Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) - Review

April 23, 2026

Christopher McQuarrie's 2023 film opens with a Russian submarine losing control of its own systems, the crew unable to override an intelligence that has already decided what happens next. It is the franchise's most conceptually arresting cold open, and it establishes the Entity, an AI of frightening autonomy, as an antagonist unlike anything the series has previously attempted.

At a Glance

Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Runtime: 163 minutes
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff
Release: 2023
Critics Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, spectacular but structurally incomplete)
Audience Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, impressive but demanding)

Plot

Hunt is tasked with recovering a key that controls the Entity, an AI that has achieved genuine autonomy and is manipulating global intelligence agencies for its own purposes. Gabriel, a former associate of Hunt's with a personal connection to his past, is also pursuing the key on the Entity's behalf. The plot is the franchise's most conceptually ambitious, a narrative that uses the AI premise to explore questions of truth, deception, and the nature of intelligence with a seriousness and specificity the franchise's more straightforwardly physical antagonists never pursued. The train sequence is the film's most ambitious set-piece, a demonstration of practical action filmmaking of such sustained physical invention and dramatic force that it stands as one of the most striking action sequences in the franchise's history.

Characters

Hunt is given the franchise's most existentially demanding material in this entry, a man whose resourcefulness and determination are tested by an antagonist that cannot be fought, deceived, or outmanoeuvred in any conventional sense. Cruise plays the character's uncertainty and eventual determination with a focus and physical commitment that makes this one of his strongest franchise performances. Hayley Atwell's Grace is the film's most significant new addition, a thief of considerable capability and comic energy whose relationship with Hunt gives the picture its most purely enjoyable new dynamic. Atwell plays the character with a wit and physical expressiveness that makes Grace the franchise's most enjoyable new character since Cavill's Walker in Fallout. Pom Klementieff's Paris is the film's most ferocious villain presence, a character of physical menace and dark comic self-awareness whose pursuit of Hunt gives the action sequences their sharpest antagonist energy. Esai Morales's Gabriel is the film's most carefully constructed antagonist, a man of real menace and personal connection to Hunt's past whose function as the Entity's human instrument gives the central conflict a personal dimension of real weight.

Meaning / Themes

At its core, the film is about truth and deception in an age of artificial intelligence, about the franchise's established concern with misdirection and identity and the suggestion that an AI capable of generating perfect deceptions represents an existential threat to the very possibility of truth. This is a thematic concern of considerable contemporary relevance, and the film handles it with enough intelligence and dramatic specificity to make it feel like a genuine subject rather than a mere franchise escalation.

Direction

McQuarrie's direction is as technically accomplished as ever, with a practical filmmaking ambition and dramatic control that makes Dead Reckoning Part One one of the most visually striking entries in the franchise's history. The train sequence is the film's directorial centrepiece: what the direction achieves is a management of moving geography and overlapping jeopardy that keeps the sequence coherent and gripping across its full length. McQuarrie pitches the film at the franchise's most tonally varied register, incorporating the menace of the Entity premise, the comic energy of the Grace dynamic, and the physical ambition of the train sequence with a fluency and confidence that makes the transitions feel wholly natural. Dead Reckoning Part One maintains its engagement and visual excitement across its entire 163-minute runtime with a consistency that makes the experience rewarding despite the structural frustration of its conclusion. Lorne Balfe's score builds on the established sonic identity with a driving energy and dramatic intelligence that suits the more conceptually ambitious register. Dead Reckoning Part One received strong critical notices on its release, with most reviewers praising the action sequences and the introduction of Grace and Paris while noting the structural frustration of the cliffhanger conclusion. Its commercial performance was more modest than Fallout's, reflecting both the post-pandemic theatrical landscape and the audience's awareness that the film was explicitly the first half of a two-part conclusion. Its reputation has settled into a consensus that regards it as one of the franchise's finest achievements in action filmmaking, qualified by the structural incompleteness of its narrative.

Final Verdict: A dramatically ambitious film that introduces the franchise's most conceptually interesting villain and delivers its action sequences with a physical ambition that matches the franchise's finest entries. Atwell's Grace is the franchise's most enjoyable new character since Cavill's Walker, Klementieff's Paris brings a ferocity and dark wit the series had not previously attempted, and McQuarrie's direction gives the material a visual grandeur and dramatic intelligence that makes Dead Reckoning Part One one of the most visually striking entries in the series. But it functions primarily as a prologue, and its ending is the franchise's most structurally incomplete dramatic decision.