When T3 said that my mission, should I choose to accept it, was to go an early Leicester Square screening of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One I knew what I had to do. I gathered my elite team (my mum, as a late Mother's Day present) my gadgets (a notebook) and set out on my most daring mission yet.
My Endeavours were next to nothing compared to Tom Cruise and co, so let's get your mouth watering for the seventh instalment in the Mission Impossible franchise. Here are five unadulteratedly awesome things about the seventh movie.
1. TC still has it
61 years old. Tom Cruise has no right to be putting his body through this kind of thing at 61, but he shows absolutely no sign of slowing down. At 27, I often struggle to get out of my cosy office chair and here Ethan Hunt is doing that signature arm-pumping run through the streets of Venice, parkouring off walls mid-fight.
With Harrison Ford recently enjoying his Indiana Jones swansong at 80, we're clearly in the era of the golden oldies but what makes Cruise's turn even more impressive is we all know he loves doing his own stunts. It's in the trailer so no spoilers, but watching Cruise ride a motorbike off of a mountain like Steve Mcqueen and then parachute away is a genuine heartstopper.
2. The sound
As my first visit to the Odeon Luxe at Leicester Square (with the UK's first Dolby Cinema) I wasn't sure what the difference would be from a standard cinema aside from comfier seats. It only took a few minutes for the first few notes of that iconic Mission Impossible theme for me to realise the biggest selling point. Everything sounds incredible.
Dolby Atmos meant that even sitting on the balcony near the back, the movie sounded like I was in the front row. I'm someone who often struggles with muddled movie dialogue (I still don't really know what happened in Tenet) but had no such problems here. The aforementioned parachuting scene was perhaps the most intense and immersive audio moment I've ever had watching a movie.
3. Hayley Atwell and the badass women
As she's a newcomer to the franchise, I was surprised to see Hayley Atwell's name appear second in the opening titles ahead of some regulars, but by the closing credits, it made complete sense.
Atwell plays professional thief Grace with a standout cheekiness and charm, her baggy sleeves and sleight-of-hand skills give her an almost magician-like vibe (but much more likeable don't worry). At the same time, however, it's clear that Grace is also in over her head and she often just wants a payday and to escape. She even gets one over Ethan Hunt a few times.
It's a nice contrast to the other goody two shoes characters but come the end of the movie, Grace is very much on board to save the world. In fairness this is a movie full of excellent female characters (not often the case in spy movies), be it Grace, Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa, Vanessa Kirby's returning arms dealer the White Widow or Pom Klementieff as villainous assassin Paris.
4. A yellow Fiat 500
This was not something you were expecting to see on this list right? While on the run in Rome, Ethan and Grace find themselves handcuffed together behind the wheel of an old yellow Fiat 500 (reminiscent of the car from The Inbetweeners). I won't go into too much detail but a scene near the Trevi Fountain in this little car is one of the funniest and most exhilarating in the movie. It's also great to see a step away from the traditional glamour of spy dramas every now and then.
If you're looking for some more impressive automobiles then don't worry, Simon Pegg's Benji has a very impressive self-driving BMW SUV.
5. ChatGPT is the bad guy
Ok so, it's not actually specifically the AI chatbot but this time the Mission Impossible team aren't up against a warlord, an arms dealer or even a state. They're facing off with the most powerful sentient AI that the world has ever seen. Maybe it's for fear of losing my job to an AI but it's nice to see us fleshy old humans take on the ones and zeroes.
It's also not too far from being believable, some of The Entity's (as it's called) behaviours seem pretty plausible, like mimicking Benji's voice to provide Ethan with duff directions during a crucial mission.
If you want a refresher on the Mission Impossible story so far, or just a roaring good time, you can stream all the previous movies on Paramount Plus.
