Dead Reckoning Part I continues the M:I formula of high octane action sets, questionably advanced technology and criss-crossing of loyalties, to an almost paint-by-numbers level. Our heroes find themselves against an omnipotent entity that has no clear motivation, and a villain with plot armour enough to match a tank.
Although a fine action movie in it’s own right, it’s missing a certain spark from the previous instalments. Instead of breaking into some high tech facility with locks and bypasses, they’re mostly chasing a McGuffin which doesn’t lend itself well to the standard heist setup, execution and payoff. Given how the movie ended I suspect we’ll get all that in Part II.
Introduced to the new threat, a rogue AI on a super secret Russian nuclear submarine that takes over and destroys the vessel, the only way to switch it off, or control it, is comprised of two halves of an override key. Inexplicitly, the key segments are found under the arctic ice and (separately) find their way into civilian hands. Likewise, the AI somehow escapes the submarine and makes it way into the “cloud”, infecting computers and trawling networks.
Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) mission, should he choose to accept (spoiler, he does) is to recover half the key from Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who stole it from a courier. The classic M:I scene of the mission exposition dump is told in one of the most bizarrely edited scenes I’ve seen in major film. A five minute voiceover accompanied by three insert shots; Hunt’s face, papers on desk, voice recorder. Back and forth, face, papers, recorder, papers, face, papers, recorder, face. Even more odd, is that there’s no soundtrack, just a plain voiceover. It continues like this for the entire debrief. I can’t imagine the reason for this choice, it’s like they forgot about the pinnacle M:I scene until the last minute.
Joined by Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames) they attempt to find half the key (which conveniently gives off a radiation signature) at an airport. Idea being they trace the key to the buyer who presumably has the second half. Their plans are foiled by pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell), who spends the movie mostly being a liability, steals the key before they do. At the same time, Benji discovers a nuclear bomb he has to diffuse and Tom Cruise runs around being chased by goons. There’s some fun ideas throughout about how an omnipresent AI could manipulate cameras, sensors and communication layers to write or erase history to its whim but I’ll touch more on that later.
Various goose chases later and we’re introduced to Gabriel (Esai Morales), the man responsible for killing someone close to Ethan (to be honest I think this was from a previous M:I movie which I haven’t watched in decades so I’m not sure, point is, there’s motivation for Ethan to want him dead). Gabriel has become a messiah for the AI now known as The Entity, carrying out the human side of whatever it’s planning. We never see him receive a call or text and doesn’t have an earpiece so how they’re communicating is handwaved. In a James Bond like trope, he also has a badass female sidekick Paris (Pom Klementieff). Their relationship isn’t made clear either but I enjoyed watching her kick some ass none the less.
Speaking of, the movie contained an abundance of badass women. Grace the pickpocket, Isla the agent, Paris the assassin, The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) the broker. No unnecessary romantic subplots, and all held their own, while also not shying away from showing weakness when appropriate.
Gabriel and The Entity spend the movie being mysterious and always one step ahead of out heroes (thanks to the super computing power of the AI manipulating the plot). There was ample room here to remove the digital aspect and rely on analogue gadgets but they didn’t play into that too hard. Nothing explains how Gabriel becomes almost super-human in his reactions and ability to fight; it could be explained that he’s a trained agent but there’s simply no world in which a knife beats a sword in a fight.
We end the movie with the good guys on top, key in hand and ready to infiltrate the submersible as Gabriel, realising he’s been bamboozled, yells HUUUUNT like a bad 80s action movie.
I touched on it in the introduction but there was actually two instances of unusually sloppy editing. A standard shot reverse shot conversation was taking place, but without any other action. Just shot, reverse, shot, reverse, and a cut happened from one character to the same character across the 180 line. Rest of the movie was standard affair but these two basic scenes contained noticeably bad edits. Nothing that ruins the movie certainly but stood out none the less.