Ethan Hunt will return once more! After the phenomenal critical/commercial success of 2018’s Mission: Impossible — Fallout, there was very little doubt that the Tom Cruise-led franchise would sprint back onto the big screen with a seventh movie. And five years later, here we are preparing our minds, bodies, and soul for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the first part of a two-part conclusion to the epic action franchise
Below is a breakdown of everything we know about Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, including its release date, the new and familiar faces set to appear alongside Ethan Hunt in some daring action sequences, and other mysteries that are waiting to be unearthed in what could be the penultimate chapter in the franchise. There’s a lot to uncover, so let’s get things started. Should you choose to accept this mission, of course.
What Is The Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Release Date?
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is set for a July 12, 2023 release, which is right around the corner. The movie, like so many others, was delayed multiple times over the course of the past few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cascade of issues that arose in its wake.
The current, and most likely final, release date was revealed at CinemaCon 2023. This means, Ethan Hunt will be setting off on his next adventure just weeks after the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens up and a little more than a week before Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer brings the Manhattan Project to the big screen.
The Mission: Impossible 7 Cast Includes Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell And Rebecca Ferguson
Naturally, Tom Cruise is on board to produce and star in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, reprising his long-labored role as Ethan Hunt. And just like in the previous six entries in the franchise, Cruise will be joined by some top-notch talent on screen. This includes Rebecca Ferguson, who will once again be taking on the role of former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, Ving Rhames, as Hunt’s longtime best friend and most-trusted ally Luther Stickell, and Simon Pegg as IMF tech agent Benji Dunn. Other actors from previous Mission: Impossible movies set to return for Dead Reckoning Part One include Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsoplis, aka the White Widow, and Henry Czerny, who will play former IMF director Eugene Kittridge for the first time since the 1996 franchise starter.
The Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One cast will also feature quite a few new faces, with the most notable being Hayley Atwell, who is taking on the role of a mysterious character named Grace. Other new additions include Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Rob Delaney, Cary Elwes, and Esai Morales as the film’s villain, Gabriel.
The Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Trailers Are Full Of Iconic Characters, New Faces And High-Stakes Action
In May 2022, the world finally got a glimpse of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One when Paramount Pictures released the first (and for now, only) trailer for the upcoming movie. As would be expected, the two-minute teaser trailer was heavy on intense chase sequences (cars, horses, you name it), explosions, and of course, Tom Cruise running like it's 2018 all over again.
The trailer also has a great deal of intrigue, especially when it comes to Hayley Atwell’s character and the return of Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge. In May 2023, a little less than two months after the movie was set to premiere, Paramount Pictures offered up an even more detailed trailer showcasing those returning characters, new faces, and high-stakes action.
With car chases, shootouts, espionage, and Ethan Hunt riding a motorcycle off the side of the mountain, this could very well be the most action-packed entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise yet.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Follows Ethan Hunt As He Tracks Down A New Weapon That Could Wipe Out Humanity
The Mission: Impossible franchise has seen its share of dangerous villains with sights on weapons (or weaponized viruses) that could bring an end to the natural order, and it appears as the seventh installment won’t be any different in that regard. When releasing the May 2023 trailer, Paramount Pictures revealed that Dead Reckoning Part One will follow Ethan Hunt and his IMF team as they try to prevent a terrifying weapon from getting into the wrong hands.
The identity of those wrong “hands” was not revealed by Paramount, but with the villains and shadowy characters set to appear in the movie, there could be a lot of people after the device and world destruction.
Christopher McQuarrie Is Directing Mission: Impossible 7
While the Mission: Impossible franchise once relied on an exquisite corpse approach, with each installment being helmed by a different very renowned director (Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird), Christopher McQuarrie has taken over these filmmaking duties ever since Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. Similar to how David Yates took over the Harry Potter franchise after the fifth feature film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it would appear that Mission: Impossible and actor/producer Tom Cruise are perfectly content with McQuarrie handling the reins. And, it's hard to argue with the results. By many people's estimations, both Rogue Nation and Fallout are two of the best Mission: Impossible movies we have gotten to date.
Therefore, it makes sense that Christopher McQuarrie is on board for the two-part Dead Reckoning. He has established a long-standing working relationship with Tom Cruise, including 2012's Jack Reacher, and they've got a good collaboration going. There's no sense in breaking things up now. Hopefully, though, the pressure of making two Mission: Impossible movies at the same time isn't too much. At one point, McQuarrie said that he would "rather have leprosy" than direct Mission: Impossible 7. Clearly, something changed if he decided to make not only one additional Mission: Impossible movie, but two more, and both at the same time. That's quite a big change of pace, but that's how it goes with M:I.
Ethan Hunt’s Past Will Play A Major Role In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
With the return of characters like Alanna Mitsopolis, the daughter of Mission: Impossible 1 villain Max (Vanessa Redgrave), and Eugene Kittridge, it should come as no surprise that Ethan Hunt’s past (both failures and successes) would come back to haunt the IMF agent in the upcoming Dead Reckoning Part One. This is something that writer-director Christopher McQuarrie pointed out in a November 2022 interview with Empire Magazine, where he also shed light on the significance of the movie’s title:
There are many things emerging from Ethan’s past. ‘Dead reckoning’ is a navigational term. It means you’re picking a course based solely on your last known position and that becomes quite the metaphor not only for Ethan, but several characters.
We will have to wait and see how the term “dead reckoning” plays into Hunt’s story (as well as for other characters), but considering the scope and scale of the two-part adventure, it’s probably going to be epic as all hell.
Mission: Impossible 7 Will Not Be The Last Mission: Impossible Movie
As it was announced shortly after Paramount gave the greenlight for a seventh Mission: Impossible feature, there will also be an eighth movie on the way, and it's set to be released on June 28, 2024, according to Variety. Clearly, that's a very short window between seven and eight, and the reason why is because the studio is making these newest sequels back-to-back, working on two Mission: Impossible films simultaneously. As if there isn't enough stress in making one Mission: Impossible movie. Alas, this series has always striven for the... you know.
But whether or not Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is the final installment in the franchise has not yet been confirmed.
There is still a lot that we do know about Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, but considering how the franchise has very rarely let us down, there’s a good chance all of this waiting won’t be for nothing. While we wait for one of the most anticipated releases of the summer, take a look at the 2023 movie schedule so you’re all caught up before the blockbusters start rolling out week after week.
