Advertisement

Breaking down the trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Tom Cruise is back to battle baddies as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (out July 14, 2023), and the teaser trailer for this seventh film in the franchise was released today. Which new characters are joining our hero for his latest extremely difficult task? Which old ones are back from previous adventures? And does it feature the sight of Tom Cruise running? (Spoiler alert: it does!). You can read our full breakdown of the trailer below.

Welcome back to the world of Mission: Impossible!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Directed by longtime Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, the shoot for the new Mission: Impossible film took place in numerous locales, including the U.K., Italy, and Abu Dhabi. The opening moments of the trailer emphasize the globe-trotting nature of the movie as we see horses racing through a desert, a car hurtling through a European street, and a bike being ridden through some beautiful, likely British, countryside. We also see Ethan Hunt getting physical with some goons at the kind of super-cool nightclub that has never actually existed outside of the movies.

The return of Kittridge

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

The first half of the trailer features the voice of none other than actor Henry Czerny who played the character of Impossible Mission Force director Eugene Kittridge way back in Brian De Palma's original 1996 Mission: Impossible and has now returned to seemingly dissuade Hunt from his impossible mission-completing ways. "Your days of fighting for the so-called greater good are over," Kittridge says. "This is our chance to control the truth, the concepts of right and wrong for everyone for centuries to come. You're fighting to save an ideal that doesn't exist, never did. You need to pick a side."

Introducing the big bad

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

While Kittridge intones, we are introduced to some of the cast who are joining the franchise this time around including Esai Morales, who appears to be playing the film's villain (or one of them, anyway). Nicholas Hoult was originally cast in the role portrayed by Morales but, in March 2020, Variety reported that he was leaving the project because the movie's COVID-caused delays had caused a scheduling conflict for the Fury Road actor. Morales' previous credits include NYPD Blue and Ozark.

Look, it's Hayley Atwell!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

The first half of the trailer also introduces, briefly, the characters played by Guardians of the Galaxy franchise star Pom Klementieff and her fellow Marvel star Hayley Atwell. Little is known at present about who either actress is playing but on the Light the Fuse podcast McQuarrie described Atwell's character as "a destructive force of nature." Later on in the trailer, we see another M:I newbie, Shea Whigham, from Boardwalk Empire and The Wolf of Wall Street. In an interview with the Radio Times earlier in the year, Whigham revealed that he is playing a character called Jasper Briggs, who is on the hunt for Hunt, and that he will also appear in the film's sequel. "You'll see over the course of seven and eight why I'm trying to track Ethan Hunt," he said. "It's one of the best things I've ever got a chance to be a part of."

Cruise close-up

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

We finally get a good look at our hero, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt, who really doesn't seem to be taking Kittridge's lecture well. Then again, Hunt has good reason to be suspicious of people who present themselves as colleagues, with Henry Cavill's August Walker in 2018's Mission: Impossible – Fallout just being the most recent example of a character not to be trusted (although that mustache really should have tipped-off Ethan from the start).

The gang's all here!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

In the course of the franchise, Hunt has gathered a band of collaborators seen here. Simon Pegg first played Benji Dunn in 2006's Mission: Impossible III; Rhames' Luther was introduced in the very first film; and Rebecca Ferguson's MI6 agent Ilsa Faust arrived in 2015's Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation.

Training-day

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

One of the film's major action set-pieces takes place on a train, which can be taken as both a homage to Brian De Palma's original film and a reminder that there aren't many means of transportation that have not now featured in the franchise.

Leap of faith

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Paramount Pictures

The trailer saves its most spectacular sight for the last moment as we see Cruise's character ride a motorbike off a cliff. At last August's CinemaCon, Paramount showed footage of Cruise working with stuntmen to prepare to fly off the bike in mid-air and parachute to the ground. Writer-director McQuarrie called it not only the biggest stunt in the movie, but "by far the most dangerous stunt we've ever done."

Watch the trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One below.

Related content: