The Big Picture - ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ Is Here, and It’s Spectacular

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

Sean and Amanda dive into one of their most anticipated movies in years, the return of Ethan Hunt and the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit Superstore.ca to get started. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about our latest impossible mission. I'm Amanda Dobbins. part one, the first Mission Impossible movie in five years. How are you feeling, Amanda? Can I give the listeners at home an insight into your mindset? Sure. Which is, I'm just honestly going to read some of the text messages that you sent me and Chris Ryan at 9 p.m. last night as you sat through what seems like the trailer for every single movie that could possibly exist before seeing Mission

Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 for a second time. So you were thrilled. And here are some of the things. You sent some questionable CR heads texts that I really don't want to get into. You sent a highlight reel or some behind-the-scenes movement about Tom Cruise explaining magic, which we'll get into. Napoleon trailer in IMAX. We're back. Even a haunting in Venice looks good from here. Kelly Riley throwing heat. I'm not done.

And then here's the best, because they're showing every trailer. Here's the best one that you sent to Chris. Other than Robert Downey Jr., what Oppenheimer supporting player are you most excited about? This is like the level of texting that Sean is doing from his IMAX seat on a Tuesday night. We are so back! We're really fucking back! Like, here we are, you know? So get on the train.

I am on the train with you. Yeah, literally, figuratively, you're fighting on a train like Ethan Hunt. Even though I have only gotten to see this movie once. I've seen it twice. I'm going to go this weekend. But we are back. We, the movies are back. And we, Sean and Amanda and Bobby, purveyors of Mission Impossible insanity, are absolutely back.

In this discussion, we will have a non-spoiler, probably fairly brief segment in which we talk about whether or not we like this movie. And then after that, there's so many details. There's so many convolutions, so many complications. Folks, here's the thing. We are going to demarcate when spoilers start. If you haven't seen the movie and you don't want spoilers, stop listening then. I don't want to hear it. I really don't.

You guys have to take some responsibility. Who are you speaking to? To all of the people who whine online afterwards. Like, hey, you spoiled this. Guys, listen. Let's not strawman the audience. Let's just assume that they know, that they know, right? Because I don't want to.

Robert creates wonderful spoiler warnings. Yeah, but I don't want, this is a special time. Am I Robert now? Yes. Now that Oppenheimer's coming out? As we have an intelligence community discussion, today you are Robert Wagner. We're really back. And I want everyone to be back.

And I don't want to spoil everyone's time. But I also want to say to everyone, you too can be a part of managing your experience. You know? I agree. I think we were recording this on a Wednesday. The film opened on a Tuesday night. It's already made north of $10 million in the United States of America, which is wonderful.

It seems on track for an extraordinary performance, which is what we hope and dream for. Not necessarily for all Tom Cruise projects, but we love the Mission Impossible movies. And this is a reunion of the Christopher McQuarrie-Tom Cruise industrial complex. They, of course, have worked together many, many times. This is McQuarrie's ninth collaboration with Cruise. This is his third Mission Impossible film as writer-director. He's a co-writer of this movie with Eric Jenderson. And it's a really high bar because Fallout, I think, was, for you and I as friends, I think, one of our signature movie-going experiences. Yes.

We both, frankly, all three of us have always been huge fans of this series. And I have been greatly anticipating it, but having just revisited all six movies that came before this, they're not all perfect. No. They are actually quite flawed in certain places. Even my favorites have flaws.

And so we will take a critical eye, I think, to this new movie. While also, it's pretty easy for me to say, this is about as much fun as i had in a movie in 2023 they all have flaws but also fallout to me is a masterpiece okay so and i prepared for seeing dead reckoning by re-watching i started with ghost protocol which is still the best of the titles in my opinion okay um and then i did activated ghost protocol yeah i mean come on it's amazing and then i did all the mccory mean come on it's amazing and then i did all

the mccory's and i finished with re-watching fallout which i've seen several times since it came out the night before i went to see dead reckoning so i was in like a really prime let's jump out of planes let's ride motorcycles through european cities like let's you know punch people on cliffs let's fucking do it place and I I was like emotionally ready and I think that I had an amazing time while also thinking like it is really hard to live up to fallout in my opinion interesting so I think I think many people are saying that yeah they. Certainly Fallout was a very high bar. No one thought that that was going to be the conclusive chapter of the story. But this is an unusual movie franchise in that it kind of feels like it's getting stronger as it goes along.

Whether the movies are getting better is debatable. But these movies have always been kind of mid-tier action franchises. These are not Harry Potter, Transformers, Marvel. This has always been a sturdy action franchise. But as the world of movies has slowly deteriorated around it, and Tom Cruise and McQuarrie's incredible success with Top Gun Maverick has created a huge sense of anticipation. So we'll talk about whether or not it meets the anticipation or not. But this is a direct sequel. These movies are now clearly carrying many characters over from movie to movie.

They've created an even a deeper mythology, I would say, without it necessarily being having the same ickiness of like, did you watch all 19 movies to get every reference that I think some of our more less successful, thornier franchise entertainments have, you know, like watching this movie a second time, I really enjoyed the

illusions and small nods to fans, especially of the first film. This film feels very much in conversation with the first Mission Impossible movie.

But if you miss those things, it doesn't really matter. It's not really that big of a deal. They're very, they're small connecting pieces with the exception of

the return of the Eugene Kittredge character. I would say he's really the only person who like, you kind of want to know who that is. It's helpful if you know who that is

when you're watching this movie. Otherwise, you know, it's a thrill ride. You know, it's a pop entertainment and even with all of its load-bearing mythology,

it doesn't really matter that much. Did you sense that? That they were like, okay, we're seven in now. We're carrying a lot of weight with this franchise. Well, there are a lot of people, you know, that they are trying to fit into one frame.

So I think I noticed it just in the deployment of characters and movie stars and who gets how much screen time. And also the fact that they are even trying to bring in new people and new characters in this um installment and so you you like you know i was running numbers a bit in my head and and there was one point in this movie where i was like where is tom cruise so i was conscious less of the less of it being you know some like mission impossible universe what's the Easter egg, blah, blah, blah. And more of this is just very expansive at this point. I could feel the seven, like a tiny bit.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing because the other thing that the seven earns you, as you said, Sean, is just absolutely insane set pieces. And they are doubling down and doubling down, or I guess like doubling up in the case of, you know, certain stunts. And that's really fun.

And that is at this point why you go see these movies to see Tom Cruise do crazy things. So in that sense, it really, like they do all stand alone because it's just like, oh, what's Tom going to do this time? Yeah, I have an interesting relationship to that. And I think we'll talk about it and how much that matters to me now versus what else I'm getting from these movies. I do think that because this is a part one, we have a part two coming. It feels like part two has the potential to be even more outlandish, absurd in terms of the death-defying approach to telling the story that they take.

And then it's possible that these movies might need a little bit of a reset yeah but we can get to that when we get there bob what do you think of the movie i had a great time you know there are very few things that tickle this specific part of my brain the silliness of the the spy elements of these movies where they're just ripping off masks i i don't i don't think this is a spoiler there in this movie. A lot of masks in all of these movies. But also just like the safety's off feeling of the way that Tom Cruise approaches, Tom Cruise and his creative partner in these Christopher McQuarrie approach these movies. It's just like, who else is gonna do this?

Who else is gonna try this? It's just gonna be Tom. He's gonna be the only one to do it. And we all have our relationships out on Front Street with Tom Cruise. We laid that out in Maverick last summer. I just think that if you don't try to overanalyze it, if you don't try to over-literalize the movie all of the time, then it's just there are very few things in the movie world right now

that are executing as well on what they're trying to do as the Mission Impossible movies. And I don't think this movie is any exception. I have very bad news for you, which is that I am here to overanalyze and over-literalize every aspect of this movie. But that's part two. Bobby and I got to see this movie together, which was a delight. This is true. And again, we had the perfect experience. This is what you want to do.

You want to go with a friend who is also psyched about this and you want to like be elbowing each other at all of like their crucial points and just being like oh my god he's about to do this and i i was like very tense through probably the last 30 to 45 minutes of this movie which is a real testament to this movie and i like don't think i actually grabbed you at any point bob Bobby, but I was looking at you. It was a fun communal experience. We were egging each other on. Also, we saw it just in an absolutely beautiful theater, which I would like to see every movie there.

Best movie seats that I've- Thank you to Paramount Pictures. Yeah, thank you to Paramount Pictures for that only. It was quite nice, wasn't it, Bobby? It was quite nice. I don't often shill for brands, but when I do, it's the Dolby Rooms. Yeah, it's really, that's a good point. No, it's a blast.

