New Mission: Impossible film in Cruise control

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This article was published 12/07/2023 (1188 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When it comes to massive summer-movie-type movies, star Tom Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie know how to deliver. The latest instalment in the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise is slick, fast and big, with almost non-stop action and some spectacular set-pieces.

But while Cruise and his supremo movie-star status drive the project, they also somewhat sabotage it.

The 61-year-old’s resistance to time and age through sheer exercise of will is impressive. For almost 30 years, his Ethan Hunt character has been running, motorcycling, free-diving, rock-climbing, clinging to planes and then running some more.

Cruise is so much in control that it can work against him. The script throws out suggestions that Ethan is mortal like the rest of us — meant to give some stakes to the action sequences — but they always feel a bit disingenuous.

Cruise performs self-deprecating doubt – we see a “You want me to jump off this mountain?” look on his face right before he jumps off the mountain — but it’s the one thing he can’t really sell.

Similarly, the script tells us a lot about the deep connection of the Mission: Impossible team. Condemned to live in the shadows of the world they are saving, they only have each other. But these verbal cues, intended to anchor the action in a feeling emotional story, are undercut by the fact that the movie is so clearly a superstar vehicle in which Cruise stands — and runs — alone.

M:I regulars Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, as cyber genius Luther Stickell and all-round gizmo guy and semi-field agent Benji Dunn, respectively, offer stalwart support here, as does the returning Rebecca Ferguson as the enigmatic Ilsa Faust. But when it comes down to it, they’re not given much to do.

And any beautiful woman, including Grace (Hayley Atwell), introduced as a resourceful thief and new sparring partner, is there to remind us that Ethan can never love without putting those he loves in danger.

Still, if M:I Dead Reckoning is never going to be unpredictable, it is killingly effective at doing exactly what we expect.

This time out Ethan Hunt is tasked with taking out “the Entity,” a tactical military weapon that uses artificial intelligence and has somehow gained a super-powerful — and super-malevolent — sentience. (Whoops!) The Entity can only be shut down with an elaborate two-part cruciform gold key, which makes the mission feel like a cross between a futuristic tech nightmare and a medieval quest.

Ethan goes in for his “habitual rogue behaviour,” as one superior calls it, as he and the team head out on a global hunt for the key.

Various interested parties converge, including Gabriel (Esai Morales), a messianic villain from Ethan’s past, Paris (Pom Klementieff), a focused and almost silent assassin, and Briggs and Degas (Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis), two regular joes from the CIA. Vanessa Kirby is having a lot of wicked fun as the White Widow.

There are panoramic views of Abu Dhabi, Rome and the Austrian Alps. There’s an obligatory fancy party, held at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.

There are precisely designed and meticulously executed action sequences, from hand-to-hand combat in a narrow Venetian byway to a huge firefight set against the sweep of the desert. During one extended chase, Grace and Ethan get to flirt while handcuffed together and driving a comical yellow Fiat through the streets of Rome. There’s an incredible speeding train scene.

All this action almost fills up the screen, but there’s a hole left by the lack of a compelling villain. (The franchise has had a bit of a baddie problem, peaking back in M:I III with the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.) Gabriel doesn’t really register, nor does the Entity, despite AI being so topical right now.

There are some effective scenes involving deceptive digital information, but the real existential threat of artificial intelligence never gets integrated into a larger theme. The Entity remains a MacGuffin — a big, blue, glowy MacGuffin.

The franchise’s solemn-silly tone manages to hold. There’s a scene in which Kittridge (Henry Czerny), Ethan Hunt’s hard-to-read handler, is explaining the IMF to a room of American government bigwigs and there’s a momentary (and understandable) confusion involving the International Monetary Fund. Kittridge explains the initials stand for Impossible Mission Force, to which one official replies, “You’re not serious.”

Well, the filmmakers are and they aren’t. The best scenes are both fully committed and completely, ridiculously over-the-top.

As the movie heads past the two-hour mark, viewers should keep in mind the “Part One” bit of the title. This is the beginning of a two-movie plotline, but Cruise and McQuarrie play fair. There’s enough of a conclusion we can go home satisfied, but enough suspense that fans will be eager for Part Two.

alison.gillmor@winnipegfreepress.com