Director Christopher McQuarrie and hard-working star Tom Cruise have made a roller-coaster ride of a movie with a hard-driving, pulsing score by Lorne Balfe (with variations of compooser Lalo Schifrin’s theme song) and expert editing by Eddie Hamilton. If you’ve forgiven the Tom Cruise-star vehicle for throwing TOS central character, Jim Phelps, under the bus, this action flick is best seen in IMAX or 4DX. You’ll want the great sound system and the big screen (and hopefully focused attention) to fully enjoy this explosive flick.

This is the seventh film and by the title, you already know that the ending isn’t the final resolution of this story because there will be a Part Two. If you need to get up to speed, here’s a summary of 1-6.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Directed by Brian De Palma (with a screenplay by David Kopek and Robert Towne), the film stars in Kiev with Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and his Impossible Missions Force (IMF) sent to stop a rogue agent named Alexander Golitsyn (Marcel Iureş )from stealing the CIA Non-Official Cover (NOC or operatives without official government ties who assume covert roles in a variety of organizations) list. Golitsyn and every member of the IMF team is killed except for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). Debriefed by IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), Hunt realizes that the operation was meant to lure out an IMF mole and that Golitsyn was only posing as a rogue agent. The mole is thought to be working with arms dealer Max (Vanessa Redgrave) as part of Job 314.  Hunt realizes that “Job 314” is actually the Bible verse Job 3:14, an a hint to the mole. The mole turns out to be Phelps, his wife (Emmanuelle Béart) and some of his associates.

This film introduces Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, an IMF agent who is a skilled computer hacker.

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

A biogenetic scientist Dr. Vladimir Nekhorvich contacts Ethan Hunt under his cover name to warn that his company, Biocyte Pharmaceuticals, is forming him to develop a biological weapon, the Chimera virus (a virus that has genetic material from two or more distinct viruses),  in order to profit from the cure Bellerophon. Bellerophon is the name of a Greek hero and slayers of monsters who was the son of Poseidon and Eurynome.

Ethan Hunt’s team includes Luther Stockwell and Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton) , a professional thief brought on to assist Ethan in tracing Ambrose, the rogue IMF agent who has the antidote, Bellerophon (Dougray Scott). John Woo directs.

Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)

This was JJ Abrams directorial debut and Abrams co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Ethan Hunt is ready to settle down. He’s retired from IMF fieldwork, opting to train recruits instead. His fiancée, nurse Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan), is unaware of his real job and likely his real identity. IMF Assistant Director of Operations John Musgrave (Billy Crudup)asks Hunt to help rescue one of his proteges: Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell). Farris dies but she left him a microdot with data about a biological hazard, code name “Rabbit’s Foot.”  Ethan marries Julia and she soon become a pawn, kidnaped, but Hunt saves her. The film ends with Hunt being forced to tell Julia about his IMF affiliations, but in the end, he leaves for his honeymoon. Ving Rhames returns as Luther Stickell.  Simon Pegg’s character, Benjamin “Benji” Dunn, is introduced as an IMF agent and technician. The case includes Maggie Q as IMF agent Zhen Lei.

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)

The “Ghost Protocol” is the president initiating a policy of disavowing the entire IMF. Hunt was freed from a Moscow prison, but when his team infiltrates the Kremlin to gain information on a person codenamed “Cobalt,” the Kremlin is bombed with Hunt being blamed for the destruction. Cobalt is strategist Kurt Hendricks who used the bombing as a distraction for his theft of a Russian launch control device.

Jeremy Renner appears as William Brandt, the IMF Secretary’s aide and an intelligence analyst, who at one points believes he failed to protect Julia, Hunt’s wife. Julia’s death was faked so she could change her identity and be protected while Hunt was in prison. At the end, Hunt’s warned about the rise of new terrorist network called The Syndicate. Simon Pegg is part of Hunt’s team. Ving Rhames has a cameo.

Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015)

The Rogue Nation isn’t Ethan Hunt who is known for going rogue, but the Syndicate which is a secret consortium of rogue field operatives from various intelligence agencies. Now IMF agent Ethan Hunt is tracking them, but at a London IMF station, he’s exposed to gas. Before he falls unconscious, he sees a man kill the station operative. When he awakes, he’s in the torture chamber of an ex-KGB agent known as the Bone Doctor (Jens Hultén), but, he escapes.

Back in Washington, DC, CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) convinces the Senate to decommission the IMF and assimilate them into the CIA. Benjamin Dunn (Simon Pegg) and William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) begin working there under the watchful eye of Hunley. Hunt gets in contact with Benji. Genji ends up with tickets to the opera “Turandot” at the Vienna State Opera. There, they discover undercover M16 Agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) as the Austrian Chancellor is assassinated. Brandt convinces Luther Stickell to help locate Ethan. Ethan and Benji find Faust in Casablanca.