It's an absolute blast. I really loved it a lot. Whether or not it reaches the heights of the highest highs of this series is probably something we will talk about next week when we dig into the movie a little bit more and we rank all these movies. But today we're going to focus

just on Dead Reckoning Part 1. So just to, I'll kind of give the rough outline of the plot and we're kind of nearing closer and closer, I think, to spoiler territory because it's, you know, you'd like to see this movie fresh. I think you don't want to have too much of it spoiled for you other than just getting the, we liked it. It was sick. I think that's the review that most casual fans of the franchise are looking for. Fair to say? Yeah, grab some friends and go see this movie. Grab some big picture listeners. I don't know, guys.

I would love that. Just like do it, you know. Let's go. Get psyched. Do you think that big picture listeners are like all friends IRL and then all going to the movies together? That would be nice. I have a fear that there are a lot of singles.

Well, then what if people got to meet each other, you know? Well, that's even better. Do you think that there is a big pic relationship and or marriage out there in the ether? If so, let us know. I'm not saying we will acknowledge it. I'm not saying I even want to hear about it. You can certainly tweet at the big pick on Twitter or on threads. Are we on threads?

I don't know if we're on threads. I mean, I activated it. I haven't threaded I see not for me dog no I will not be going anywhere I will sink with the ship

I will stop sharing my thoughts in public I think that's really beautiful very Ethan Hunt of you if you guys go see Mission Impossible together let us know

that's really cute take pictures like just like Tom Cruise and Macquarie in front of the Barbie and Oppenheimer standees why not in this movie Ethan Hunt and his IMF team that stands for impossible mission force in case you forgot are confronted by a mysterious all-powerful foe known as the entity Hunt is

forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission to engage the entity and and and and win Ethan tries to win in this case it, it's a real globe-trotting adventure. We go to a lot of places. And in the Amanda test, I would say this movie passes with flying colors. Would you agree? Unreal. I mean, there is one location that has been used at least once this summer, used quote unquote, because... You can reveal it, I think. Rome? Yes.

Yeah, there is a set piece in Rome and the creators of Mission Impossible were actually in Rome, Italy making it. And you can tell, and it's very exciting. I think it would actually be an amazing double feature to watch fast x before watching this movie because the movies are on paper attempting to do something extremely similar and an execution could not be in a more opposite direction and there are a lot of reasons for that

and in fact i think the core theme thesis of this movie feels sort of related to both what's great about Hollywood storytelling and what is a little bit dire and a little scary about Hollywood storytelling. So I'm excited to unpack that. The movie in general. Hold on. Go ahead. No one should actually watch Fast X before watching this movie. I agree. Like, I just want you.

It's summer. And it'll make you feel even better about Dead Reckoning Part 1. i sean don't you think we we have talked about how people spend their time and honestly we have talked about how you spend your time and watching with intention if if you disagree i've got i'm going the other way people need to watch more movies listen i i saw i saw your letterbox lists um yeah what'd you think they're pretty good and and and also the barbie one is just like my brain you know that was like pretty amazing you should have just i did it in like an hour no i know because it's just all the movies yeah um service journalism if that's what i'm i'm about it the

only good feedback i ever get is thank you so much for recommending that movie to me that's great feedback to get i'm just saying i think that fast x and then Dead Reckoning are a great double feature for a lesson plan for an entire course about summer blockbusters, which is something you're qualified to teach. The Sean Fennessey Institute of Being Good at Watching Movies. Thank you. Well, okay. All right. I'm just also like, I don't know. People are just trying to get through the day, you know?

They are. They don't have that much time. What you're recommending is like almost six hours of blockbusters and i don't know it's like if you're really if you have that much time sure otherwise just skip to dead reckoning is what i'd say as we learned in mission impossible fallout there has never been peace without first a great suffering the greater the suffering the greater the peace that's how i feel about the Fast X MI7 duopoly. Just think about it. I kind of feel like we need to

get into spoiler territory here. What do you think? How many minutes? 15 minutes for people? Yes, we've been going for 16 minutes. What do you think, Bob? Have we reached spoiler time? I think so. I mean, first of all, there's an interesting discussion to be had about whether or not the trailer spoiled too much for this movie.

I think that if you are the type of person that wants a completely pure experience in the movie, right about now is about the time that you should pause and watch the film and then come back. Please come back, though, because we would appreciate that. We're going to have a very passionate discussion here in three, two, one. Spoiler warning. warning okay critical question does Ethan Hunt still have the juice yes

that was a long long pause well I what you wrote in this outline can I just read it of course

it won't be the last time you read my brilliant musings on this film Ethan still have the juice this is. I'm quoting Sean Fantasy here, everyone. This is actually great writing and I will not- What hour of night was this written in? I have no idea.

It's not the writing that's the problem. It could have been 2 a.m. It could have been 4 p.m. Revisiting these movies has made me realize how subtly but smartly Ethan has seemed increasingly vulnerable and non-superheroic as he ages. He forgets things, misses the mark, loses fights. He is not Superman or Iron Man. He's a man. Yes, he's a man.

I mean, like, so is Jesus until he wasn't, you know? That's exactly right. Exactly. But, like, that's where we are. And he's definitely being positioned as Jesus year 33. Did he walk in the desert year 33? I meant to Google that, but he comes back from the desert. He's sad.

He knows people are going to betray him. He has the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. And also knows that he's going to ascend to larger greatness. I have an important question as you've made this messiana comparison. Yeah. Did Jesus Christ ever get throat punched by a blonde female assassin and then live to tell another day? Not in the four canonical gospels.

As I have said before, I have not read all the non-canonical work. A lot of shit happens in them, though, I'm told. Your note is fair. Obviously, what Ethan does is ridiculous. He pulls things off that are unimaginable. And the way that Ethan Hunt is positioned in these last two to three movies, I mean, yes, there are setbacks. He fails at missions or whatever.

He loses a lot. He loses a lot. He constantly loses the things he's pursuing. He loses arguments. He loses hand-to-hand fights. He like, in this movie in particular, I think here's one thing that really recommends this movie to me. I think this is the funniest of the Mission Impossible movies. I think it is a very purposeful, slapsticky execution of the storytelling.

Yes, I agree with that. Much like John Wick 4, which is that's really the movie that you should pair this with if you have six hours. There is some John Wick anxiety in this film for sure. Yes, I agree with that. our best action franchise and action filmmakers that is really cool and exciting and the the buster keaton qualities of the john wick movies last two or three john wick movies are very evident in this totally there are the in a couple of the set pieces they're not straight faced you know they're not they're this the screwball comedy i have been talking about this um for a few weeks it's really i just i love it i wish they would make all movies like that because we were talking about or all action movies like that we were talking about like extraction too which i just found po-faced and you rightly pointed out there is a place for men solemnly punching each

other um thank you for saying i rightly pointed it out that means a great deal there is to you at least um and but this movie has a real sense of lightness especially and and a self-awareness and of being like and now look what he's gonna do which i find really fun however that contrasts a little bit with how ethan hunt the person is positioned in these movies and this film opens with ethan getting quote unquote some food delivery in like a palace somewhere. But then it's, you know, someone, a new recruit to the IMF. And there's a lot of Maverick in it. But it is this very serious and a little bit funny, but I don't know whether Cruise is playing it funny.

It's funny. Of like, here is, you know, the one good man, you know, imparting all the, like the only morals that matter to the world at large.

And he like steps out of the shadows and it's like, here I am. I think that this movie, in addition to those others we talked about, is also in conversation with Top Gun Maverick

because it kind of stands in as a commentary on can Tom Cruise alone save the world, movies, Hollywood, modern entertainment, the theatrical experience. That's obviously something that he and McQuarrie are kind of like leaning directly into. Sometimes if you overplay that hand,

and I would say that that scene is one of the very few scenes in the movie that I couldn't quite understand the movie that I couldn't quite understand the intent. I couldn't quite understand what they wanted Ethan to represent there. There are scenes later in the movie

where he talks about sort of like working with a team and caring about the people that you work with that one, I thought were extremely effective and not to be too much of a cornball,

but I was like, this is emotionally affecting and actually what makes team up movies like this really good when you sense the connectivity and the relationship between the characters.

