In 1996, Tom Cruise brought a popular late 60’s/early 70’s TV show to the big screen with Mission: Impossible. 27 years later, Cruise and company have built a franchise and delivered some of the best action films in recent years.

Their latest offering, Mission: Impossible: – Dead Reckoning Part One, continues the franchise’s tradition of impossible missions, massive action sequences, Tom Cruise’s death defying stunts, and masks.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team are trying to retrieve one half of a key. The key has the ability to unlock an advanced artificial intelligence system known as “the Entity”. The Entity has the ability to control and manipulate digital systems. Hunt realizes this is dangerous and seeks to get the other half of the key so he can destroy it. Of course, major world powers and other players want the Entity and its powers for themselves.

Possession of the key puts Hunt and the IMF team on a collision course with Gabriel (Esai Morales), a dangerous man from Ethan’s past.

A few familiar faces have returned – Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), and Alanna (Vanessa Kirby). As well as newcomers – A talented pickpocket named Grace (Hayley Atwell), and Paris (Pom Klementieff) a ruthless French assassin. Atwell and Klementieff are fantastic additions to the franchise. Both of them bring an intensity and energy that’s much needed in this franchise.

Dead Reckoning – Part One is everything you’d expect from Mission: Impossible and more. The premise of the film is ridiculous. You undersell the mission by calling it “impossible”. The film introduces interesting and terrifying technology that would make the writers of Black Mirror smile. You mix all of this in a pot with some Tom Cruise sprinkled in and you can create something entertaining. At best, Dead Reckoning – Part One is one of the best action films of the year. At worst, it’s a wildly entertaining action film.

Cruise gets all the love for his insane motorcycle cliff jump. As he should, it’s an incredible sequence in the film that’s enhanced by Benji’s (Pegg) conversation leading up the sequence. However, the best action sequence in the film takes place in Rome. Hunt (Cruise) and Grace (Atwell) are on the run from Paris (Klementieff). It’s a delightfully long chase sequence through the street that involves real car crashes. The camera mounted on the hood captures Atwell’s face as she drifts and slams into parked cars. The terror/shock/excitement on her face is real and makes the scene even more entertaining.  There are also multiple narrow escapes, and a funny handcuff gag with a fantastic payoff.

The final action sequence works because you know a lot of what you’re seeing is practical. Tom Cruise is really hanging from a train and jumping off a cliff. Director Christopher McQuarrie captures every near death stunt and turns them into cinematic gold.

Esai Morales as Gabriel gives the franchise one of its best villains. I doubt Morales has more than a few pages of dialogue but he delivers a powerful performance through stares and smirks. Gabriel is a formidable adversary for Hunt. I can’t wait to see more of these two onscreen.

The only downside to this film is the exposition that comes via dialogue. What the Entity can do is explained through conversations between characters. Because it’s mildly complicated, a lot of the dialogue feels like word vomit to explain the Entity more than a conversation between characters.

What makes Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One work is Tom Cruise. He seems to care about making something that demands to be seen in theaters. They feel familiar and unique at the same time. Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films keep getting bigger and bolder. You’ll see plenty of action films over the summer, but nothing like Dead Reckoning Part One.

Grade: A