Burning Arrow Film Blog

Now that Mission Impossible VIII: The Final Reckoning has been out…for a while, I thought it time to cover what was intended as part one of the finale to Tom Cruise’s series of Missions…

Mission Impossible 5 and 6 proved themselves to be the two best films in the Mission: Impossible franchise, sending Tom Cruise’s reputation and starpower into the stratosphere. But with new success breeds new expectation, and would Mission Impossible 7: Dead Reckoning live up to the hype?

IMAX poster featuring that stunt…

Well, in the hall of fame of most troubled Hollywood productions (Apocalypse Now, Waterworld, Cleopatra, Superman II) Mission Impossible 7 holds a deserved place. Originally to come out in 2021, filming was immediately compromised at its start date in March 2020, when the Italian government imposed Covid lockdown protocols, shutting down the production until later that November. 

Filming would continue in fits and starts through to the end of 2021. With returning writer/director Christopher McQuarrie playing fast and loose with the shooting script, things were constantly changing, being reworked, resulting in filming falling behind schedule. 

Tom Cruise during stunt rehearsals in Oxfordshire in August 2020. Source: news.com.au/Valentine/Bridger/Dean/Splash.news

Frustration finally boiled over for star/ producer, Tom Cruise, in a leaked piece of audio of Cruise screaming at crewmembers for breaking COVID protocol (to what extent is not known) in can what only be described as a scary, psychotic, megalomaniacal meltdown. 

Defenders, from A-list stars such as George Clooney to online movie pundits, immediately came licking Cruise’s boots, excusing his abhorrent behaviour; in my book, anyone who defended his actions in this matter should be ashamed of themselves. It doesn’t matter if the Apocalypse is happening around a film set- no one should be made to feel threatened or unsafe on a movie set, and Cruise’s behaviour here was at best, totally unprofessional.  

Call me a big softie, or naive, but it’s just my opinion, take it or leave it. 

Unlike previous installments, which had the involvement of Jar Jar Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, Cruise and McQuarrie are the sole credited producers for Mission 7, and, even though I’m sure the success of Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 made Cruise feel like an invincible superhuman, I’m wondering if he and McQuarrie bit off a bit more than they can chew on Mission 7. 

I don’t’ know what the cost would’ve been to just sit this one out until Covid got better, but the messiness of the production is all on screen- despite having some fantastic setpieces and a central plot that is a great idea and insightful, the film’s pacing is baggy and disjointed, and hampered by a less-than-enthralling villain character, admirably portrayed by Esai Morales, who tries to give Gabriel as much malevolent presence as possible, whilst being stuck being a Basil Exposition* for most of the movie. 

Esai Morales as Gabriel

It’s been said that McQuarrie, Cruise and co. essentially make up these films as they go along, and that is very evident in the flow of the movie.

It takes forever to even get to the opening credits, from an elongated set-up sequence aboard the SS Valkova submarine, that takes about fifty-eight years to set up the central McGuffin, which is a key with two interjoining parts. 

We then cut to a set-piece with Ilsa and Ethan in the desert, to then yet ANOTHER set piece with Ethan infiltrating C.I.A headquarters and confronting a returning Henry Czeny as Kittridge, from Mission 1. They’re all well executed sequences, but make the movie feel like a car engine sputtering into gear before it gets going. 

The plot is as thin as anything, with the film clearly being a series of interconnected setpieces in the hunt for the second part of this key McGuffin. This can be fine in a lot of cases, but Dead Reckoning just doesn’t clip along well enough to get away with this.

Writer/Director Christopher McQuarrie seems to be making a deliberate harkening back to the first entry in the series with this film and frequent use of Dutch angles and split diopter shots that you found in M:I 1 (directed by Brian De Palma) throughout Dead Reckoning.

McQuarrie dutch-angles it up filming a returning Henry Czerny in Mission 7

He also attempts to emulate the info/exposition dumps of that movie, but in a far clunkier manner. Maybe some of this was impacted by Covid, but there are too many instances of characters just standing around and discussing the plot and stakes in a room or other static environment. It slows the film down a lot and it’s a massive step back from what you saw in Rogue Nation and Fallout, films that were far more dynamic in their presentation. 

Despite all the nonsense about the Key, The Entity is the main antagonist for this movie, along with Gabriel, who intends to use it for his own evil ends. The A.I-esque cypher is an interesting foe for Ethan/Cruise to go toe-to-toe with, as it shape-shifts and changes to adapt to its enemy, best demonstrated in the Venice chase sequence where it imitates Benji’s voice to send Ethan careening off into the wrong direction. But for me personally, I don’t think that the idea is fully exploited throughout the movie. 

When the film does burst into life though, Dead Reckoning delivers the intricate and expansive set-pieces fans come to expect from the series. Ethan and Grace find themselves handcuffed together in a small yellow car evading Italian police, and although a bit derivative of For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), the chase is thrilling and pulse-pounding, as well as a close quarters alleyway fight between Ethan and new character Pom Klementieff.

Klementieff is a real highlight of the picture, screaming ooze and sass and creeping out the viewer with her weird-ass clown makeup and dead, listless gaze. She’s a great addition to the series and I’m glad she’s coming back for the Final Reckoning. 