So there is a bit of a muddle there. I take your point that it's as if Jesus is saying we are all equal and yet only one of us can walk on water. There is that moment

at the end of Fallout and I think also in Rogue Nation, there's always one moment where it's like, Ethan, you are the only person who understands morality and the only person who can save the world and it's because

when you love one person you love everyone or whatever you know it's beautiful yeah thank you so much I like the whatever at the end that was really what topped it off I mean because they do stick out a little bit. There is this moment where it's like,

we need to, like, saint Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt for a moment before, you know, he goes out and kills people or whatever. Well, let's use that as an opportunity to springboard into the conversation about, like, what this movie is actually about, what the villain of the movie is,

how they've constructed this new enemy for this incredibly moral secret super spy agent figure. In the past, we've seen arms dealers and connectors, people who are interested in money. We've seen people who are nuclear theorists, game theorists, who just want to play out the logical endpoint of destruction. We've seen people who just crave world power, who just want to run everything the logical endpoint of destruction. We've seen people who just crave world power, you know, who just want to run everything. We've never seen anything quite like this, but I would say it's quite timely

that Macquarie and Cruise & Co. have landed on what is known as the Entity, which is essentially artificial intelligence. At the opening of this movie, we are set on a Russian submarine in a sequence that is very reminiscent of some 90s thrillers, The Hunt for October, Crimson crimson tide they all came to mind as i was watching this also seven one when bobby and i saw it i was like oh this is it was a week after submersible and i'm like this

is a bit too soon but anyway it is it is relevant very very timely um and in that sequence we see this submarine essentially kind of get tricked by its own systems into believing it is under attack. And then effectively it is rendered inoperable and destroyed by what we learn is the sort of mainframe, the source code of artificial intelligence that exists inside of this submarine called the Sevastopol. And it's an unusual sequence because it doesn't feature any of our core characters. It's not a mission. It's not a kind of like breathtaking, wow, here we go in another spy movie kind of feeling. It's a pretty hard shift, actually, if you go back and look at the other six films. And so it's disorienting.

You know, we know now that this movie is two movies. And we know that there was a complication in the production in part because of COVID-19 and stops and starts and the expense. Thank you. I said the entire name of the strain of the virus. And it would be like Tom Cruise to be like, I have discovered COVID-22 and also defeated it. It's still in play. I would say nevertheless,

we are the gold standard. This sequence, I think kind of goes out of its way to explain and create a sense of fear amongst the audience about what this could be and what this could do. Like, this is the kind of thing that is bigger than Philip Seymour Hoffman just trying to acquire the rabbit's foot in Mission Impossible 3. This is something that can destroy a submarine in a matter of minutes.

It is something that can take over the world very quickly. Now, obviously, in Hollywood, AI is also a matter of minutes. It is something that can take over the world very quickly. Now, obviously, in Hollywood, AI is also a topic of much debate. It is a critical issue in the writer's strike. It's a critical issue in the negotiations with SAG-AFTRA. I don't know what the results of that will be, though. By the end of this week, we could have a strike for the actors. So that doesn't feel like a mistake.

It feels actually quite clear that the creators of the movie are using something that is very much in the culture to try to render Ethan and co. to neuter them, you know, to take away the kind of gadgetry and the technological power that is a signature of this franchise and make them and neutralize them completely now i have like a lot of feelings about the way that they've done this and whether it works or not um i really liked it especially watching it a second time when i felt like i had a better sense of what mcquarry is really trying to say with this movie and these movies don't need to have a good message to matter to me i think how bobby explained it was perfect like it's just you can just turn your brain off and just rock out and love it but in in this case, I loved that as usual with Macquarie, there's always a little something else going on here, but I think there's also a little bit of AI fatigue in the culture too. So what did you think of the way that this movie has been framed with that? My issue is in the execution. I, you know, I don't mind the idea and I like having ideas, but I just, I, it was the actual narrative story was

sort of hogwash. I, you know, and I found it a little confusing. I didn't totally understand what they were fighting. I mean, I, I did, I was like, oh, okay, great. It's, it's a, I mean, I did. I was like, oh, okay, great. I'm so excited to explain it to you on this podcast. No, I get it. But it's both like the highest stakes and almost no stakes at all. And I think they have a bit of trouble maintaining the stakes and maintaining this like all powerful entity, literally, as like a plausible enemy for Ethan Hunt and for, but, and really just for Ethan, because he's going to save the world single-handedly as we previously discussed. And it's like, they kind of have to bend over backwards a few times to be like, well, the enemy already knows what you're going to do, but so then if you don't do it, then it won't know but then it also is so smart that it will know so like it's it just the the point by point you know machinations of it didn't totally add up for me i i like that aspect of

it specifically because it speaks to a very traditional um action movie and spy movie trope which is fate versus choice and that that's ultimately what the question of AI is. It's like, is everything predictive and predictable? And I think part of the reason why it works is it's critical to these kinds of movies because, and I've been hearing Bill say this on the rewatchables a lot. I heard him talk about it on A Time to Kill, where he's like, we know what the tropes of these movies are. Actually, I think AI could do this. I think they could say, I'm not saying it would be good, but they could say, you need to have a scene where this happens,

you need to have a scene where this happens, you need to have a scene where this happens, and that could be modern entertainment. But in these movies specifically, this one in particular feels like an explicit rejection of the algorithm. It's like a screed against computerized content because if you don't have human beings there, you can have

all the component parts in this movie we have a runaway train we have an incredible death-defying motorcycle jump we have hand-to-hand combat we have a critical character death we have ethan hunt triumphing but also still being low we have this ominous world-threatening force all that stuff is in the in the very blood the dna of every mission impossible movie so it's not like this movie is this wowser of originality but the very specific execution of every single thing and the decisions that are made by the human beings that make it is what makes it cool to me is what makes it fun and what makes it better to me and that was why i told fast x because i'm like humans made that too but that felt way more formulaic in a way that hurt it.

It's way, way better than Fast X. I like, Fast X isn't even in the conversation to me about this. The other thing that you, the entity and that fate versus choice and the, you know, what are we going to do?

And even a little bit like the development of Ethan Hunt over these last few movies as this, you know, the only good man and this messianic figure is that it's less silly. And there are really like exhilarating, like ebullient moments in this franchise, but all of the framework is a little more solemn and a little. Of this, you think i i felt so and i felt that all of the other villains and mcguffins are the fate of the world sure but in a slightly bondage like this person needs a list and this person there is that's interesting. And the tone has been shifting as the movies go on and as Cruise and Ethan Hunt pursue this sort of messianic figure

as like the only person who can save the world. But I found some of the narrative wrapping like just a little too serious to allow for the viv wrapping, like just a little too serious to allow for the, you know, vivacious, like kind of absurd, kind of extremely transporting action and just experience that I expect from Mission Impossible movies.

I wonder if that is a testimony to who they use as a kind of stand-ins for the entity. And we should talk about the characters. There are a lot of characters, a lot of new faces and a lot of stand-ins for the entity. And we should talk about the characters. There are a lot of characters, a lot of new faces, and a lot of old faces that are in this movie. To me, Solomon Lane from the previous two films

was as kind of serious and dour a villain as this series has ever had. So I don't think I struggled with that as much. And I think his anarchic vision of the intelligence community and its future, I felt like was bordering on the edge of like okay man we get it like you haven't you know nothing matters like and that itself is kind of like a problematic stakes territory i think that in general these movies if you take a lot of that

stuff too seriously you might start to feel like there are no stakes um so maybe it's just recency bias but just having seen it again the second time i felt like oh this kind of locks in with Like, there are no stakes. So maybe it's just recency bias, but just having seen it again a second time, I felt like, oh, this kind of locks in with where like every villain is. And most of the other villains are pretty bad, honestly. And when you go back and rewatch these movies, the villain in two is bad. Philip Seymour Hoppin is amazing in three,

but I don't really care about that guy. I don't know anything about that guy. We have no idea what it is he wants and why it matters other than he just wants money and barely even that. So anyway, my point is more like this movie at least is using its villain to try to say something more discreet about what's happening in the world, which I liked, but it does have to use two people in Eastside Morales and Pom Clemente to like be these kind of avatars of what the quote unquote

entity wants. And I guess whether or not they work as an interesting question, they use Eastside Morales' character, Gabriel, to kind of retcon the Ethan Hunt story. And what I think is a pretty big swing that didn't totally work for me, this is the one thing that really didn't work for me. Yeah. Which is to say we see these flashbacks early on in the movie where Morales' character is seen killing an agent. I believe it's an agent named Maria, who has some sort of personal and professional relationship to Ethan Hunt. Hunt has been blamed for that death, which then leads to the Impossible Mission Force confronting him and saying,

you're either going to jail or you're joining this secret team and becoming a ghost. Now, I don't think we ever heard that before. I don't think we knew what the origin of Ethan was in that specific way. And so we hear the voice of Henry Czerny, the great actor who plays Kittredge in the first film, almost explaining how he found himself in this position in the first place and being posed with new missions. And Morales' character 30 years later, where he he has been I have no idea what he's been doing I don't know he's clearly been creating some intimate relationship with the entity so that he can then become its avatar he's been doing the tb12 method today baby he he looks very good

Morales is uh I mean he's he's a great actor and I mentioned this to you and Chris I think recently but I had read that this part I think was originally planned to be Nicholas Holt. And that has kind of scrambled my brain a little bit as I watch it. You mentioned it to me and Bobby because Bobby rightly immediately was like, oh, so it would be like a John Wick 4 Pennywise situation. Yes. Which is exactly right. I think that that's a good call. And that might have given this a different flavor.

