Early Reviews for Mission Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One Hail It As the “Best Mission Yet”

Tom Cruise’s seventh adventure as Ethan Hunt had its world premiere a month before the movie’s actual release.

The finest movie of 2022 was a nine-minute documentary on the Paramount Pictures YouTube channel about Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle off a cliff. The opening stunt of Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One established the tone for the seventh film in the franchise. Of course, with such a large set piece, one has to worry if the remainder of the two-and-a-half-hour film can follow up—thankfully, early feedback from the Dead Reckoning premiere in Rome has been extremely good.

Perri Nemiroff of Collider lauded the picture, saying it had "some of the most well-defined and exhilarating set pieces photographed in ways that truly make you feel like you're in the middle of the action." She also praised Hayley Atwell, who appears to be a fan favorite based on early screenings, stating that Atwell provides one of "the most captivating performances/arcs, and just a hugely enjoyable character to watch."

Atwell is no stranger to large franchises, having portrayed Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2011, but joining Mission Impossible is a completely new challenge for her. She told ET Canada that she spent five months learning how to drift in a car for one stunt, which People film editor Nigel Smith praised, stating "it reinvigorated my love for the summer blockbuster."

"What ends up happening is that this character is consistently inconsistent, which I'm happy about because I wanted to elevate her." I desired for her to be more than a femme fatale, ingénue, or ice queen. "I wanted her to have nuance," remarked Atwell.

Scott Mantz, a film critic, called it "the best Mission yet," adding that, while being the first installment of a two-part tale, "it's a complete movie that stands on its own." Other commentators, such as Screenrant's Joseph Deckelmeier, remarked on how Dead Reckoning establishes an eerily contemporary enemy. "With the AI being the villain, this feels like a cautionary tale," Deckelmeier wrote. While the plot's specifics have been kept under wraps, director Christopher McQuarrie did explain the title to Empire in November.

"Many things are emerging from Ethan's past." The word "dead reckoning" refers to navigation. It implies you're choosing a path based simply on your last known position, which becomes a metaphor for not only Ethan, but multiple individuals," McQuarrie explained.

And if you're worried that viewing the motorbike leap brief will take away from Dead Reckoning's impact, don't be—apparently there's a train passage in the film that's just as exciting. McQuarrie told Empire, "If we'd known the challenges, we'd never have done it." The sequence, which has Cruise's Hunt fighting someone on a speeding train, was such a mammoth task that McQuarrie said, "If we'd known the challenges, we'd never have done it."

The filming of Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning was supposed to begin in February 2020, however it was postponed several months owing to the COVID-19 epidemic. According to The Wrap, primary photography did not wrap until April 2023, based on leaked audio from the set of Cruise chastising crew members who did not fully observe the COVID safety standards. (Part 1 and Part 2 were shot concurrently.)

Dead Reckoning will be released in the United States on July 12, starring Cruise, Atwell, and returning co-stars such as Ving Rhames and Vanessa Kirby, as well as Henry Czerny, who will reprise his role as IMF director Eugene Kittridge for the first time since the original film was released in 1996. The sequel to Dead Reckoning will be released on June 28, 2024. At this point, we can only hope that Cruise leaps from a plane onto a moving train.