We saw the first trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (I’m pretty sure that’s the right punctuation, I hate these titles) one year ago, and now that the film is actually due on July 12, the second trailer is here to show off even more of Tom Cruise running. There is so much running! All he does is run and fling himself off of things. Don’t get me wrong, it looks cool as hell, but I have long given up trying to comprehend the larger story in this franchise.
Not unlike the Fast/Furious movies, we’re not really watching for plot, we’re watching for spectacle, for Tom Cruise running and fighting and stunting his way around the world. And also like the Fast/Furious movies, the Mission: Impossible films have built up a solid ensemble of enjoyable actors and characters—truer here than in Fast/Furious, frankly—and we watch for them.
Which is to say, I have no idea what’s going on here. Some bad guy played by Esai Morales is threatening to destroy Ethan Hunt’s life but like, this guy has been presumed dead so many times, what’s left to destroy? Didn’t he already give up on his normal guy dreams with Michelle Monaghan? Except now maybe he’s in love with Rebecca Ferguson’s assassin lady? Are we supposed to read it that way? Who knows! Who cares! It’s not clear! You know what IS clear? How cool Pom Klementieff looks as the new bad assassin lady. Rebecca Ferguson’s assassin lady turned out to be an ally, and it looks like Vanessa Kirby’s assassin lady is an ally now, too—wait a minute, IS this just the Fast/Furious franchise where everyone eventually becomes #family?—so now Pom Klementieff is here to be the bad assassin lady.
I can’t tell what this movie is about except some guy wants to kill Ethan Hunt—don’t they always?—and I don’t care as long as it delivers on the action. That’s what we’re here for, the rest is just window dressing. And it certainly does look like Dead Reckoning has the action down pat. Christopher McQuarrie, who collaborated with Cruise throughout the 2010s, is back as the writer/director, he knows how to do the big stunt pieces and the “things are changing but Tom Cruise isn’t” narratives Cruise loves so well. I am very much looking forward to Dead Reckoning even though I could not tell you one thing about the story beyond “Tom Cruise will run to save the world”. That’s all we need, right?