Phil Skarsgård, I'm sorry. Yes. Well, Pennywise, he played Pennywise. That's fair. It's kind of a clownish villain performance in John Wick 4. I loved it. Yeah. I loved sorry. Yes. Well, Pennywise, he played Pennywise. That's fair. It's kind of a clownish villain performance in John Wick 4. I loved it. Yeah.

I loved it too. It would kind of be beyond homage and just kind of trying to recreate. And that's a challenge that Morales has in the character

where it's sort of like, what are his motivations? Are they merely to be the aid to camp to an all-powerful artificial intelligence? That's kind of a weird character.

I'm not totally sure I understand that. I definitely didn't. But at some point, I sort of turned... I've only seen it once. So, and I am going to try to see it again this weekend. But I kind of turned off trying to understand his motivation, which is maybe a little bit about how I watch these movies. I'm in the Bobby camp of like, at some point,

I'm just like, ride your motorcycle fast, my guy. Yes. Yeah, I mean, and the movie kind of like is very clear to identify the act structure of these movies

because they are dotted specifically with big set piece and then expository emotional conversation about what just happened. Right. Big set piece, the same.

Right. That goes through a typical three act structure. The kind of like, I don't know if the major flaw of this movie, but the thing that doesn three-act structure the the kind of like i don't know if the major flaw of this movie but the thing that doesn't work for me ultimately is sort of like who is gabriel did we have to make gabriel a part of ethan's past to create an emotional lineage to make the entity battle make any sense like the movie kind of hinges on that in some ways and on the other hand i'm not totally sure I needed it because I have these huge relationships

to Ilse Faust, who we'll talk about, who has a huge arc in this movie, to the introduction of Grace, who's played by Hayley Atwell and her relationship to Ethan and to Phineas Freak, Luther, you know, and to Simon Pegg's character and this new world they're creating. So there are a lot of spinning plates going on here in addition to introducing them and Pom Clemente, who is this sort of like classical, you know, like Jaws from the James Bond movies, like the muscle, you know,

she's really like the badass of the movie and she is fucking amazing in this movie. But that is the one thing as I look back on it, it wasn't the AI to me, it was how AI is represented in human form. It was just a tall task. I don't know. Which is sort of what I'm saying with a bit more reference to the plot, which is good.

It was not the idea of the AI taking over. I mean, that's a story that has worked for decades and I think will continue to. But it was just kind of muddled in execution and there was like a lot going on and i didn't understand all of the choices that they made and also frankly it felt like some of the choices that they made were in order to provide two movies worth of story instead of one and i felt the filler i felt the extension um i felt the way that they wanted to bring in more people to populate those like I guess six to seven hours of of film and so they had to make up these back stories and you know I just it felt a little

bloated and also unresolved because that's the other thing it is a part one and we knew that and it um and everyone knows, but it just kind of, I don't know. It's never a good sign when you can't end something. And so you have to create more room. Yeah. I don't know where the decision was made there. What do you think, Bob?

I do agree with Amanda that this film feels emotionally different as it concludes itself than, than the other ones, which is a feeling that I had to adjust to after watching it in comparison to the first six where it's like, okay, it's going to be a new world by the next time we see this character and these characters and this movie franchise.

And that's not the case for this one. It's going to be like right where we left off, I have to assume, because there's a lot of things that are actively in progress at the end of this movie. I think that where the AI story worked for me i i agree with some of what amanda's saying and i definitely agree that the uh isai morales like

emotional backstory to this was like the more underbaked part of the movie it really is just like two flashbacks and then they use that sort of emotional resonance to make uh ethan hunt's character feel bad when he's watching the other people around him lose because he can't, not only does he have to win all the time or does he feel the pressure to win all the time, he's feeling the pressure to help everyone around him also win all of the time. And so I do think that that felt a little bit

shoehorned in there at moments during the movie, but the AI being so world dominating and controlling so much of the tech that has come to dictate how they run these missions, I thought shrunk the movie in an actually enjoyable way because they had to rebuild

different systems that are working on analog. They had to really shrink down the team so that it's just the people that he trusts using technology that he now trusts that the AI can't touch.

And so I thought that that made it at least signal to me that this is the beginning of sort of a reset to this franchise. It's like, we've already gone as big as big gets. And now, conversely, we're going to actually try to boomerang all the way back down to the more, as you said, Sean, the more conversational with Mission Impossible 1 version of a story where it's like, this is just a really small cast

of theatrical characters with each other in this world using their practical brains. And Ethan Hunt is just one of those people who still can do that, you know, still has the wherewithal and the wit and the bravery to kind of do some of these non-gadget related things like jump off of a cliff

and try to land on a moving train. No, it's true. And I think that that itself is a commentary that's baked into the movie, which is that this is a franchise that certainly uses CGI, but that prides itself on doing things practically. So taking the gadgets away is them saying, hey, you really did jump off of that cliff on a motorcycle while wearing a parachute. Yeah.

You know, at the beginning of Mission Impossible impossible 5 he's hanging from a plane he may be harnessed to the plane but he's hanging from the plane yeah and you know many john wick does something very similar john wick uses cgi very elegantly but they also have this incredible hand-to-hand combat choreography you know i'm obviously on the record as preferring that but I like when it can be self-referential and identify that I did want to talk a little bit about the relationship to

the first movie though too because I think that they could have gotten us there in terms of Ethan's origins without necessarily completely tying it to the AI aspect

of the storytelling I think there's like mechanical choices that are made there are a lot of Dutch angles in this movie. The way that the film is kind of constantly trying to disorient you by calling back to what Brian De Palma did in the first film.

And some might say it's a little overkill in the Dutch angles. I enjoyed it. It's very overt trying to remind us of the first movie. But there's a battle on top of a train, just like there is in the first movie. We get references to Alana and her relationship to Max and then Kittredge's relationship to Max, who's portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave in the first movie. We get references to Alana and her relationship to Max and then Kittredge's relationship to Max, who's portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave in the first movie.

We also see them coming together. We see Alana and Kittredge coming together on a train, just as Kittredge and Max did so many years ago. Even the introduction of Grace to the team feels like, you know, the genius of the first movie, right? Is that it's a team movie, but then the whole team dies in the first 20 minutes and then he has to rebuild the team. And then that's where we get Ving Rhames and that's where we get characters going on and on. So I like that the

movie wants to remind people that they've been doing these movies for almost 30 years and that Ethan is still a guy. He's a guy who came from a place. He is messianic in many ways. He also just has an incredibly bad track record of being interested in women and then them, you know, meeting some tough ends, which is why the new backstory is so bizarre because I'm like, there are 15 other women that you could have picked. But what's so, you're right about that, but what's so funny about that is there's that great scene in the nightclub in the second act of the movie where gabriel and grace are talking and he basically explains to grace what you just said which is that he has this awful track record yeah which is also about to continue with the ilsa character but also i mean tom cruise's relationship to his female co-stars

tom cruise's relationship no i know in the world mean, it's so complex. It really it is knowing. Very. And sort of funny. And kind of eerie. Yeah, it's pretty strange. It's the why are there so many Taylor Swift breakup songs of action movie franchises? That's a great call because I really liked that they put that in the movie. Now, I wish that I can't recall if it's Maria or Maria.

I wish that there was that was just deepened. Like, I think the way that you put it, Bob, is right, which is just they shoehorned something in to give you the emotional access point. You couldn't use Michelle Monaghan in that spot. Could you have used Emmanuel Bear? You know, someone like that? Oh my God, so beautiful.

I rewatched that last night. She's beautiful. I'm not sure who you could have used, but obviously many women have died because Ethan tried to make them not die. Right. And as I watched Hayley Atwell in this movie,

I was like, is she going to die at some point? I hope not. I really, I just enjoy her. Speaking of which, shall we talk about

the returning and new characters to the film? Hayley Atwell is the big addition. She plays Grace, who is a professional pickpocket,

con woman, thief, grifter. Absolutely loved her. I would marry Hayley Atwell if I were not already legally married to someone else. I have been just an absolutely giant fan of her for many years, including if you have not seen the remake of Howard's End with Hayley Atwell and Matthew McFadden. Like, go out.

She is incandescent. Anyway, she gets to do some hijinks with Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. And they have chemistry. They do. They have. And it is like a screwball one-upsmanship. Just extremely funny. And they're allowed to have fun with it in both of their set pieces. And I think she's wonderful.

I am concerned about her fate in part two. But, you know, I had a great time with her in this one. I like the way that she is, for the majority of the film, a kind of unwilling participant. And in fact, it's pure cat and mouse between them. And, you know, this creates an opportunity. There's an incredible set piece.

