AI Future Reckoned With in Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning’

Credited with bringing audiences back to cinemas with Top Gun: Maverick and cementing himself as one of the last true action heroes, Tom Cruise invites high expectations for what’s to come in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One.

Taking the franchise into Fast & Furious territory, Dead Reckoning is the seventh in the Mission Impossible saga and, yes, one of a supposed two-to-three-part installment.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team – which now includes Captain America’s Hayley Atwell and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Pom Klementieff – must track down a weapon known as “The Entity” before it gets into the wrong hands and has disastrous reality-altering consequences.

In what feels like Tom Cruise’ response to all the deep fakes he’s been the subject of, The Entity is a form of Artificial Intelligence that’s begun to operate outside the bounds of its human programmer’s intention.

Infiltrating IMF’s communication systems and “secure” facial recognition software, The Entity can alter reality in real-time and Ethan’s team begin to wonder who’s controlling their mission: is it them? Or a series of curated coincidences designed by AI?

There’s an uncomfortable relatability to what Dead Reckoning explores as it questions the shaping of truth and how our lives can be determined by the influence of an algorithm.

At one point, the team debate the erosion of commonly accepted truths about right, wrong and morality as people become increasingly siloed in their unique digital worlds.

“The Entity” overlaps into ideas of God and free will as some kind of outside force we’re all connected to, yet don’t totally understand and that may set predetermined outcomes for us.

Of all the Mission Impossible movies, Dead Reckoning is the most heady in that way, but equally packed with action sequences and stunts that leave you holding your breath wondering, “how the heck did they do that?”

Tom Cruise does launch off a cliff on a motorcycle (which had me quietly thinking, “Oo, there he goes!”), and the driver training Hayley Atwell did pays off in spades during an Italian car chase.

To say much more would spoil it, but these movies are as much about telling a good story as being a vehicle for the “legend of Tom Cruise” and an ode to all the cool things he can do.

Until the second (and maybe third) parts come out, Dead Reckoning’s overall merits can’t be locked in, but this first chapter is an absolute thrill ride.

Until the second (and maybe third) parts come out, Dead Reckoning’s overall merits can’t be locked in, but this first chapter is an absolute thrill ride.

It’s subtle, but you may also notice Hayley Atwell (Grace) gets to be a stunning heroine unincumbered by heels and gowns, instead allowed a practical pair of pants for speedy getaways and – beware the revolution – ties her hair up to bound across the roof of a train.

If we want our on-screen mentors to inspire possibility in the minds of their audience, Hayley gets the vote over a silk-clad Bond girl any day.

For all the fanfare that happens on screen, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is also the fulfillment of a dedicated team’s creative vision.

During the premiere at Sydney’s Darling Harbour earlier this week, when fireworks went off celebrating Tom Cruise’s 61st birthday and the spectacle of the night he gathered the cast for a huddled embrace, looking them in the eyes and seemingly congratulating them on the moment they’d arrived at: this wasn’t just a premiere, and he wasn’t just a hard-working actor, this was a leader honouring his teammates and relishing in what they’d achieved.

In 2020/21 Tom Cruise copped flack for coming down hard during filming on crew violating COVID restrictions, but opening the screening by sharing his passion for cinema and the stakes at hand as they’d tried to pull of something so grand, you get the sense Tom guards a threatened artform fiercely and is as committed to it as he is to cliff dives.

Between the peeling back of reality and the death-defying stunts, Dead Reckoning Part One is The Matrix meets Fast X with just the right amount of Tom Cruise running scenes.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is in cinemas now. Rated M