Tom Cruise is on a personal mission right now. Not just the mission to cling to / fall from / ascend whatever mountain, mode of transport or stupidly-tall building he hasn’t yet got around to – but to bring audiences back to the big screen, and have them exiting cinemas pumping with pure adrenaline. In two days’ time, Top Gun: Maverick will be doing just that in cinemas around the world. (Spoiler alert – it's one of his best movies.) And now, we also have the long-awaited trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (as it’s officially titled) offering a pulse-pounding two-minute teaser of what’s coming next for Ethan Hunt. Strap in, and watch it here.
Blimey. Who’s in? (Everyone, that’s who.) Following on from 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, this seventh entry in the spy saga marks yet another collaboration with director Christopher McQuarrie – and the Cruise-McQ pairing looks set to push the boundaries of action cinema even further this time around. There are some astonishing-looking setpieces teased here, from that much-papped Cruise-jumping-off-a-bike-that’s-also-jumping-off-a-cliff moment, to a runaway steam train also careening off the rails into the air. But beyond the stunts, there’s also a curious tonal quality here – all burnt-orange sunsets, something of a Western visual quality (sand and horses aplenty), and a slow-building energy that crescendos into action ecstasy from moment to moment.
While there’s little plot here, there are plenty of tantalising teases. (Hey, this is a teaser trailer after all.) For one, there’s the much-anticipated return of Henry Czerny’s Kittridge (from the very first Mission movie back in 1996), seemingly in bad-guy mode here. There are glimpses of Venice, a high-speed European chase in a little yellow Fiat 500, and flashes of franchise newcomers Pom Klementieff and Hayley Atwell. Plus, the whole team is back, including Simon Pegg’s Benji and Ving Rhames’ Luther. Most importantly, there are multiple major moments with Rebecca Ferguson’s fan-favourite Ilsa Faust here. Why does she have an eyepatch on? What’s that weird key thing she has? Who’s that she’s sword-fighting with (!) in Venice? We’re here for all of it.
Having shot predominantly through the pandemic, it looks like Dead Reckoning Part One will be bringing Mission back with a bang. We’ll find out when it hits cinemas next summer on 14 July, followed by Part Two on 28 June 2024. It yet another Mission we’ll choose to accept.