Christopher McQuarrie’s action adventure also stars Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Esai Morales, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Vanessa Kirby.
In the latest Mission Impossible adventure, the unstoppable force that is artificial intelligence meets the immovable object known as Tom Cruise. The existential threat posed by AI that has roiled the real world is so serious in the fictional universe of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning that the movie is being delivered in two parts.
In Part One, an AI programme called The Entity has gone rogue, much like Cruise’s operative Ethan Hunt has in the past. The Entity is controlled by an interlocking set of keys, which are scalped by the pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell). Grace is pursued by Ethan and his colleagues Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg) and Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson).
Also in hot pursuit are Central Intelligence Agency boss Kittridge (Henry Czerny), Gabriel (Esai Morales) and his enforcer Paris (Pom Klementieff), and the underworld broker Alanna (Vanessa Kirby).
A barebones plot that could have been wrapped up in a single movie has been stretched out to yield a second part scheduled for 2024. Director Christopher McQuarrie, who has also co-written Dead Reckoning with Erik Jendersen, pads the screenplay with throwbacks to previous Mission: Impossible films, a peek into the origin stories of Ethan and his teammates and an extended character arc for new cast member Hayley Atwell.
