
Christopher McQuarrie directs the seventh installment of the franchise which like many Hollywood movies is presented in two parts to make more money (the new Spider-Man movie is another example). In the past Mission Impossible movies, Tom Cruise and his team fought terrorists and evil geniuses. This time–and possibly prophetic–the IMF team takes on Artificial Intelligence. “The Entity,” a powerful AI program that has already infested all of the world’s online security systems and can not be stopped–except for the movie’s MacGuffin: a key that can turn the Entity off.
The U.S. government, and all others interested parties in World Domination, believes they can form an alliance with the Entity and control the entire world. But Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) vows to use the key to destroy the Entity. It’s always fun when Cruise and his techie teammates–Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg)-use their computer trickery to stay one step ahead. Hunt’s sometime friend, sometime rival from the British secret service, Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson), who also joins the action, as does a new character, a gorgeous pickpocket named Grace (Hayley Atwell).
As usual, the action moves around the world from Africa to Venice to a ride on the Orient Express. The new Indiana Jones movie features a fight on top of a moving train. But the deadly ballet on the top of the runaway train in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part One puts that to shame! Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part Two is scheduled for June 2024. I’ll be there! GRADE: Incomplete…but trending towards a B+