The way Ethan meets Grace during a tense bomb-defusal sequence in Dubai, is also well executed. Benji is left fumbling about trying to find the bomb, whilst Ethan tries to figure out who the hell Grace is. Atwell’s character is meant to be a sleight-of-hand thief and cat burglar, and although Atwell is introduced here, Ethan is very much returning to the well of Benji, Luther and Ilsa from Rogue Nation and Fallout for this next adventure.  

Yes, the BEST and G.O.A.T M.I team are BACK in Dead Reckoning!

Well…

…kind of…

…somewhat…

…a little bit.

Rebecca Ferguson, returning as Ilsa, is absent for large swathes of the runtime and when she does come back toward the middle, during the Venice chase sequence, she is killed off in a rather limp manner.

Rebecca Ferguson’s real life scheduling conflicts led to her exiting the series at this point and if you want to get conspiratorial, to me it looks like her leaving was a casualty of the lengthy, COVID-impacted production schedule.

In any case, her character had to be written out and unfortunately, the production team chose the clumsiest and most unsatisfying way they could do it. 

Ironically, as this is the seventh entry and the breaking up of the winning quartet reminds me of Rimmer’s absence from the majority of the seventh series of Red Dwarf (I’m a geek, sue me.) 

Because I’m a nerd, Ilsa’s long absence from most of Mission Impossible 7 reminded me of Rimmer’s abscence from most of Red Dwarf 7 in 1997.

Her death at the hands of Gabriel was handled in a very rushed and unsatisfying manner. Ethan/Cruise discovers her body just as she passes and the lastbreath 001.wav file is played over the soundtrack. 

He’s upset for about half a minute, and then Grace/Atwell is just accepted as her replacement immediately by the team in the next scene. 

There’s no real mourning period or reflection by Ethan or the team, which is bizarre, as both Fallout and this movie had really been building up her and Ethan’s relationship as something closer than just comrades in arms.  To shove her aside so quickly after her death just felt bizarre.

The rushed nature of her exit and lack of closure is something that hangs over the last third of this movie, despite Cruise and McQuarrie’s efforts to distract us with show-stopping stunts, spy subterfuge, and Cary Elwes (who’s wonderful as always in this, by the way) 

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning kind of- sort of- more or less manages to win me over by the final setpiece, involving Cruise and Atwell in a train car, not emulating Bond for a change, but Uncharted 2 all things, as the filmmakers rip off the opening sequence of that video game for the grand finale. 

Cruise and Atwell precariously hang from a dangling train car in a LITERAL cliffhanger sequence that features a lot of CGI furniture, digital zoom-ins and simulated zero-g (not the practical stunts Cruise and company like to publicise) but it works through McQuarrie managing to wring as much Hitchcockian suspense out of the sequence as he possibly can. 

Tom Cruise took inspiration from Nathan Drake for the finale sequence of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning. Channel: IGN Guides

You’ll notice I’ve used Cruise/Ethan interchangeably during this review/article, and that’s because the two are intertwined more than ever before in this seventh entry in the series.

He is eulogised and put up on a pedestal to a frankly ridiculous degree at points, seemingly teleporting his way into different scenes with Hayley Atwell’s character, always one step ahead no matter what in the hunt for the key.

Cruise has a washed out and plastic-y look to him throughout much of the runtime. His quest to look forty forever seems to have gone too far at his point; he was the grand old age of 59 at the time of filming, and going back to the short hair style he sported in Missions 1 and 3 seems to have done him no favours- its obviously dyed and even looks like a wig at certain points**. 

Still, his physical performance and intensity is as good as ever, reliably imbuing every scene with a sense of altruism and jeopardy we come to expect from his performances in these films. Oh, and he does do a big run in it, too, as is his trademark. 

I would be remiss in not mentioning the BIG stunt that the marketing for the entire frickin’ movie bet its bottom dollar on, with Tom copying a stunt from Goldeneye (1995) in sending himself careening off the side of a cliff via a motorbike.

This would be an impressive sequence if it had been spoiled during the promotion, and also CAKED in CGI, taking away from the authenticity of the stunt.

Fallout had a similar problem where the Halo jump was partially ruined by covering that scene in a fake-looking CGI thunderstorm. Here, that problem is dialled up to eleven, where the ramp Cruise launched himself off of has been replaced with a CG cliff-face, as well as digital alterations to the clouds and skyline.

The picture has been altered to the point where Cruise and the bike are the only real elements in the frame, begging the question as to why they even bothered doing it for real if the end result was going to look so artificial.

If you don’t believe me, here’s the VFX breakdown video by ILM:

Maybe I wouldn’t be as bothered by this if the whole point of the franchise was emphasising how real all of the stunts were. Oh well, at least the piece has a clever little button wher Ethan jump scares his new girlfriend by crashing through the window of the train carraige.

Tom Cruise leaps from a CGI cliff in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning. Source: British GQ

So, despite some electrifying action setpieces, Mission 7 for me is definitely a mixed bag in terms of what I have come to expect from the franchise.

A generous customer could say that the movie wears its flaws on its sleeve, but unfortunately, despite the aforementioned bright spots, that isn’t enough for me to label Dead Reckoning as one of the stronger entries in the series. 

Will the Final Reckoning improve on and deliver on what Dead Reckoning set up? Time will tell! (Spoiler: I’ve already seen it.) 

*= im referring to the character playing by Michael York in the Austin Powers franchise.

**= Cruise did actually wear a wig in some reshoots that were filmed sometime in 2022.