Tom Cruise Returns as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt in the Thrilling Trailer.

Audiences have heaped praise on Tom Cruise and the action in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, but it has some issues.
The highly anticipated action movie sequel, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, has now started test screening, with Paramount higher up revealing that audiences have been heaping praise on Tom Cruise and the action sequences, but felt that the movie is too long. During a recent panel at the 2023 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, & Telecom Conference, the President of Paramount Global, Bob Bakish, revealed what the feedback has been so far for the seventh outing in the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise.

“I haven’t seen all of ‘MI:7,’ but I’ve seen a bunch of it. We actually just did the first test screening for an audience last week, and the audience lost their mind. And it’s still too long, they’ve got to cut it. But the movie is insane. It’s like a complete thrill ride. And Tom, he’s very good.”

So, while it sounds like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has a lot going for it, including Cruise’s performance and his dedication to the death-defying stunts, the sequel “still” has the problem of being far too long. According to test screen audiences, anyway. No doubt there will be those who could watch Cruise leap out of planes and jump off trains until the end of time.

There is still plenty of time for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise to put the finishing touches on the follow-up, with the pair likely to be sitting in the editing room with their team for the next few months.

Plot details for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One are currently being kept under wraps, but we can no doubt safely assumed that it will involve Tom Cruise’s unstoppable IMF Agent Ethan Hunt running and jumping from ever-increasing heights to save the world once again. One thing we do know about Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is that it will be the first part of the conclusive chapter for Ethan Hunt, with next year’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two expected to bring this era of the franchise to an end.

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One finds the likes of Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Frederick Schmidt, reprising their roles from various installments in the Mission: Impossible franchise. The sequel will also see Henry Czerny reprise the role of Eugene Kittridge, the former director of the IMF who was last seen in the very first Mission: Impossible way back in 1996.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will throw a bunch of new faces into the action, including Marvel stars Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff, as well as Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss, and Cary Elwes.

"It wouldn't be Mission: Impossible if there was not some formal event that our characters had to attend. They're walking into an event not knowing what it is they're walking into and it's compounded by the fact that there's a great deal of uncertainty. Ethan is involved in something that he himself does not fully understand."

The movie will bring back many faces from the franchise to aid Ethan on this mission. Along with Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust he’s accompanied by Ving Rhames' Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn, Vanessa Kirby as arms dealer White Widow, Henry Czerny as former IMF director Kittridge, and Hayley Atwell. The franchise has some new cast members that include Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Esai Morales, who per the director is “one of the antagonists” of the upcoming feature.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is scheduled for release in the United States on July 14, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. A further sequel, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, is set to be released on June 28, 2024.