There's not an action scene. There's not even really a chase scene, though. It is sort of a chase scene set in the Abu Dhabi airport. Which upon seeing this movie a second time, I was like,

this is magical movie making because of how much cutting and how much orchestration is needed to pull off a sequence like that and not be confused. That's where we meet Grace. We learn that she is, we haven't discussed the cruciform key, which I'm delighted to discuss with you now. One, I loved the cruciform key as the MacGuffin of this movie. No matter how you feel about AI, AI needing a key, a two-piece key that syncs together with what are called dragon eggs

in the movie to indicate that these are in fact the two pieces that deserve each other. And the idea of- That opens the movie at the bottom of the ocean as well. Brilliant stuff. The key itself is in great demand by the intelligence community of the United States, by world powers, by rebel leaders. Those who know what it is are desperately after it. Gabriel, of course, as well, is desperately after it. Grace doesn't really know what it is, but she's just really good at taking things off people's bodies

and them not knowing that they've taken it. And so you have this kind of fascinating chase sequence where Ethan wants it because he's going to sell it to somebody who's a broker and then follow the broker onto a flight so then he can go to the person who knows what the key does. No one else really knows what the key, like the IMF doesn't know what the key does. They just know that it has a great power. There's a moment when Grace- Are you getting any grail undertones? From the key? Yeah. I was just wondering, you know?

That's an interesting question. You've really got Jesus on the brain. It's literally a cruciform! Yeah. What are we talking about? Anyway. What is that? Yeah. Do you know how Jesus died?

I do. I'm just letting you know what's coming in part two. It's right there on the, yeah, of course. What do you mean? What are you saying? Oh, that I think that Ethan will get the key and go under the water to get the submarine and shut down AI, but he will die saving the world. Oh.

Because it's like he will have literally with the crucifix. No, I don't think so. Okay, well. You could be right, but I don't think so. I mean, maybe, you know, maybe they will depart from the Bible. I think that, like, they could be like, surprise. Were there submarines in the Bible? No.

Again, not in the four gospels that I know, that I have read and studied. It's time for me to write a new New Testament about submarines. That's an interesting theory. I think Chris already wrote that, actually. Bob, do you think that? Do you think Ethan Hunt is going to die in part two? I haven't thought that hard about it. I don't want theory. I think Chris already wrote that actually. Bob, do you think that? Do you think Ethan Hunt is going to die in part two? I haven't thought

that hard about it. I don't want to commit either way. Okay. I'm just like, it's... Why would Tom Cruise give up this franchise?

That would be crazy. I mean, I agree and it seems very unlike Tom Cruise and in fact, you know, he didn't die in Maverick. Yeah, I don't think

he's going to die. No, I don't either but it, I mean, it is right there in the naming of the of the very stupid key

and the analog thing why are you shitting on the key I mean it's really dumb that's what's so great about it is it's a a physical object that controls I know

physical media that will the human form controls technology and if we know enough and accept that we need to not turn ourselves over to it too much, that's a great idea.

I can't believe you don't like that. I think it's a great idea in basic form that, as it's like teased out and put into the reality of the movie, seemed a little silly to me. That's all. Wow. I can't believe you're negging Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1. I told you that I felt that some of this setup

narratively was kind of hogwash but that's okay i still had a great time here's another thing that i don't like sorry i'm sorry to bring negativity but it's obviously setting up like a major underwater uh action sequence in part two and i'm sure that tom cruise is gonna like smash kate winslet's record for the longest underwater breath hold. And I think that's awesome. But I don't find underwater action sequences to be as exciting as ones on land. And I say that as a great lover of the ocean. Let's try to focus on the text.

We have so many great things in this film. But I mean, it's very clearly setting up. Maybe. Are you trying to outwit Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise? No, I'm not. But, you know, they like to perform death-defying events in air, land, and sea. That's true. You know, and I'm saying that I prefer air and land to sea.

There hasn't been a ton of sea in the Mission Impossible film. Well, there was, there's the one, is it Rogue Nation, where he held his breath for a really long time? Yes, although that was not in a natural body of water. Sure, but even there, I was like,

all right, okay, okay. You didn't like that? No, I find it like stressful, but also... Have I cast the right person for this podcast? Are you sure you like these movies?

I love these movies. I like all the rest of them. I'm saying, I have preferences. Air, number one, I think, for me. Okay. Land. This explains your Fallout Halo jump. Yeah, number two.

And sea, number three. Well, I'm glad you're saying this, actually, because one thing that this movie does is, I do think that it is reaching a kind of logical end point to be like, we've had one of these before. And one of the reasons why they shift the tone of some of the action sequences is because they're like, we've done a long car chase with a lot of crazy police cars and someone trying to kill Ethan. It's so sick. I loved it. In this one, they've modulated it. That's a land into a sea, but they're above the, I guess that's a river that he jumps into at the end of the Paris chase.

And they catch him in the boat on the Seine. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. But you're not saying not in this film. No, no, no, no, no. But, oh, I thought you were referencing, like, we've done this crazy car chase. But that's what I'm saying. So in this movie, you know, we get this handcuff sequence between Grace and Ethan Hunt.

That is so good.'s i mean this is the best where they're incredible they're tied to each other and they're trying to escape you know we haven't talked about shay wiggum and greg tarzan davis the two i guess they're fbi agents cia agents it's unclear what what who they represent in the intelligence community they're chasing him the italian police forces are chasing them um and then of course uh gabriel and his henchmen and pom clementief are chasing uh the two of them and at first they are driving around in i think a bmw that's had its doors ripped off and eventually they have to get out of that car and they find a safe car and that safe car is a 1980s fiat yellow yes and with an incredible dashboard

driving circumstance and the chase sequence that transpires here is pure silent comedy I mean it's just an amazing physical performance the other thing

that I thought of while I was watching this movie that I really liked about it as like a filmmaking decision is much like

silent comedy and much like Sergio Leone westerns it's a movie of close ups it's a movie of people's faces saying things to each other

without using words. And there are a handful of other sequences, the nightclub sequence in particular, where the characters, there's very little dialogue, but it's quick cutting to look at the sneer

that Vanessa Kirby can give or the kind of like knowing smirk that you can get from Hayley Atwell. Right. This sequence too. Or the, oh my God, now I have to do this. Right, I'm terrified. Yeah, but also like, I'm just going for it.

Yeah, huge sequences where she has to drive, but he's grabbing the wheel and he's telling her what to do. And then they're shifting gears. It's just, it's thrilling. It's super funny. It's really exciting. You never once for a second are like, oh wow, they're so screwed, they're going to die.

It's only an hour into the movie. Right. But nevertheless, you're swept away by it. And you're like, what are they going to hit? And how I think they incorporate the actual city of Rome very well. And the landmarks, you know, and I'm sure there's like a lot of cutting and whatever involved in it, but it looks realer than some other movies not to be named and is just very funny. It genuinely is funny. And it's really thrilling because the editing is so sharp, you know,

and the storytelling is so clear on sequences like this. I sound like a broken record, but I'm like, this is hard to do. Like, you really have to give it up to these people that they are the absolute best at doing this kind of thing. We see every movie that comes out. So you see every action sequence

and you're like, okay, they ran out of time. They ran out of money. I was bored. Yeah. They didn't fully conceive it when they went, pushed forward on executing it. These movies are something different.

They are working overtime to make sequences like this really, really work because they're trying to thrill audiences and they are effective. So even if you are struggling with the way that they're telling

the narrative of the story. Right. It doesn't matter. That's the thing. It doesn't matter. Wait, did we skip past Tom Cruise doing magic? Yeah, we did. I forgot to mention it. It doesn't matter. That's the thing. It doesn't matter. Wait, did we skip past Tom Cruise doing magic? Yeah, we did.

I forgot to mention it. Come on, man. This was probably the single best thing that's happened to me this year was while seducing Hayley Atwell,

Tom Cruise did close-up magic. Yes. And I almost started crying because I love close-up magic so much. And it's just

the same way that when I watch a movie and I'm like holy shit like I that's so cool how they did that that pure emotional expression that is so rare for me you will see the same expression if you see me watching close-up magic which I just greatly enjoy and how often are you seeking out close-up magic well not very often because you have to see it in person like watching it on YouTube doesn't really have quite the same experience. But if you've been to the Magic Castle, I did in IMAX done by

a movie star who I didn't know could do it. You know, like I'm not re-watching David Blaine clips on YouTube. Okay. But... Well, I mean, aside from the special with Harrison Ford. Yes, but that's not quite for the magic. That's for the magic of Ford's facial expressions. But if you... I've been to the Magic Castle many times over the years, and I love it, and I think it's really fun. Now, I know that this is major loser behavior.

