Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, dir. Christopher McQuarrie
A well-worn genre in mainstream filmmaking is the action drama, which often follows the same formula over and over and over again. It comes to a point where these blockbuster spectaculars have become contrarily mundane, especially with the current surfeit of CGI superheroes.
However, the Mission: Impossible franchise feels different from the rest. Yes, it’s Tom Cruise committing to the classic Tom Cruise-y insanities, but there are stupendous efforts with each film to craft a completely new cinematic experience. In this case, it’s the balletic thrills that make you buy a ticket – especially the ludicrous stunts involved. In the upcoming seventh film Dead Reckoning, the first of a delayed two-parter, Cruise commits to a motorcycle stunt that – according to Empire – is ‘the single most dangerous thing he’d ever done’. Plot details are mostly hushed, so that lethal promise will have to suffice for now.
Photo: Paramount Pictures, Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Fallout