'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' is one of the best action movies of the year

A sentient, parasitic artificial intelligence known as 'The Entity' has managed to infiltrate the intelligence networks of all major political powers. The ability to control this artificial intelligence is stored in a two-part key, which is being chased across the globe by the IMF, led by Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), a renowned thief (Hayley Atwell), and a fanatical assassin (Esai Morales) with ties to Hunt's past before his time in the IMF...

Despite the fact that 'Mission: Impossible' has been on the go for for nearly thirty years in its current iteration, its central star - Ethan Hunt, played with a bug-eyed intensity by Tom Cruise these past decades - has always been something of a cypher. We know him to be a relentless protagonist, bolting across beautiful locales to jazz-inflected blockbuster scores. We know he's a fan of mask pulls, and we know that he's not above using all kinds of beguilement and trickery to save the day. This time around, however, 'Dead Reckoning' seeks to give its antagonist a history tied directly to Hunt in the same way that Jon Voight's character had in Brian DePalma's first entry to the series.

Indeed, much of 'Dead Reckoning' plays like a remix of elements from the first 'Mission: Impossible'. Henry Czerny, who made a tidy business out of playing bureaucratic assholes in '90s techno-thrillers, returns to the series as Eugene Kittridge. The finale sequence involves a death-defying stunt involving a train and fights aboard said train, and all the while, there's a queasy sense of unease as to what is real and what isn't. In the first 'Mission: Impossible', so much of what made it so confusing but brilliant was we were never sure if what we were being shown was correct. Faces ripped off to show Tom Cruise, while other agents operating in plain sight around the main cast of characters, all the while it leading up to the reveal that Jon Voight's seemingly father-figure handler was, in fact, the villain of the piece.

'Mission: Impossible' has always dealt with old reliable threats like nuclear war and mad scientists, but 'Dead Reckoning' plays with the very real and not even close to being unimaginable fear of artificial intelligence and disinformation. There's a whole sequence that sees Simon Pegg's reliable voice-in-the-ear being copied by the all-seeing, all-knowing AI to give the Cruiser false directions. It's something so obvious that you wonder why it wasn't a thing before. There's also the use of deep fakes on computer screens in a dizzyingly tense airport chase too, and much of the convoluted story revolves around the secret agencies of the world battling to control an artificial intelligence that will help assert an order in the world that is soon to come to war with itself for reduced resources.

Compared to the previous entry 'Fallout', there's a lot more weight to 'Dead Reckoning' and a lot less alacrity. The dialogue is clunky in parts, even though it's delivered by a terrific cast of actors that includes the likes of Indira Varma, Cary Elwes, and Rob Delaney. However, there's an element in 'Dead Reckoning' that's been missing from the series as a whole - a sense of humour about itself. Shea Whigham's high-haired field agent awkwardly pokes the face of an innocent bystander to see if they're actually who they say they are, for example. Later, he remarks with acidity about Cruise's character that "he's always going rogue" like a fed-up colleague.

Of course, what 'Dead Reckoning' does well and is the real reason to watch in a huge cinema is the action. From desert storms to high-powered chases, Christopher McQuarrie's command of camera is evident. The setpieces are fluid, expertly staged, and unique, standing tall as the movie's highest point. You're frequently reminded that it's the real deal too, with the likes of Hayley Atwell clearly behind the wheel of a stunt car with an expression of pure terror as she speeds through the cobbled streets of Rome. Much like John Frankenheimer's 'Ronin', there's a real grit and texture that is so often missing from today's franchises - 'Fast X' being a frequent purveyor of this flat and lifeless action.

It's not as sharp and refined as 'Fallout', but 'Dead Reckoning' does have an enormous amount of quality to it and is sure to be one of the best action movies of the year - should you choose to accept it.