No, no, no, no. I think it's charming. I don't think magic is cool. I just like it. And I think that the world is so dumb and cynical and annoying, and I hate it. I thought it was completely— So it's nice that we have something like that. It was incredibly delightful in an airport lounge, and these two people meet, and this is their meet-c their meet cue is tom cruise learning how to do actual practical magic and the behind the scenes clip

of him explaining that he couldn't get it right and mccory being like i can do your hand i can do your hand is is very charming it's so cool um i really enjoyed that part one of the brilliant conceits of those two characters and how they meet, but also how they interact like in the car chase when they're handcuffed to each other is that it's pretty, it's pretty rare in these movies and this franchise where Ethan Hunt is interacting with a civilian who also has like a set of skills that maybe he doesn't have yet. Like the thievery, the magic, like that sort of thing. And so he keeps like underestimating her at some things and overestimating her at other things and it just is hilarious in how it plays out like he assumes that she's gonna know how to drive she's like an international thief you know and she sucks at driving and that leads to a lot of hygiene no bobby that's a great point yeah that

she assumes that she's not gonna he assumes that she's not gonna get out of the handcuffs and handcuff him to the shifter. And she does. And that's how she gets away. So it's just like, it keeps subverting your own expectations of how it's going to go. Because usually Ethan Hunt can handle a person like this. But she is kind of a wild card to him. And this is the first character that they've introduced in this series in a long time who is a civilian, as Amanda said.

You know, when we meet Ilsa Faust, she is a disavowed MI6 agent who is a part of the syndicate. I mean, she is a killer. She is a trained assassin. When we meet Vanessa Kirby, she is an internationally renowned arms dealer, deal maker, CIA plant. She's not a dealer. She's a matchmaker. She introduces people, okay, as she says in every scene that she's in. She's wonderful. We will get to that. Vanessa Kirby, I love you. Is it possible for you and I both to get married

to both Haley Adell and Vanessa Kirby? I actually was thinking about that. That would be exciting for both of us. I don't think in California. Yeah.

Oh, that's too bad. We'll have to move to Abu Dhabi and get married in the airport. Okay. The handcuffed car chase sequence is wonderful.

The airport sequence is wonderful we we neglected to mention the dc community intelligence scene which is a scene that happens in all of these movies yeah but it's really good we've got all these forces it's uh it's charles parnell rob delaney and dira varma and carrie elwes walk into a bar and then green smoke explodes it's fucking awesome super funny to use use Rob Delaney as like a Navy Admiral. Awesome. Awesome. And I was very moved

to see Charles Parnell there again because you know that just came from Maverick and he's wonderful on Maverick. He's great in this. I love to see Greg Tarzan

Davis and Parnell in this movie after having what was clearly a good experience with those guys on Maverick. Put Charles Parnell in every single movie. That's my pitch to save Hollywood.

He was great in Barry this year, too. He's on a run right now. He was actually at my screening, my first screening of the movie, Parnell. That scene is a lot of fun, and it's our first... There was audible gasps and applause when the green smoke hit, and we saw the mask reveal that it was Ethan Hunt. That is really, to me, that's what this franchise is, is that kind of stuff. It's

certainly it's the death defying stunts, but that's evolved over time. And I will say that scene is also when Cary Ellis is getting briefed. Is he the, he's the head of. He's the director of national intelligence. Sure. The DNI. As am I. And he is getting briefed about the entity and it is like that classics exposition dump. but because you have Rob Delaney and Charles Parnell and all of these people and the way that it's written, the absurdity of the setup is palpable in that one. It's on purpose, right?

Yeah, and it is. And I think the tone is exactly right. And I think as it becomes more about the fate of the world and Ethan's soul and whatnot, it just gets a little, you know, more solid. But that is very funny. When it's Rob Delaney delivering it, it's like, Mr. Director, sir, we're fucked. We don't stand a chance. You know, like he has such a funny, like him trying to be serious when you know that he is also so funny. It's like really genius stuff. I don't know if this is good acting or bad acting, but I could only see him in a scene from Catastrophe while reading Mission Impossible dialogue.

You know, he is a very distinct flavor. And so to insert him is great. I think that that scene is critical, obviously, because, you know, everyone is listening at this point to see in the movie, both Cary Elwes' character and Henry Turney's Eugene Kittredge are in on this plot and are actually evil and this is once again i think another not so subtle macquarie note that it's like it's it's human beings who fucked us

with this ai stuff you know it's people in power who sought more power who have been pushing these agendas that feels yeah very uncomplicated. And to me, it actually weirdly depressurized, I think, some of this messianic, oh my God, the fate of the world stuff. Because it was like, once again, it's just kind of a jab at the fact that whether or not you buy into AI as the critical, scary monster of this movie, it's really the humans who are terrible. It's Gabriel who's terrible. It's the DNI who's terrible. It's the head of the CIA who's terrible. And if we didn't who's terrible. It's the head of the CIA who's terrible.

And if we didn't have those people making selfish, vainglorious decisions, we wouldn't be in this position in the first place, which I think is really the overriding theme

of all of the Mission Impossible movies is Ethan's like, I'm just trying to protect people and especially protect my friends and everybody just keeps

doing this dumb shit and now I gotta jump off a mountain and it's just a great concept for a movie i don't i really enjoyed that part of it and you can't have it if you don't have this classic exposition as you said can i say so that's something that works really well for the ethan hunt character it's like he obviously had the opportunity to rise up the ranks of the imf or rise up the ranks of whatever the national security world but he chooses not to because like exactly it's very resonant with the with uh with maverick because he knows where his talent is concentrated and he'd like to keep doing that you know he doesn't want to become a coach he wants to

be a player and i like that i like that about it it makes the ethan hunt character like he's not really like human come on come on like yeah his domestic life and like the first couple movies you're like i don't know if i believe that he's cracking a heineken with his pals at this dinner party however i do think i do relate to you know i relate to having a skill that you know that you're good at and wanting to keep doing it yeah well that that leads to i think a critical conversation around this movie which is really who is ethan hunt you know is he super into around this movie, which is really who is Ethan Hunt? Is he super into Warcraft?

Is he on TikTok? What kind of food does he like? Is he a jack-in-the-box guy? What do we think he's in? I have no idea. But what I do know, or at least I'm pretty sure I know, is that he and Ilse Faust bang in this movie. And that was not something I saw coming. And the first time I saw it, I was like, oh, fuck, Ilse Faust bang in this movie and that was not something I saw coming and the first time I saw it

I was like oh fuck Ilse's dead as soon as they as soon as they she wrapped her arms around him in Venice in the skyline

I was like Ilse no! they're on the balcony looking out over beautiful Venice and she says I've never been to Venice before

and everyone I'm so announced that I am going to Venice for the first time at the end of the summer. And Bobby, that is one of the times I elbowed you and I was like, it me. Here we go. Venice looked absolutely beautiful. That was great. I loved that.

Did you have a sense at that point, given that, you know, we don't actually see them have sex. In fact, I thought Manuela Dargis very cleverly noted that the chase scene yes with hayley atwell is the closest that these movies actually get to a sex scene but we do see them riding in a gondola shortly thereafter holding hands right before the mission to the nightclub okay it seemed pretty overt yeah i think they were trying for it i i would agree with uh manola dargis that the sexual chemistry between Grace and Ethan is way more evident and so I do think I yes I would say that the filmmaking choices are meant to imply in like a great 1940s way that you cut bedroom scene and then they're back together but if it's there on paper i don't know if it's there in the text of the movie for me in the way that the ethan grace um escapades are in the text of

the movie this incredible nightclub sequence is also a lot of fun as i said felt like a real felt like a western in a lot of ways where all of the forces are kind of converging on the okay corral at one time where we once again see the white widow she is hosting a party as she did in the first

the last film that we saw her in this is where we see Gabriel and we see Paris the Pom Clemente character converging Grace is there

to bring one half of the key this leads to this kind of critical sequence that is actually was a little confusing to me on first watch and on second watch i think that was much more clear but became about this choice that the

white widow has to make about who effectively to side with to side with the short-term future of brokering with the ai and brokering with the people who will deliver the key to the ai or siding with ethan who she still knows as John Lark from the previous film yeah and who she may or may not have banged that's all there's an insinuation that the white widow and John Lark got it on which got I mean just like fucking shout out to Tom Cruise man it just every movie he's like can you cast the hottest person alive and then make it clear that they desperately want to sleep with me yeah that's awesome I no notes like that's been true for thousands of years that that's how men want to be seen and he's just like fuck it i'm tom cruise anyhow the nightclub scene is a lot of fun um and then it leads to

this very intense scary and very also reminiscent of the first mission impossible film racing through the streets of a european city as as Ethan desperately tries to save his partners in this mission as they battle with the Big Bad and Gabriel. Really, really cool scene where the AI itself takes over and sort of assumes Simon Pegg's character's voice. Right. That was cool. Diverting him away from the bridge where both Grace and Ilsa have a showdown with Gabriel in what I thought was a very, very exciting and cool scene.

