Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 18 wins & 67 nominations total

Trivia
The frequent delays caused by COVID-19 ballooned the budget to $291 million, making it the most expensive Mission: Impossible film (surpassing Fallout, $178 million), the most expensive film of Tom Cruise's career (again surpassing Fallout), and the most expensive film ever produced by Paramount (surpassing Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), $217 million). The insurance company Chubb originally gave Paramount only £4.4 million (about $5.4 million) for the delays, arguing that the cast and crew could still fulfill their duties to the production despite being infected with COVID-19. Paramount sued Chubb in 2021, and the two companies settled in 2022. In 2023, Chubb gave Paramount a £57 million (about $71 million) payout for the COVID-caused delays, reducing the film's budget to about $220 million, which still makes it the most expensive film for Cruise, Paramount, and the franchise.

Goofs
Steam trains, especially moving at high speeds, need to be continuously provided with fuel, in this case coal. With the engineers killed and the controls opened all the way, the locomotive would have gradually slowed down and come to a halt as the pressure in the boiler dropped. That train would never have reached the bridge for that distance with no coal provided.

Since the early 1900s, when firebox coal consumption exceeded the efforts of two men, the trains have used mechanical stokers. The coal would continue feeding without one missing coal shoveler.

Quotes
Ethan Hunt: [speaking in italian] Thank you officers. Please. You can wait ouside. Thank you.
[the police leave the area]
Grace: You. You did this.
Ethan Hunt: I called the police. I didn't tell them about your colorful past.
[throwing a file folder]
Ethan Hunt: That's on you. You put-pocleted that the key on another passenger before you were arrested. You exchanged details and arranged to meet later on. Right now somewhere out there hasn't the slighest clue they're holding on to that key for you. An unwitting courier. The perfect accomplice
[describing the person Grace has used as a mule to carry an item]
Ethan Hunt: I'm guessing a man... middle aged? A man waiting his whole life to be noticed by a woman like you. An orphan. Higly intelligent. Inherntly resourceful. Growing up in the poverty left you longing for the finer things. Other's people's things. Someone saw your potential and helped you hone your skills. Skills that gave you the life thought you wanted. Tailored clothes, fine dining, luxury hotels. Skills that kept you one step ahead of the law, until now.
Grace: You can't blame a girl for trying to make a dishonest living.
Ethan Hunt: You had no idea what you stealing. Otherwise you never would stolen it.
Grace: Tell you what. You get me out of here, and I'll take you straight to the key.
Ethan Hunt: I have a better idea. You're gonna tell me everything. Then I'll think about getting out of here. Now start with who hired you. And don't lie to me, because I'll know.
Grace: I have no idea who hired me. Contact with the client was almost entirely electronic.
Ethan Hunt: Email?
Grace: Texts.
Ethan Hunt: Encrypted?
Grace: Naturally.
Ethan Hunt: Almost?
Grace: Pardon?
Ethan Hunt: You said contact with client was "almost" entirely electronic.
Grace: There was a dead drop in a cafe in Luxembourg. An envelope.
Ethan Hunt: What was in the envelope?
Grace: A ticket to Abu Dhabi. And... a picture of you. My instructions were to follow you at the airport. You'd be taling a mark. Said mark would have a key and four million in criptocurrency. That drive was useless, by the way. It was empty. The only hope I have of getting paid is to deliver your half of the key.
Ethan Hunt: And you were instructed to deliever it to...
Grace: Venice. Party at Ducake Palace, Tomorrow. Midnight Venice.
Ethan Hunt: [looking at the door] You expecting someone?
Grace: Your friends from the airport. Saw them in the halleay a few minutes ago.
Ethan Hunt: You could have said something sooner.
Grace: Well, they we're chaising you, not me.

Crazy credits
Disclaimer as one of the last entries in the end credits scroll: "The Producers wish to express that in no way, shape or form were the Rome Spanish Steps used to drive a moving vehicle down. This segment of the film was re-created with a set built on a Studio backlot."

Connections
Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Most Anticipated Franchises Returning in 2023 (2023)

Soundtracks
The Mission: Impossible Theme
Written by Lalo Schifrin

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (Part One) boasts some of cinema's most stunning stunt work, but it came at the cost of character development and a solid story.

Man.... I wish I loved this movie more than I did. Don't get me wrong, it's a solid action movie with jaw-dropping stunts (some of the best in the series), but as a Mission: Impossible movie, it felt like a small step backward for the franchise. Fallout had mind-blowing action sequences and stunt work, along with developing Ethan's relationship with Ilsa, providing closure with Julia, showing the lengths Ethan would go to protect those closest to him, and battling an imposing villain. Dead Reckoning: Part One stretches the movie across two films only to seemingly showcase action spectacle after action spectacle while sacrificing character development. Characters I have grown to love over a decade of films felt sidelined, ignored, or wasted. Hayley Atwell's new character chewed up most of the screen time, and while she was fantastic, I wanted to see more of the original team. The new villain had an inconsistent ability that confused more than intimidated. There were some important emotional moments that I just didn't feel the weight of when I definitely should have. Part Two might tie everything together and make me enjoy Part One more in retrospect, but unfortunately, I left wanting more from this one.