-day worldwide debut of around $250 million. The film made $15.5 million on its first day (including $7 million from Tuesday night preview screenings) and $8.3 million on its second. After making $16.7 million on Friday, weekend and five-day estimates were lowered to $54 million and $78 million, respectively. The film went on to debut to $54.7 million in its opening weekend and a total of $78.5 million over its first five days, just behind Mission: Impossible 2's $78.8 million in 2000. While the film fell short of expectations after it "turned out a much lower opening weekend than expected", Deadline Hollywood noted that unlike Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), another near-three hour film that cost around $300 million and opened to $84 million over its first five days, Dead Reckoning Part One benefitted from better critic and audience scores. Despite that, the film dropped 65% to $19.4 million in its second weekend, finishing fourth behind newcomers Barbie and Oppenheimer and holdover Sound of Freedom. At the time, it had the biggest second weekend decline of any Mission: Impossible film, breaking the previous record held by Mission: Impossible 2. Some outlets noted that the film's unexpected box office drop could be attributed to ceding IMAX screens to Oppenheimer, as well as business going to the Barbenheimer doubleheader phenomenon (which Cruise and McQuarrie promoted too) despite Sound of Freedom also outperforming it domestically. It made $10.6 million in its third weekend and $6.7 million in its fourth, finishing in fifth and seventh place, respectively. After finishing its box office run, it became the second-lowest-grossing installment of the franchise domestically, only behind the $134 million gross from Mission: Impossible III (2006).

Critical response

The film received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 431 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's consensus reads: "With world-threatening stakes and epic set pieces to match that massive title, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One proves this is still a franchise you should choose to accept." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 66 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 90% of filmgoers gave it a positive score.

In a positive review for the Guardian, Mark Kermode gave the film four out of five stars, applauding Cruise for his acting while also praising the film for its "join-the-dots plot" and "thrilling" action. Similarly, Todd McCarthy for Deadline Hollywood and Siddhant Adlakha for IGN found that the film represents "Hollywood action filmmaking at its peak" and that "if every tentpole franchise entry were this fun and finely tuned, the theatrical-versus-streaming debate would be immediately put to rest". Brian Truitt for USA Today lauded the action sequences, saying "it's the first half of a man vs. machine epic that doesn't skimp in the thrills department. Just don't think too hard about it, though you'll probably still give serious side-eye to your laptop."

In a mixed review for Little White Lies, Adam Woodward remarked of the film's "diminishing returns amid all the ambitious action". In contrast to the very positive review by Variety's Peter Debruge, Owen Gleiberman wrote a column about the film for the magazine, stating that he thinks Cruise and McQuarrie should "go back" to what audiences loved about the franchise if they want to "end it on a high note."

Accolades

At the 96th Academy Awards, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was nominated for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects, becoming the first Mission: Impossible film to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Political impact

After a screening of the film at Camp David, President Joe Biden's chief of staff Bruce Reed stated, "If he hadn't already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about." News outlets have claimed that the film may have led to Biden signing an executive order about AI.

A direct sequel is scheduled to be released on May 23, 2025, after being delayed by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. It was initially billed that both films will be a send-off to Ethan Hunt. In June 2023, McQuarrie told Fandango that Part One and its sequel would not end the series and that they were developing ideas for future installments. In July 2023, during promotion for Part One, Cruise expressed interest in continuing to make further films in the series as Hunt. Originally subtitled Dead Reckoning Part Two, the sequel's subtitle was removed in October 2023.