The Big Picture · Review

‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ Is Here, and It’s Spectacular

July 12, 2023/ 85 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins · Bobby Wagner

Sean, Amanda, and Bobby review the seventh Mission: Impossible. Non-spoiler verdict first, then a long spoiler dig into the Entity, the cruciform key, and the cliffhanger.

1 films across 1 segment.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

‘Dead Reckoning Part One’non-spoiler verdict, then full spoilers

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One poster

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One 2023

McQuarrie's third MI and ninth collaboration with Cruise. All three loved it: the funniest of the series, close to silent comedy in the Fiat chase, and John Wick-adjacent in the Venice sword fight. The villain is the Entity, an AI, played out through Gabriel (Esai Morales) and Paris (Pom Klementieff); Hayley Atwell joins as Grace, plus the returning Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther, Benji, and the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby). Amanda found the AI plot muddled and the Gabriel-as-Ethan's-past retcon a reach; all agreed the split-in-two runtime shows, but the train and motorcycle-cliff set pieces are the reason to go.

Also mentioned raised along the way

The rest of the franchise Mission: Impossible Mission: Impossible II Mission: Impossible III Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Held up against it Fast X John Wick: Chapter 4 Top Gun: Maverick Tenet Extraction 2

The submarine cold open recalled The Hunt for Red October Crimson Tide U-571

In passing The Bridge on the River Kwai Barbie Oppenheimer Napoleon A Haunting in Venice

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV Howards EndCatastropheDavid Blaine: Real or Magic

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