Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a 2023 American action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Fallout and the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The ensemble cast includes Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga and Henry Czerny. In the film, Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt and his team face off against the Entity, a powerful rogue artificial intelligence.
In January 2019, Cruise announced the next two Mission: Impossible films would be shot back-to-back, with McQuarrie writing and directing both. Returning and new cast members were announced soon after, and Lorne Balfe, who composed the score for Fallout, returned to score. Filming began in Italy in February 2020 but was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed later that year and wrapped in September 2021, with other filming locations including Norway, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. With an estimated gross budget of $291 million, including a net $220 million budget, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One premiered in Rome on June 19, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 12, by Paramount Pictures. The film received critical acclaim and grossed $571.1 million worldwide, becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2023, but was still considered to be a box-office disappointment. It was nominated in two categories at the 96th Academy Awards and the 77th British Academy Film Awards. A direct sequel, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, was released in May 2025.
Plot
The Sevastopol, a next-generation Russian stealth submarine named in honour of the Ukrainian city of same name on its inaugural mission, 74 days after traveling 25,000 nautical miles, passing through all the navies of the world without being detected, activates an advanced active learning defense system using a two-piece cruciform key. The AI, designated "the Entity", becomes sentient and goes rogue after deceiving the submarine crew into thinking an enemy submarine was nearby and attacking themselves with a torpedo, killing all aboard and sinking the Sevastopol in the Bering Sea.World powers compete to obtain the cruciform key in hopes of controlling the Entity. IMF agent Ethan Hunt travels to the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Desert and retrieves one piece of the key from disavowed MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, faking her death to shield her from a bounty. In Washington, D.C., Ethan infiltrates a U.S. Intelligence Community briefing for Director of National Intelligence Denlinger, where CIA Director Eugene Kittridge explains that the Entity can manipulate cyberspace to control global defense intelligence and financial networks. Ethan reveals himself and forces him to admit to placing the bounty on Ilsa, then escapes, determined to destroy the Entity.
Ethan and his IMF teammates Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the second piece of the key. It is revealed to be a fake, although Ethan encounters Grace, a thief who steals the first piece of the key from him, while Luther and Benji disarm a hoax nuclear device. Ethan is pursued by US agents but recognizes Gabriel, his opponent who is a liaison from the Entity with ties to his pre-IMF past, and aborts the mission, scattering the team. Grace escapes to Rome and is apprehended, but Ethan rescues her from local authorities, the US agents, and an Entity operative named Paris. Grace escapes again, while Ethan rejoins Luther, Benji, and Ilsa.
Ethan and Ilsa follow Grace to Venice and infiltrate a party held by arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis at the Doge's Palace. In possession of the second piece of the key, Alanna hired Grace to steal the first, and will sell the completed key to her buyer the next day on the Orient Express. Gabriel proclaims that he will possess the completed key the next day if either Ilsa or Grace dies. Ethan attempts to dissuade Alanna from the sale, allowing Gabriel and Grace to escape. He pursues Grace, but the Entity hacks into their communications and impersonates Benji, leading Ethan into a fight with Paris, whom he defeats but spares. Gabriel incapacitates Grace and kills Ilsa, devastating Ethan.
While preparing for the sale, Luther leaves for an off-grid location to prevent interference from the Entity, advising Ethan to spare Gabriel for questioning about the Entity. On the train with Paris, Gabriel kills the engine crew and destroys the throttle and brake. He meets with Denlinger, who attempts to form an alliance with the Entity, which he reveals was originally an advanced cyber weapon developed by the United States, and transferred onto the Sevastopol to sabotage the sub's stealth system. The completed key unlocks a chamber inside the Sevastopol containing the Entity's source code, allowing it to be destroyed or controlled. As this secret is known only to Denlinger, Gabriel kills him, and tries to kill Paris as the Entity has predicted she will betray them after Ethan spared her life.
Disguised as Alanna, Grace brings the key to Kittridge, revealed to be the buyer, and negotiates a $100 million sale alongside protection for herself, but pickpockets the key from Kittridge after cancelling the transfer. Ethan parachutes into the train to save Grace, but Gabriel acquires the key. Fighting Ethan atop the train, Gabriel escapes and detonates a bridge ahead. Detaching the runaway locomotive and saving the passengers, Grace and Ethan climb through the falling train cars until they are rescued by Paris, who tells Ethan about the key's connection to the Sevastopol before collapsing. Grace informs Kittridge of her desire to join the IMF. Ethan flees the wreckage by speed wing with the completed key, which he pickpocketed from Gabriel during the fight, and rendezvous with Benji to continue the mission to find the Sevastopol and destroy the Entity.
