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Action, Tom Cruise enliven thrilling 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning'

“Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1” - ★ ★ ★

In his seventh impossible mission on the silver screen, Tom Cruise saves Hollywood (again), saves the world (again, maybe) and continues to save his career (again and again).

Still basking in the jet fumes of his massive hit sequel “Top Gun: Maverick,” Cruise returns as constantly running IMF Agent Ethan Hunt in “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1,” a globe-trotting thriller loaded with the spectacular and innovative action set pieces that eluded “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

In one of many chase sequences in "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part 1," a British professional thief named Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) try to elude the police. Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Both “Dial” and “Dead” cover familiar genre turf with obligatory motorcycle chases, car races, ridiculous gunfights and tough guys going mano-a-mano atop of yet another cliched speeding train. But here, the expected disaster sequence pulls off one of the movies' greatest nail-biters of all-time, an intricate, elaborately detailed succession of death-defying stunts executed with such precision and tension that viewers might pass out from forgetting to breathe.

That 61-year-old Cruise continues to perform as many of his own stunts as possible (or allowable) anchors the flimsy verisimilitude of these outlandish events. (Well, maybe not the ludicrous idea that IMF agents can convincingly pass themselves off as other people simply by wearing computer-generated masks that magically give them the exact same bodies, vocal qualities and gestures of their targets.)

In the story, two high-tech combination keys disappear from a Russian submarine that has been attacked and turned into a mass crypt on the ocean floor.

Gabriel (Esai Morales), left, goes mano-a-mano with IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) on top of a speeding train in one of the few cliched moments in "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part 1." Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

The search is on to find the keys so humankind can be saved from a timely, high-tech boogeyman: a rogue form of artificial intelligence called “the Entity.” This Entity can access information contained in the world's computer banks. It can manipulate financial markets, military defense systems, private mail, the news media!

In case audiences can't understand the stakes, a high-ranking official exclaims, “Whoever controls the Entity, controls the truth!”

With reams of self-consciously contrived, bluntly expository dialogue like this, director Christopher McQuarrie and co-writer Erik Jendresen clearly are not focused on winning the Best Screenplay Oscar.

Instead, their perfunctory words in a convoluted plot connect a series of highly energized, crowd-pleasing cinematic constructs not dependent on internal logic or plausibility. “Fallout,” the 2018 “Mission: Impossible” entry (also directed by McQuarrie) features a much stronger balance of drama and thrills. But no one will complain here.

The ever-cool Esai Morales plays Gabriel, a smooth terrorist and supposed old acquaintance bent on finding those keys before Hunt and his techie assistants (Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell) do.

In what might be a nod to the opening scene of 007's "The Spy Who Loved Me," Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) goes airborne after literally dropping his motorcycle in "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part 1," Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Rebecca Ferguson returns as MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (a fixture from “Fallout” and “Rogue Nation”), a super sniper and Hunt ally.

Series newcomer Hayley Atwell plays Grace, a British thief so good that Ethan tries to recruit her for his IMF boss Kittridge (Henry Czerny, returning from the first “Mission” movie).

Hunt needs all the help he can muster to deal with a shrewd, merciless killer named Paris (Pom Klementieff) - the same name used by Leonard Nimoy in the CBS TV series “Mission: Impossible” from the 1960s.

Lalo Schifrin's iconic TV theme periodically surfaces in Scottish composer Lorne Balfe's percussive score, dressing up a movie so visually incendiary that you leave the theater wondering “How can Cruise and McQuarrie possibly top this?”

We will find out in June 2024 with “Dead Reckoning Part 2.”

Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Esai Morales

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie

Other: A Paramount Pictures theatrical release. Rated PG-13 for language, sexual innuendo, violence. 163 minutes

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