Mission: Impossible was made in action-hero heaven BRIAN VINER reviews M:I – Dead Reckoning Part One

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (12A, 2 hours 43 minutes)

Judgement:

Tom Cruise turned 61 three days ago, which is too old to hurtle through an Orient Express window still wearing a parachute after jumping off the top of an Austrian mountain.

Oh, and the train whizzes toward a booby-trapped bridge, with the driver dead and a “cross-shaped” key on board that could destroy the world as we know it.

Only Tom, or rather Ethan Hunt, the megastar’s alter ego since 1996, has both the knowledge and the brawn to handle such a predicament.

It’s been years since Hunt overtook James Bond as arguably the most famous secret agent in the world. Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh Mission: Impossible movie and the stunts just keep getting better. There are real corkscrews in this film: at the Spanish Steps in Rome and the Doge’s Palace in Venice, but especially when the Orient Express breaks loose.

Femme fatale: Vanessa Kirby as the White Widow with Cruise as Ethan Hunt

Agatha Christie will be peering over her celestial pince-nez approvingly. Murder on the big old train has never been so spectacular.

So heaven knows what part two, due next summer, has in store. Both episodes are directed by longtime Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, who has overseen two previous Mission: Impossible films and whose credits include last year’s hit Top Gun: Maverick and sci-fi triumph Edge of Tomorrow. be from 2014. They have made a creative marriage in action hero heaven.

As always, the plot is captivatingly ridiculous, crafted purely so that one thrilling fight or chase sequence could loosely explain the next. But it does play into current concerns with a few ominous references to artificial intelligence. A mysterious AI force known only as the “Entity” – “godless, stateless, amoral” – threatens to render every major computing system in the world useless, including those that prop up the US Federal Reserve, not to mention NASA , the US power grid, every central bank and for all we know, Tesco and the Co-op.

To gain control of this evil plan you need a key, which unfortunately comes in two halves. Coincidentally, last week’s major release, Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny, also split its holy grail in half. It’s this summer’s action movie cliché. But here it allows for a much better movie.

Dead Reckoning Part One is the seventh Mission: Impossible movie and the stunts just keep getting better

Also invested in the quest are Hunt’s cronies from the Impossible Missions Force, Luther (Ving Rhames), left, and Benji (Simon Pegg), right

There’s a new character in town, a resourceful English thief, Grace, superbly played by Hayley Atwell

Among those seeking the key – for reasons ranging from benign to evil – are Hunt, his former accomplice Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), dangerous old adversary Gabriel (Esai Morales), and a classic femme fatale, a sexy arms dealer who known as the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby), reprising her role from the last film, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which this is likely a sequel to). Also invested in the quest are Hunt’s cronies from the Impossible Missions Force, Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg). But there’s a new character in town, a resourceful English thief, Grace, superbly played by Hayley Atwell.

She gets to don one of the ingenious disguises that have been such a hallmark of the series from the start. And early signs are that her chemistry with Hunt will serve the story extremely well.

Yet this film does not only look to the future. It also offers some respectful nods to the cinematic past, from past Mission: Impossible features to other great action flicks and even, from nearly a century ago, to Buster Keaton’s 1926 classic The General.

It’s all very enjoyable, a summer blockbuster worthy of the name.

• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is in cinemas from Monday