Sevastopol is a Russian submarine with latest stealth technology that allows it to traverse underwater of frozen Bering Sea undetected. Their system detects a hostile submarine moving towards their submarine. Russian captain decides to launch a torpedo at enemy’s submarine, but they discover that the hostile submarine doesn’t actually exist. They were tricked by their own computer which has been controlled by Artificial Intelligent known as “the Entity”. The torpedo circles back and sinks its own submarine, killing everyone on board.

Impossible Mission Force (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) accepts his new mission to retrieve half of a key from a former British intelligence Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) whom is currently being tracked down by a bunch of bounty hunters.

It is revealed that an artificial intelligent, originally designed to spy and sabotage target’s computer system has evolved and becomes sentient, it can infiltrate and control any system. Every intelligence agency is on the race to obtain two-part key, which they believe whoever gets the complete key will be able to control the Entity and bring the world to its knees.

Ethan Hunts reunite with Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) to intercept the buyer who has the other half of the key at Abu Dhabi International Airport, but the half-key is stolen by Grace (Hayley Atwell).

Ethan follows Grace to Rome where he discover that Grace was hired by Alanna aka The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) to obtain the key for her buyer. Ethan must find out what does the key unlock and how to kill ‘the Entity’ before it falls into the wrong hands.

The story about Artificial Intelligent gone rogue isn’t entirely new concept. Many have done before and some are much more sophisticated than this film. However, Tom Cruise has outdone himself once again in M:I DEAD RECKONING with never-before-seen death-defying stunts, thrilling car chase in Rome and incredible fight choreography which make 163-minute film feel a bit too short. M:I DEAD RECKONING is incredibly entertaining and worth watching in cinema.

There are scenes that give the vibes of the first MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996) such as a fight scene on the roof of a train, or the conversation between IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and Ethan Hunt.

The derailment of the train while our protagonists are still inside of a vertically hanging railcar and they have to climb up (probably was inspired by Fleetwood RV Mobile Lab scene from THE LOST WORLD), is one of the most memorable scenes in the entire M:I franchise.

There are also some plot holes that I can’t wrap my head around, I’ll keep my fingers crossed if they would be resolved in Part Two. Why there’s only one person in the world who knows the exact location of Russian submarine, Sevastopol? Who obtained the key from the corpse of Russian officer since both parts of the key were on board the submarine? How did Ilsa get the first half of the key? How did the unknown buyer have the other half of the key? (And don’t get me started on the Entity’s source code.)

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — DEAD RECKONING Part One premiered in Rome on June 19, 2023. The film was theatrically released in the United States on July 12. DEAD RECKONING Part Two is scheduled to be released on June 28, 2024.