NOT IMPOSSIBLE ANYMORE

BLOCKBUSTER

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MAY TAKE OVER SPY GENRE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Just when the preliminary action sequences seem to be taking too long and seem to be too obscure to lead to an eventual main narrative, the fuse is lit, and the familiar film score bounces the opening credits about a bit.

This image montage hints of a grand spy action thriller that will unfold very quickly, although at times a bit too precariously for film set safety over 2 hours and 43 minutes.

Director Christopher McQuarrie perfects his filmmaking with the stylized action sequences created for his third entry in the seven film Mission: Impossible franchise.

Dead Reckoning (2023) moves very very fast with an action scene sequence filmed in one beautifully historic location to the next until the camera traps the audience in a vested relationship with the film characters.

The score, composed by Lorne Balfe, drives the scene sequences overtop the kinetic energy, as the franchise tends to do, with a lot of killing of enemy operatives.

Initially, the air conditioned room of a government spy agency gives way to the icy underwater submarine world of the Artic waters off the coast of northern Europe, only to quickly fall away to the dry heat of a windstorm in the Arabian desert. These extreme environments quickly become lethal for the many extras involved in the film production.

The contrast of deep freeze and melting heat begins to grate a bit as McQuarrie pulls the audience further into the film. These first attempts by the filmmaker create expectations for future scenes that do provoke an emotive response, such as when the background sound effects and the overhead score lead to a crescendo, after which the sound is suddenly turned off for a stunt jump that makes you feel a bit like you have been taken along on the ride.

Tom Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt, team leader of the deep cover spy agency, Impossible Mission Force.

This Tom Cruise production also recasts recurring team members, Ving Rames as Luther Stickell, and Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn. Disavowed MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, played by Rebecca Ferguson, also returns in a familiar role as a vicarious overwatch for Ethan Hunt.

Vanessa Kirby also returns as international arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis, daughter of Max from Mission: Impossible I (1996).

The plot involves the IMF team searching for a cruciform key that apparently unlocks an Artificial Intelligence weapon developed to have a conscience with precognition.

Hunt, as he tends to do, merely wants to keep the weapon of military signifance from being used by any number of villains around the globe that may or may not soon be joining them in the chase to find it.

The weapon has been activated to become the Entity, a kind of on-line phantom.

McQuarrie emphasizes high tech and artificial intelligence throughout the film while giving most frames a modern finish even when filming the chase scenes on the cobblestone streets in Rome.

The charm of having old and new together is brought out with references to the high tech of special operations such as the automatic machine guns and the Osprey helicopters in the desert sandstorm as well as the power of military vehicles customized for civilian use in the streets surrounding the Colosseum.

The AVX sound system distinguishes the sliding tires of the vehicles on the cobblestones from the maddening score overtop the endless chase.

Hayley Atwell costars with Cruise, as the up and coming international thief, Grace, eventually turned by Hunt to work for a greater global cause.

Atwell and Cruise are cast well together with a bit of mentorship happening between the characters that adds to the spy versus spy dynamic involving a few tropes, such as ‘you can never trust a thief’. Grace and Hunt cannot really trust each other, at least Grace cannot trust Hunt to let her get away with anything, and Hunt cannot quite trust Grace to stop working for herself and start working for the team.

The script leaves no room for romance, either.

The camera work lends slightly more to aesthetics than previous franchise films. This more intense stylized directing is aided by the urban architectural aesthetics of the location shoots such as an awesome fight scene in a gated single lane walkway in stark contrast to the overhead camera shots of the car chase on a cobblestone piazza.

Cruise continues to run a bit unnaturally, but Hunt’s running style has not changed in seven films despite his natural aging along the way.

Sound advances add even more momentum to the narrative while the sound of foot traffic and car chases gives way eventually to an extraordinary runaway train action sequence.

What is noticeable is that the Computer Generated Imaging is not very noticeable, partly because the technology is used very sparingly. Mission: Impossible films on location, such as Norway, the United Kingdom, Italy and the United Arab Emirates. CGI is used for many of the stunts, but the stunts are themselves filmed on location, as opposed to filming the entire stunt in a studio in front of a blue/green or ‘purple’ screen with the locations added later in the computer graphic room.

Cruise has also often tried to instill a bit of humor in the scripts, and that infusion of drama and tragic comedy is more successful this time out – perhaps more complete than previous attempts when the anticipated laughter was sometimes relegated to just a snicker.

The production also has one or two tongue and cheek references to the 007 Bond franchise.

One of the movie trailers shows Hunt and Grace handcuffed together in a yellow Fiat 500. This sequence is actually a much extended version in the film with the two in flight from the villains clawing everyone’s memories back to those first attempts at bumper cars at the amusement park midway.

McQuarrie has brought together an ensemble cast with several new additions, such as Shea Whigham, with his sardonic humor bordering on parody of the largely unsuccessful law enforcement official in hot pursuit.

Cruise has been promoting a ‘back to the theatre movement’, and this installment of the spy genre franchise is surely worth the trip.