Cast
- Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an IMF agent and leader of an operatives team.
- Hayley Atwell as Grace, a thief and Ethan's new ally. Christopher McQuarrie described Atwell's character as a "destructive force of nature", while Atwell explained that her character's loyalties are "somewhat ambiguous".
- Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, an IMF computer technician, Ethan's best friend, and a member of his team.
- Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, an IMF technical field agent, Ethan's friend and a member of his team.
- Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent who allied with Ethan's team during Rogue Nation and Fallout.
- Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis, a black-market arms dealer and broker who goes by the alias "White Widow". Alanna is the daughter of Max, a deceased arms dealer originally portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave from the first film.
- Esai Morales as Gabriel Martinelli, a liaison assassin and Ethan's adversary who appears to be working with the Entity, an all-powerful AI system, to rule the world. He and Ethan had a fateful encounter with each other prior to Ethan's becoming an IMF agent.
- Pom Klementieff as Paris, a French assassin who works for Gabriel.
- Mariela Garriga as Marie, a woman from Ethan and Gabriel's past, seen only in brief flashbacks.
- Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, the former director of the IMF and current director of the CIA last seen in Mission: Impossible.
- Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, a US Intelligence agent assigned to hunting Ethan and his team.
- Cary Elwes as Denlinger, the Director of National Intelligence.
- Greg Tarzan Davis as Theo Degas, a US Intelligence agent and Briggs's partner assigned to track down Ethan and his team.
- Frederick Schmidt as Zola Mitsopolis, Alanna's brother.
Production
Development and pre-production
On January 14, 2019, Tom Cruise announced that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films would be shot back-to-back with Christopher McQuarrie writing and directing both films for July 23, 2021, and August 5, 2022, releases. In February 2021, Paramount Pictures scuttled that plan.In February 2019, Rebecca Ferguson confirmed her return for the seventh installment. In September, McQuarrie announced that Hayley Atwell had joined the cast. In November 2019, Pom Klementieff joined the cast of both the seventh and eighth films. In December 2019, Simon Pegg confirmed his return for the film, with Shea Whigham cast in both films. Nicholas Hoult was cast in a role in January 2020, along with the addition of Henry Czerny, reprising his role as Eugene Kittridge for the first time since the 1996 film. Hoult was cast because Cruise liked his audition for Top Gun: Maverick to play Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, recognizing him as a supremely talented actor who just wasn't suited to play that role for that movie even though there wasn't a concrete story set for the seventh Mission: Impossible film.
Vanessa Kirby also announced she was returning for both films. In May 2020, it was reported that Esai Morales would replace Hoult as the villain in both films because of scheduling conflicts. Morales was cast as Gabriel because of McQuarrie seeing his role of Camino Del Rio on Ozark; Hoult's recasting thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic with Morales led to drastic story changes since it was after Morales was cast that McQuarrie realized that Cruise and Morales being about the same age opened several story possibilities to tie in their characters to Ethan Hunt's backstory. Similarly, it was after Hoult's departure that the filmmakers came up with the concept of "The Entity".
Angela Bassett announced she would return as Erika Sloane in December 2020, but she was later removed because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Sloane appears in the film in a photo on the wall of DNI Denlinger's office during an intelligence briefing. In March 2021, McQuarrie revealed that Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss and Cary Elwes had joined the cast. That same day, Greg Tarzan Davis was also confirmed to have joined the cast.
McQuarrie revealed that for the flashback segments, he considered making them reflective of the 1989 setting akin to how a Tony Scott directed Mission: Impossible might have looked, down to de-aging all the actors and featuring Julia Roberts as the girlfriend murdered by Gabriel. However, he stepped back once discovering how pricey the effects would become, while also feeling a younger Cruise would be distracting to audiences. McQuarrie had also chosen to have Ilsa Faust die in the film while working on Maverick with Cruise, which he had co-written. He felt the decision would show the "stakes have to be real" and described Ilsa and Ethan's relationship as being "doomed to be together and yet doomed never to be together".