Eventually, Hunley, Brandt and M16 Director Atlee (Simon McBurney) learn the Syndicate was a secret project to recruit former intelligence agents for missions without oversight. The PM rejected the proposal. But Atlee is really Hunt in disguise and the real Atlee started the Syndicate without authorization. The Syndicate was taken over by ex-M16 Agent Soloman Lane (Sean Harris). Lane wants to fund the Syndicate with a files that give access to accounts, but Hunt destroys the data, saves Benji while working with Faust. With this successful mission, Hunley asked the US Senate to restore the IMF. Hunley is the new IMF Secretary.

Christopher McQuarrie wrote and directed. Story by Drew Pearce (“Iron Man 3” and “Hobbs & Shaw”) and McQuarrie.

Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018)

In this film, Hunt and his IMF team which includes Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), M16 Ilsa Ferguson (Rebecca Ferguson) try to prevent nuclear weapon technology from reaching a bioterrorism group, the Apostles, and offshoot of the Syndicate. Solomon Lane is eventually turned over to M16 while Faust is exonerated from false accusations.

Hunt’s ex-wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) and her husband Erik (Wes Bentley) are threatened. Alan Hunley, former Director of the CIA who was the new IMF Secretary is killed by assassin August Walker/John Lark (Henry Cavill).  Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) is the new Director of the CIA. The daughter of Max, the arms dealer, who Hunt arrested in the first film, appears as Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby) was the broker for a plutonium deal.

Written and directed by McQuarrie.

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One

I don’t know if this is a good time to have a film about submarines exploding while submerged considering the recent high-profile implosion. Deep under water in the Bering Strait on a Russian submarine testing a top secret weapon is where the film starts. The secret weapon, an active learning defense system,  which requires an interlocking two-part key makes the submarine invisible, but the secret systems detect an enemy submarine attacking. Yet the enemy torpedo doesn’t hit. In their defense, the Russians deploy their own torpedoes, but the enemy doesn’t exist and the torpedoes still do. The bodies of the crew are intact (which would seem to defy all the explanations about submarines imploding) and float to the top, trapped suspended below the ice with no carnivores in sight.

Written by Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen (“Killing Lincoln” and “Ithaca”) and directed by McQuarrie, this script veers into science fiction. Our fears of artificial intelligence, a program that is self-learning and potentially able to infiltrate and control systems worldwide had been developed by the Russians. This is a godless, immoral enemy, “an enemy that is everywhere and no where.”

The keys have come on the black market. Ethan Hunt’s mission is to get them both. He is warned “We cannot change the past,” but the US government forgave his past but “rogue behavior will not be tolerated.” Hunt must find his old friend, Ilsa Faust, a former M15 agent (“Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” and “Mission: Impossible — Fallout”) who is in  the Arabian near Yemen, hiding out in abandoned buildings. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny)  reminds Hunt of his relationship with Faust: “That’s the pattern, isn’t it? You get her out of trouble and she finds her way back in.” The Mission: Impossible pattern is we get to see guns and people rushing, this time on beautiful horses under the hot sun and deceptive desert sands.

With one key, Hunt and his team which includes IMF computer technician Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and IMF technical field agent Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) arrange to pass it to a buyer who will presumably lead them to the second key which may or may not be in Venice. The key exchange takes place at an airport (Abu Dhabi International Airport’s new Midfield Terminal in the capital of the United Arab Emirates), but Hunt and his team aren’t the only ones looking for the seller and someone’s on the hunt for Hunt. Aided by high tech facial identification software and with his team using that very software to provide people with fake visual identification, Hunt discovers that a pickpocket (Hayley Atwell) who calls herself Grace has taken the key. At the same time, Benji learns there’s a nuclear bomb in baggage. After locating the bag and the bomb, Benji must answer riddles in order to defuse the bomb. In doing so, he distracts Hunt and Grace disappears. There are other riddles that need to be answered. Who are all these teams working for and who is the disappearing man? What do these keys open and where is it located.

Hunt tracks Grace to Italy. There’s a crazy and often humorous car chase scene that juxtaposes big cars with ancient streets, high tech gadgets and small confined spaces and the tricky maneuvering while handcuffed. Filming locations included the Roman neighborhood of Monti (also seen in “Spectre” with the Daniel Craig James Bond), Bernini’s fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps, near the Roman Forum (near the statue of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor) and the Piazza Venezia. Hunt was previously in Rome for the 2006 “Mission: Impossible 3.”

From there, Hunt, Grace and the IMF team end up in Venice (Palazzo Ducal), Rio di San Zan Degola, Ponte Conzafelzi) where Hunt meets with an old frenemy, Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby), the black-market arms dealer known as “White Widow” and his new enemy, Gabriel (Esai Morales)–the invisible man from the airport. Gabriel also has a team, but it’s his boss that is the most elusive and most threatening presence.

Because this is a two-parter, expect a cliff hanger that includes an actual cliff, a train (and fighting inside and outside the train) and an unexpected alliance and a betrayal.

“Mission: Impossible –Dead Reckoning Part One” premiered on the Spanish Steps in Rome on 19 June 2023. Paramount will be releasing the film in theaters only on 12 July 2022. “Part Two” is scheduled to be release on 28 June 2024.