On the eve of the release of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, Paramount has released the first trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, the seventh film in the spy thriller franchise. With each film, the death-defying stunts get bigger and better. And as the footage shows, Ethan Hunt is going all out this time.
The first trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie) doesn’t have much dialogue (and doesn’t reveal much of the plot either). Instead, it lets the action sequences and the beautiful imagery do the talking. We also get to see some of the film franchise’s biggest names return, including Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson. Hayley Atwell, Rob Delaney and Indira Varma are among those joining existing cast members.
The little dialogue present in the two-minute promotional spot is left for Eugene Kittridge, the former director of IMF.
“Your days of fighting for the so-called ‘Greater Good’ are over,” Henry Czerny’s Czerny says to Cruise in the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning trailer. “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. It never did. You need to pick a side.”
We then see a series of shots showing Ethan Hunt doing what he does best: running, fighting and doing impressive stunts. He is also on horseback in the desert, smashing through Rome in a BMW, racing through a town in a bright yellow Fiat 500, and running through a candle-lit cathedral.
Running. Lots of running.
In a 2021 interview, Tom Cruise mentioned that he performed his most dangerous stunt yet for the film. “This is far and away the most dangerous thing I’ve attempted,” adding that the stunt is something he’s “wanted to do since [he] was a little kid.” You can catch some of it at the end of the trailer when we see a motorcycle racing towards a high cliff edge in Norway.
Christopher McQuarrie also directed Rogue Nation in 2015 and Fallout in 2018. So Mission: Impossible 7 should be in good hands. Part One (coming July 14, 2023) will be followed by Part 2 in 2024.
