‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ makes the end of the world thrilling

It’s been the end of the world as we know it for a while in pop entertainment. “The Terminator” (1984) predicted this would be the pivotal decade, with the key battle against Skynet happening in 2029, and today’s SF filmmakers and TV-makers seem to agree. TV’s “A Murder at the End of the World” predicts a near-future AI takeover, as did the unfortunately canceled-last-year “Westworld.”

While I don’t feel as fine as REM does about this situation, it’s no small thing that we have the entertainment value of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” The series’ seventh entry (and its best, edging “Ghost Protocol”) introduces a computer program that will dominate the world by defining the “truth” for everyone; it’s science fiction, barely.

In a complete contrast to the “Fast & Furious” franchise – “M:I’s” competitor in box office but in absolutely nothing on the creative side – Tom Cruise’s saga never shows its hand when using special effects, action sequences are incredible because of initial groundings in reality, and the emotions of makeshift family bonds ring true.

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Broadly speaking, “M:I7” achieves this by being better acted, better written and better directed than not only the low-bar “F&F” but also elite competition like the “John Wicks,” “James Bonds” and the better superhero actioners.

Regardless of what he’s like in real life, Cruise – as Impossible Mission Force hero Ethan Hunt — is generous on screen. “M:I7” is about teamwork, with Ving Rhames’ Luther and Simon Pegg’s Benji remarkably plugged in for being this deep in a saga. The actors sell fast-talking mumbo-jumbo about hacking into satellites with a few keystrokes.

Cruise has company

Specifically in part seven, though, look at Hayley Atwell (“Agent Carter”), who joins as thief Grace. Director/co-writer Christopher McQuarrie (returning for his third entry) cleverly blends the throwback element of a grand romantic actioner (think Hitchcock at his best) with the 21^st century’s unremarkable notion of a female action hero.

Without any discussion of the why or the how, Grace and Ethan simply like each other; McQuarrie relies entirely on the actors’ chemistry, which fortunately is there. It plays out against a fatalistic backdrop: The Entity device can end the world, if in the wrong hands.

Any hands would be the wrong hands, Ethan knows, and intriguingly, bad guy Gabriel (a deliciously suave Esai Morales) seems to know this too. The two parts of a key that combine to give access to the Entity’s source code are a maguffin infused with 2023 relevance.

Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa, made into a tragic figure, illustrates “M:I7’s” stakes on a personal level. Yet McQuarrie and Cruise pitch this film like expert composers, with light humor when we want it. The action sequences are so breathless or humorous (a car chase finds Grace and Ethan handcuffed and trying to figure out who’s driving) that any departure from your couch is only for the quickest of snack or bathroom breaks. This might be the briskest 2-hour, 43-minute movie I’ve ever watched.

A sequence of train cars gradually going over the edge of a damaged bridge one by one, thanks to inertia, makes the centerpiece sequence of “The Lost World” seem like a relaxed camping trip. When Ethan holds full-on conversations with his adversaries atop a speeding train (all of them standing up!), it makes “The Great Train Robbery,” “The Wolverine” and the first “M:I” film look like mere early explorers in the arena of speeding-train roofs.

Runaway train, never goin’ back

I will admit that I smirked at this, as I thought of the implausibility not only of the situation but of so many characters being relatively calm in the face of insane danger. “M:I7” certainly goes up to the edge, but, smartly, it never quite crosses it.

For one, the danger does seem real – we can see Ethan’s cheeks flapping in the wind, and we know this is a practical stunt. For another, while it’s true that Ethan does things as super-heroic as anyone in the MCU or DCEU, we see the team plan it out beforehand. Any confidence he has comes from preparation and his years of working with Benji and Luther (who both date back to the 1996 first movie).

When things go wrong — as they do several times in the Middle East, London, Venice and Norway — we see Ethan’s nervousness, sometimes even borderline panic. It’s almost like Cruise’s own worries about the stunt are shining through. Regardless of how he gets there, Cruise has become the elite action-film actor because he finds the grounded (rather than stylized, smirky or quippy) balance between real person and super-heroism.

The world isn’t in great shape right now, and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s” plot doesn’t let us escape that. Yet in one way the film does allow us to appreciate living in 2023. Most of today’s movies are technically advanced, but that doesn’t make them better movies than what came before.

The “Mission: Impossible” saga, though, always strives to make each movie better than the last — even though that seems impossible.