Look, I grew up with the “Mission Impossible”(MI) movie franchise and just found out that it was based on an older television series.
Apparently, I’ve never watched the introductory credits with enough attention to notice that until I caught the latest installment over the weekend.
Reckoning passes muster like all other MI flicks by having a great supporting cast with plenty of friendly quips and quirks.
However, the action sequences are getting a bit tiresome – there are only so many car chase sequences I can sit through when they drag on for 15 minutes or more.
Reckoning is an American spy action film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen.
It is the sequel to “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (2018) and the seventh installment in the MI film series.
Reckoning sees Tom Cruise return as Ethan Hunt with an ensemble cast that also features Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, Cary Elwes, and Henry Czerny.
The film is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some language and suggestive material, and clocks in at 163 minutes long.
An AI entity self-sabotages and sinks the “Sevastopol” – a covert Russian submarine in the Arctic – killing the entire crew while maintaining its autonomous functioning underwater.
IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is tasked with a mission to retrieve half of a Russian cruciform key from his ally and friend, Ilsa Faust (Ferguson), on whom the IMF has placed a bounty.
He travels to the Empty Quarter in the Arabian Desert, where he obtains the half-key from Faust.
Back in the United States, Ethan infiltrates a meeting of the U.S. Intelligence Community, where officials of various intelligence agencies, including CIA Director Eugene Kittridge (Czerny), and Director of National Intelligence Denlinge (Elwes), discuss an experimental artificial intelligence referred to as “the Entity”.
Originally designed to sabotage digital systems, the Entity went rogue, achieved sentience, and infiltrated the major defense, military systems, and intelligence networks of the world.
Various world powers are now racing against time to protect their national security and harness the Entity by using the key, though the exact means of control the key ensures are unknown.
Believing that the Entity poses too great a threat to humanity, Ethan seeks to destroy it.
Hunt along with teammates Benji Dunn (Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Rhames) travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the holder of the other half of the key.
Ethan evades agents of the Intelligence Community as well as Gabriel (Morales), an Entity liaison with ties to Ethan’s pre-IMF past, while the half-key is stolen by a professional thief Grace (Atwell) on behalf of a buyer.
Meanwhile, Luther identifies a piece of baggage containing a nuclear explosive sent by the Entity; Benji narrowly defuses it, only to find it empty.
Rattled by the Entity’s seeming precognition and the appearance of Gabriel, Ethan pursues Grace alone.
In Rome, Ethan tracks down Grace before community agents and Gabriel close in.
After a lengthy chase, Grace escapes again, while Ethan reunites with his team and Faust.
With Benji and Luther providing support, Ethan and Ilsa infiltrate a Venetian party held by “The White Widow” also known as arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (Kirby) while hoping to find Grace’s buyer and learn the purpose of the key.
For me, the storyline is a bit weak and the movie lingers on a weak cliffhanger for its second installment.
But, if you’re a Cruise or MI fan then you’ll love this one on the big screen.
