Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One review: Tom Cruise’s death-defying stunts will take your breath away

★★★★★

SAVING cinema seemed like an impossible mission. Unless, that is, Tom Cruise chose to accept it.

The fearless actor has, once again, created such an incredible big screen blockbuster that audiences will simply have to pay for a ticket to see it.

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After the success of the superb Top Gun: Maverick, that finally got bums in cinema seats after lockdown, Cruise has hit the ground running – and jumping/flying/driving/train hopping – again with this action-packed ride.

The seventh – and without a doubt best – in the excellent MI franchise sees Ethan Hunt (Cruise) back with his Impossible Mission Force, including computer hackers Benji (Simon Pegg) and Ving (Luther Stickell), and martial art fighter Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson).

They are to embark on their most dangerous mission yet: finding a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands.

So far, so very Bond, right? In fact, the film starts deep below the Arctic sea, where a submarine full of sweaty Russians watch on a bleeping sonar as they are about to be attacked for a key that’s on board.

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But, no. This is far superior to anything Danial Craig and his crew have done in the last decade.

The gadgets are better, the storyline sleeker and the stunts... Well, my God. They are beyond anything seen on the big screen before.

Not only do they take your breath away, they make you hold it until all you can produce is a wispy “whoa”.

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And it’s not only the death-defying Cruise that risks every bone in his body to avoid green screens in this all-authentic action film.

Hayley Atwell, who plays the pick-pocketing Grace, also throws herself into some serious stunts that see her speeding through the streets of Rome and dangling from fallen train carriages.

Power-mad Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby) purrs her way onto screen again, as well as psychotic baddie Gabriel (Esai Morales).

In my role as film critic I have seen cars chase through the streets of Rome in Fast X and fights happening on top of a runaway train in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in the past month. Both happen in this MI.

But they are a bit like watching a cartoon – littered with CGI and AI characters.

Cruise and co. put all that to shame. And for that I’d like to thank them.

Now let’s wait for this film to blow up in five… four... three…

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