Sightlines · reception

How Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One was received

2023 · Christopher McQuarrie · Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One on Sightlines

The arc

Opened to rapturous reviews — hailed as another franchise peak — then became the summer's cautionary tale when Barbenheimer arrived a week later and swallowed its IMAX screens and box office. It's now remembered as much as a casualty of July 2023 as a film, and Paramount quietly dropped 'Part One' from the title after the fact.

What’s debated

The perennial fan fight: is it top-tier Mission: Impossible or a bloated half-a-movie that can't stand on its own — and does anything in it actually top Fallout?

Its footprint

The Norwegian cliff motorbike jump — sold as 'the biggest stunt in cinema history' — became a cultural image before the film even opened, thanks to a behind-the-scenes video that went viral and basically WAS the marketing campaign.

Where it stands

A fixture of the beloved 'rank the Mission: Impossibles' ritual, where it usually lands respectably mid-to-upper table — very good, but forever arguing with Fallout's shadow.

Did you know? The cliff motorbike jump was shot on the very first day of principal photography — McQuarrie reasoned that if the film's most dangerous stunt went wrong, better to find out before they'd spent the rest of the budget. Cruise prepared with around 500 skydives and 13,000 motocross jumps.

A Deleuzian reading of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One →