Charles Meriitt finds the latest in the Mission Impossible franchise doesn’t disappoint and finds some fascinating discussion starters too
The Film: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (Part One)
Rating: 12A
Watch if you liked: M:I, M:I 2, M:I 3, M:I Ghost Protocol, M:I Rogue Nation, M:I Fallout
Running time: 163 minutes
Genre: Thriller, Action
Overview: Ethan Hunt’s mission, if he chooses to accept it, is to once again go off mission and save the world by preventing all the world’s governments and a few private parties from gaining access to an artificial intelligence that’s gone rogue
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What you liked:
Wow. The train sequence in this movie had me laughing out loud at how good it was. It was phenomenal. Edge of your seat stuff.
Oh yeah. And everything before it was brilliant too.
Hunt’s team are all back as well as some familiar faces from the past few films (and even earlier films). Hayley Atwell is an amazing cat burglar but a reluctant newcomer to the team and brings a lot to the role - both comedically and emotionally. Pom Klementieff also stands out among the new cast members as sidekick to the villain - with incredible action set pieces and a maniacal car chase.
The movie tackles a big topic, one that feels only too real and, weirdly for a movie like this, not as far fetched as perhaps we’d like it to be. More of that later.
What you didn’t like:
There’s an emotional moment that doesn’t feel too emotional. Maybe it’s because I haven’t watched the previous films recently enough to hold weight to the moment or maybe because the relationship didn’t ever really click for me. It happens and then we move on pretty quickly - which is a shame, but I can’t say much more without giving away a big spoiler.
Thoughts for parents:
There’s violence. Of course there is. But on the most part, I think it’s pretty tame - I’d probably agree with the age rating. It’s a fun one for the family if you have kids 11 and above and don’t mind a bit of tension and fighting.
Faith:
There’s a moment in which a character states to another something along the lines of ‘We could know what is right and wrong. We’d have control of the truth.’ It wasn’t exactly this but, without going to see it again and awkwardly writing down the dialogue verbatim, it’ll do for this next bit.
The AI enemy at the heart of this film is fascinating. Despite claims from tech companies that what happens in movies in regards to artificial intelligence isn’t ever likely to occur, I don’t know whether I can trust them…
And trust is a major part of this film. Who do you trust? If someone sends you a message, how do you know it’s actually that person messaging you?
At what point can technology accurately predict the next 24 hours? Mining from an endless source of data: text messages, internet history, photos and videos, app usage etc. How easy would it be for technology to manipulate you into doing its bidding?
Oh wait. Isn’t that already happening?! Aren’t we all slowly becoming slaves to our phones? Checking them for new notifications. Refreshing pages to see what latest crazy tweet Elon Musk has sent now.
I don’t want to come across as though I’m a major conspiracist (I promise I’m not) but I can’t help but feel slightly cautious about where we’re heading and how this sort of stuff might end up changing the world as we know it.
Who controls the truth has power. We’ve seen that in history and we see it in the news today.
But we of course have to remember who the Truth is. Jesus.
Sometimes we inflate our egos and decide that we know what the real truth is. Sometimes we make an even bigger claim to fully understand the Truth. I don’t think we’ll ever fully understand Jesus - not until eternity anyway. But we can trust our relationship with the Truth - we can trust that the Truth will never let us down, even if we don’t always obey by it.