That to me was where I felt the John Wick anxiety the most when Rebecca Ferguson pulls out a giant sword and starts... It's like a... It almost looks like a... like a sanding awl. You know what an awl is?

Yeah. The A-W-L. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like it's not... When I was watching it a second time. It's like it's a rounded sword. It's not a blade. And where did she get that?

What is that? I mean, I don't know. She's also is she wearing some sort of like party medieval whatever get up? Is it a masked ball? I mean, it's Venice. So I think I don't know if it's a mask. I mean, if it's not,

then it should be because I mean, well, this is a franchise about mass, you know, it's like all right there. Very good point. Um, I,

so I, I felt like it was something just in keeping with like sort of the, the very like medieval or like old setting of Venice. And it's on this like very beautiful, like arched bridge. Um, but you know, that's also John wick has been doing this sort of like old like Gothic, you know, medieval like style world.

Exactly. And architecture for a long time. So I was like, oh, OK, I get it. You you've seen John Wick. You feel like maybe a little bit of encroachment and you're trying to do your own thing um i think that's also evident in the brutality of the alleyway fight between ethan and paris and him ethan sparing paris's life which then leads to this critical moment at the end of the film but you're right there's a yeah a physical intensity that is not necessarily always as evident in these movies which are

usually a little bit more light on their feet and like whirling dervish as opposed to wick which is like you just got punched in the fucking ear and it hurts. I still, I really, really liked that whole execution. And then that leads to this moment where they, Grace is effectively has to join the team. She really has no other choice once the key deal is going down on the Orient Express, which is on its way to Innsbruck. And they need to find a way going down on the orient express which is on its way to insbrook um and they need

to find a way to get on the train in order to do so they need to break out the masks and in theory grace and ethan are going to get on it together of course the mask machine breaks you know hate when that happens hate when the ai gets into my mask machine sure yeah and fucks it up that's not ideal and i just really like the sequence where luther Simon Pegg's character and Ethan are explaining to her, like, what her life is going to be now. How whatever she thought she was doing before is impossible. She really has three options. You know, one is die. One is effectively get captured.

And the other is joining them. Be a ghost. And it's the choice to be a ghost. I don't know why as I was watching it, I was like, these movies should go on forever. We could just keep doing this and finding entertaining people to bring in.

But, you know, Luther, of course, has been in this franchise since the very beginning. And Ving Rhames is very dependable. He really is like tom cruise's safety blanket at this point in this movie they share a scene shortly after this one where they're talking and he talks about how he you know luther needs to go off the map to tap into the hard drive without

the ai understanding what's going on around him and again they're like playing some emotional heartstrings between these two guys well but the practical effect of that is that then ving rames just disappeared we do lose, which is not ideal. Yeah. We don't lose Peg, though. And Peg actually plays a pretty funny part at the end of this movie where, whilst trying to defeat AI, he's riding around in a self-driving car, which I got a huge kick out of.

Nevertheless, Grace, even though she's the only one with a mask, agrees to go in and portray the White Widow. And she's going to stand in for Vanessa Kirby's character on the train to make this deal, to align the cruciform key and sell it to whoever the buyer is, and then also get a sense of who the buyer is

and what the fate of the world is going to be. But by the same time, Gabriel and Paris are on the train. They're trying to also get their hands on the key. And then Cruz, his character... Has to get to the train. Has to get on the train. How does he get on the train. They're trying to also get their hands on the key. And then Cruise, his character... Has to get to the train. Has to get on the train. How does he get on the train?

And so for weeks, months, we've been seeing this clip of this extraordinary stunt that Tom Cruise had to execute of riding his motorcycle off of a cliff's edge, flying into the air. To do what?

What was he doing? We don't know. We were just like, wow, he did it. We saw this huge behind-the-scenes featurette. Loved it. Watched it like five times.

People just very quite seriously saying like, Tom is just so focused. He's the most focused actor we've ever seen. It's like, I hope so. He's riding a motorcycle

off a cliff. He better be focused. No, what is, he's the most aware person I've ever met. No, not even self he's the most aware person I've ever met. No, not even self-aware, just aware. Yeah, he has awareness of everything around him at all times. Tom is the most aware person I've ever met,

which is just an incredible thing to say. What I liked about this though, and this is a case where marketing is actually a part of movie making in my mind. They're kind of inextricable. And so when we talk about box office or what the trailer looked like, this is all part of the game. It mind. They're kind of inextricable. And so when we talk about box office or what the trailer looked like, this is all part of the game.

It's like a soft sell. It's a short sell on the stunt because the stunt doesn't really matter. He flies off the motorcycle and he pulls his parachute and then the action starts. Then he has to find a way whilst parachuting through the air

to land on a moving train. Yeah. Which to your point about messiah that's not possible that's that's not an achievable act of course it's not possible it's impossible that's the whole franchise it is the whole franchise uh and then it leads to this moment where you know finally grace's character is revealed you know the white widow she rips her mask off. She gets her hands on the key.

She doesn't actually take the deal. But she's being confronted by Zola. She's being confronted by Zola's henchman. This is the White Widow's brother. It's like, who's Zola? Yeah. It looks like she's going to be captured. It looks like the CIA is going to encroach on her.

It looks like the whole world is coming down. And then smash. Into the train car. That was really delightful. Amazing. Once again, Buster Keaton, you know, like the house falling on you. And Ethan Hunt is not like, I'm here to save the day. He falls down and he's disoriented.

And he's like, he sees Grace. He's like, Grace, are you okay? And he doesn't know what's going on. She doesn't know what's going on. Everyone's confused. And it's this like slapsticky, but also quite serious culmination of the set piece that we've been anticipating if we were anticipating this movie the whole time and the way that i just thought the way they pulled it off is really a lot of fun no i completely agree this bobby and i like basically started cheering as soon as they zoomed back to the

shot of like crews you know 50 feet back from behind the motorcycle getting ready to set off i was just like here it goes and bobby like getting ready to set off. I was just like, here it goes. And Bobby, like, I did feel like our entire theater was just like, okay, this is the moment, you know? It's like they have done, to your point, Sean, the anticipation, like, perfectly and made everyone aware. And it's like, okay, is he going to do it? And then he does it.

And you're right that they quite literally stick the landing in, like, an inventive, I guess he doesn't stick the landing in like an inventive um i guess he doesn't stick the landing and that's really funny yeah um and creative and then also leads to a plus one set piece that i had some notes on but also really liked which is what the i mean the the train oh the entire yeah yeah yeah yeah so you know, that ultimately leads to this showdown between Gabriel and Ethan Hunt on a train car. Naturally, Ethan has the

chance to kill Gabriel and he doesn't actually kill Gabriel. You know, Shea Wiggum, who every time he's on screen, I was just like, that's my guy right there. I was just like openly

cheering for him and all of his facial expressions and line deliveries. But he arrives with his partner and they effectively take Ethan in, which allows Gabriel to get away. And when Gabriel gets away, perfectly timing his fall off the train

onto the back of a truck, thinking he has the cruciform key, when in fact he does not, that leads to his opportunity to blow up a bridge. In classic, this is a bridge on the river Kwai Lomaj in a major way. And the train is crossing the bridge and the train the the engine train flies off and then each of the cars effectively slowly leans off the edge and starts to snap off and break and this is uh to me this is cinema

to me it really is to me this is um this is why we go to the movies is this sequence which was just uh breathtaking i thought it was so fun it was so fun i was incredibly stressed out it's um tom cruise and hayley atwell climbing through each car and almost falling and you know and they invent new like obstacles in each car for them to and keep upping the ante for them to avoid there's a kitchen yeah and then the kitchen's on fire there's a piano dangling the only thing that i'll say is that you could see the digital animation at some point and i agree you know and i was like oh you guys came so close and it's not really your fault you know i know this is just where it is right now but like you you could see that otherwise this would be like number one and

two a mission impossible movie for me for sure. I think the staging of the scene is truly amazing and clever. And the physicality that Cruise and Atwell are showing and then ultimately

Palm Clementine are showing in the scene is awesome. You're right though, we're not quite there with digital animation to make something like this which is based,

it's only objects that are based in the real world and so it just has to be accurate. Otherwise, you're going to, you're going to skip on it

a little bit. Nevertheless, I love that scene and that ultimately leads to their retrieval and that's when Pom Klementief's character reveals that the Sevastopol

is a submarine. And then the alarm bells go off for Ethan. He's got to take the cruciform key, which he's held on to. And he needs to complete his impossible mission

and by doing so he leaves Grace behind. Grace is confronted by Kittredge. She tells him what Ethan told her which is that I would have a choice here

and I If you choose to accept it. I choose to accept it. And I accept. And so she's a part of the mission in theory although I don't know if we can trust

Henry Cherney going forward in these movies because he of course is one of the operatives who is attempting to acquire the key's part of the mission in theory. Although I don't know if we can trust Henry Cherney going forward in these movies. Because he, of course, is one of the operatives who is attempting to acquire the key on behalf of the director of national intelligence who wants to control the world. Right. And then the movie ends on a cliffhanger. The movie ends with Tom Cruise flying around in his speed wing. Have you ever been on a speed wing? No.

