It’s been a long time coming, but now we know the date and the clock is ticking! Tom Cruise returns as superspy Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which explodes into cinemas on July 14.
Once again under the steady direction of Tom’s personal good luck charm, Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One sees the Cruiser and the rest of the IMF gang—including Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson)—tasked with saving civilisation as we know it from the mysterious Gabriel. Played by franchise newcomer Esai Morales, he’s trying to get his hands on “a terrifying weapon that threatens humanity”—which, really, could be anything. Did we ever find out what the Rabbit’s Foot was in MI:3?
Returning to the fold are Vanessa Kirby as arms dealer Alanna “The White Widow” Mitsopolis and, improbably enough, Henry Czerny as former IMF director Eugene Kittridge, a character who hasn’t been seen since the first Mission: Impossible film back in ’96. New to the series are Captain America’s Hayley Atwell as Grace, whom McQuarrie describes as “a destructive force of nature”, and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Pom Klementieff as an assassin in Gabriel’s employ. That’s two MCU refugees in one movie. It’s a shame they didn’t let Jeremy Renner hang around.
But we all know what we’re here for, and it’s not the plot or even the cast, really. It’s to watch Tom Cruise spit in God’s face as he dares death to claim him in one of the series signature elaborate stunt sequences. This time out he’s literally riding a motorcycle off a cliff before parachuting to the ground—and that’s just one of the ones we know about! We’ll be there on opening day to see what else the absolute madman gets up to.