I would not like that. Okay. Bob? But I liked watching him do it. I'm afraid of heights, so I will not be participating in the speed wing. I don't think would not like that okay bob i like but i liked watching him do it i'm afraid of heights so i will not be participating in the speedway bobby i it's it's a complicated fear because i also love like roller coasters and i like the adrenaline of them but i don't like you know standing or being high up without being strapped in that's my fear same you're afraid of heights yeah interesting are you not you seem like someone who

might be no not at all like you seem like someone who might be like yeah like man was not meant to stand i'm afraid of things it's not that i'm like some masculine man i just that's one that doesn't really bother me well you're new masculine so yeah you're allowed to be afraid of things me who's in the new masculine club me charles holmes ethan hunt who else is in there you think ethan hunt is new masculine? Fuck yeah. You see the way he embraced Ilsa? I think John Wick is closer to new masculine because he's a wife guy and he loves his puppy.

Great point. Wow, that is a great point. I think they're both in. Okay. Okay, great. Is Robert J. Oppenheimer in? Is he in the new masculine? Yet to be seen.

I haven't done my 300 hours of homework yet, so I don't know. I'm like 150 pages into American Prometheus. I don't know if I'm going to finish it. It's a 550-page book. Yeah. It's not ideal. Okay.

So the movie ends with this incredible cliffhanger, and I do think that a lot of people are going to be frustrated by that. Were you frustrated by that? No. I think another credit to their marketing and i really hate being the person who's like great job marketers but in this case you're right it's it's part of the movies they made it very clear you know they like i know this is part one like the part one is in the thing if you have consumed any media about this you know that there's a whole

other movie that tom cruise has been doing other things for um for many years you know he's just he's never not working on this he might not finish it you know it's like his masterpiece and maybe they'll just like keep adding more and more movies um so no i wasn't frustrated by that i could feel the part two-ness a little bit elsewhere in the movie you know it feels a little like they had they had to stretch it out to make room for everything and so before Tom Cruise gets on the train before he does the motorcycle jump he's gone for a while yeah and I caught myself being like where is Tom Cruise who I came here to see so there are moments where I felt the decision and I was like

oh I would prefer if you'd done it a different way but the ending itself I mean they told me and I listened okay Bob did you feel that at all did I feel like I was like a little too cliff hung a little too let down I mean it's like it's a literal cliffhanger you know the train is falling off the cliff which I thought was very funny. I don't think so. I think that, to Amanda's point, because it was so expected, I knew to sort of gear myself towards a different feeling.

It's a little bit of a bummer when the previous six films in the franchise resolved themselves so satisfyingly. In this one, it's like, what is going to happen? I'm going to have to wait a year to see this. But I don't think that I was as offended by it as I have been with some other things that seem like they were split solely to have like a separate box office which this doesn't really

feel like it was yeah I think it felt a little bit more like just the story got out of control like like they came up with too many ideas too many set pieces and they were like you know what let's just maximize it yes and. And then it'll be interesting to see if what you suggested comes true, which is like whether or not this is Ethan's last stand or... Or whether he has to go underwater

for like 45 minutes. I think that's safe to say he'll be going underwater to, you know, retrieve the source code for the entity from the Sevastopol. So he has to retrieve

the source code? He can't destroy it underwater? I don't know. Will destroying it affect our marine life? Let's consult our AI expert, Fennessy Shaughnessy. Fennessy Shaughnessy, what do you think? Yes, that's accurate. I can destroy the source code

if I go down underneath the sub. No, I have no idea. I guess we're going to wait to find out in part two. Part two is next year. Is it really, though? I hope so. I mean, I hope so, too.. I guess we're going to wait to find out in part two. Part two is next year. Is it really, though? I hope so. I mean, I hope so, too.

But I'm just, I can see them both being like, you know what? Got another idea. But did they film it all? Aren't they still filming it? I don't know. I feel like, literally, he's just constantly training for or doing stunts for these movies. I don't know. The one thing I missed in this movie was Alec Baldwin.

Okay. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed Alec Baldwin in 4, 5, and 6. I just really, I liked the energy he was bringing. He was able to deliver the ridiculous dialogue. Like Ethan Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny. Like he can say that stuff and you're like, absolutely he is. Good point, Alec Baldwin. Thank you for being here.

Very few actors are able to pull off that kind of... That's true. That kind of a ham sandwich, you know? Like he's really just took a big old bite. I have to say, I was also missing Henry Cavill and his mustache and his loading his own arms. And his... And just his general presence, you know?

His ability to wear a suit. Absurd bulk that plays into the absurdity of this whole situation how'd you feel about hayley atwell's pantsuit at the in the conclusion of the film you know the like the vest yeah it was i i enjoyed she's so hot it's like it's actually quite unbearable it's really and it's hard to wear a pantsuit and wear it well you know they aren't usually do stunts on a train true yeah yeah it was nice that she didn't have to do an address.

I like that for her. One thing I was thinking a little bit about in terms of people who aren't in this, who have been in previous movies and aren't in this one, is if,

what was Michelle Monahan's name? Like the wife's name? I can't recall. I think I would feel a way if all I got as a former wife who had to go into the witness protection program and build a whole new life because my husband. And all I got was like a two word goodbye in a tent. But she got Wes Bentley.

Yeah, but I'm just kind of like. Dr. David. Julia Mead. Julia. Julia Mead. Julia. Julia Mead. Julia doesn't even, I guess she says goodbye to him sort of briefly as he's like coming out of his concussion or whatever in that tent. But then she's just gone. And it's like so many other women are just sticking around in one way or another. And she's like, I had to rebuild my whole life and I don't even get to haunt you for five minutes in Venice.

She wasn't a secret agent. She was just a gal. Well, neither is Grace. That's true. That's true. And we don't know what her haunt you for five minutes in Venice. She wasn't a secret agent. She was just a gal. Well, neither is Grace. That's true. So we don't know what her fate is going to be. That's all I'm saying. Can I really quickly say, Amanda, you said a phrase that was really important to me just now about Henry Cavill, absurd bulk, which I would like to put in the running for the

name of me and Craig's bulking pod. That's a great name. I'll give that to you for a low fee. However, we also have a submission from friend of the show, Danny Heifetz, auction educator Danny Heifetz, which is Bulk and Burn. So let's just all consider that for our list. Sounds like a Twitter poll for at B-Wags. I like Absurd Bulk. Absurd Bulk is pretty good.

Okay. Well, that's the end of this movie. Thank God we have it. Great movie. Thank God Tom Cruise is alive and making movies. Well, that's the end of this movie. Thank God we have it. Great movie. Thank God Tom Cruise is alive and making movies. It's really true. And if he dies making one of these movies. Making promo material and doing press tours.

He looks so tired. He does. He's doing these interviews and his hair is very long. Yeah. And people are asking him confrontational questions like, what are your four favorite films of all time? And he's like will you see barbie or oppenheimer first and the answer is both in a crowded theater on a friday i'll go from one cinema to another one eye looking one way one eye looking the other way watching barbie and oppenheimer only tom can do it so much he's

giving us so much he continues to give give. Bob, you gave a lot. Have they shot Dead Reckoning Part 2 really quickly? That's what I was wondering. I don't know. I'm not sure. I think so. Guys, you got to start

reading the British tabloids because like once a month, Tom Cruise like parachutes into like some grandmother's backyard, you know? And he's like, hello, grandmother.

And then they take some photos and he's just like, he's always, always doing stunts in the UK. And then like Maude Huckleberry is interviewed in the Daily photos and he's just like, he's always, always doing stunts in the UK. And then like Maude Huckleberry is interviewed in the Daily Mirror. And she's like, he's been running to my backyard. And he was very nice and he took several pictures with me before the helicopter landed to pick him up. That's like a true thing that happens.

You know what that is? He's the most aware movie star. He's truly aware. He's so aware. This was fun thank you guys thanks Bob for producing this episode

next week on the podcast we're not done with Mission Impossible we actually have quite a bit more to answer you may have been a little bit confused by this feature film

and so we will give you an opportunity to write into the mailbag ask us any questions you have about this film or any film in the Mission Impossible franchise

and then we're gonna we are gonna rank the Mission Impossible that's when then we're going to, we are going to rank the Mission Impossible movies. This is going to, that's when it's going to be interesting. Yeah. Different strokes for different folks with these movies and what people prefer. So I know where I stand, but this is a collaborative medium. Wow. Okay.

You say that now. That being said, I am the entity. Thank you for listening to The Big Picture. We'll see you next week.