Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 1, 2023

By all rights some measure of fatigue should be settling in over the Mission: Impossible franchise. The franchise, as it is today with Tom Cruise in the lead, debuted going on now three decades ago with 1996's Mission: Impossible, a solid little film that jumpstarted a Hollywood legend that has grown well beyond its birth but not overstepped its welcome. While the films since that original have upped the ante in terms of scope and production values, they have not jumped the shark. Contrarily, they have only grown bolder, offering audiences genre tentpole after genre tentpole, each one doing things bigger and better but never leaving behind a heart and soul, so often the casualties of cinema succession and, obviously, the death knell for any living thing. Now this nearly 30-year-old franchise has once again returned to the screen with Dead Reckoning Part One, a spectacular effort that is every bit the size-and-scope spectacle that fans have come to expect while also maintaining integrity of story and growth of characters, making for one of the year's best films and another stellar entry in this almost impossibly excellent franchise.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With the fate of the world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission - not even the lives of those he cares about most.

If one word can define Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, that word would be "dependable." Even before the movie's release, with the names Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie once again attached to the project, audiences knew this was going to be a tremendous movie: tremendous in scope, scale, and action excellence, yes, but also in narrative drive and emotional resonance. The movie does not disappoint. To say that it is everything the film should be nearly nails the analysis. The action is intense and creative without feeling repetitive or derivative, the story is timely and top notch, and the acting is stellar. The global reach is well utilized while the practical effects and stunts give the movie a tangible edge.

Cruise is anything but on "cruise control" in the movie. As he does with everything he's in, he gives the movie everything he has, and then some. With Dead Reckoning, he pushes his personal envelope further and further in the name of not just slathering the screen in visual delight, but doing so with a purpose and giving the entirety of his heart to every scene. That's special. The devotion to getting everything just right is evident in each frame. Even as the film pushes three hours, there never feels to be a wasted moment; this is the cinema equivalent of a Swiss watch. Everything is exactly as it needs to be to perform at peak. That includes the story, which is very timely and cutting edge. It's a standalone story but the film does reach further back into the Mission: Impossible timeframe and lore to give it depth and breadth, too. It will work for casual audiences, and work very well, but franchise veterans will be greatly rewarded with the careful plotting that is evident in every line, action, shot, scene, and sequence.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Paramount releases Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One to the UHD format with what is an expectedly excellent 2160p/Dolby Vision presentation. The image bolsters the film's visuals quite nicely over the concurrently released Blu-ray, perhaps not in a truly dramatic fashion but certainly with enough added visual excellence to make the upcharge for the UHD a worthwhile investment. The image offers a much crisper, sharper look about it. Skin definition -- freckles, lines and wrinkles, pores, facial hair -- are tangibly sharper and better defined. Ditto clothes and the various environments seen throughout the film, whether contrasting the desert sands and modern clean lines in Abu Dhabi or slick modern offices and the very tactile exteriors in Italy. The image's overall clarity and textural adeptness sees it rise to a level of practical perfection on UHD. Likewise, the Dolby Vision color palette delivers a rich and satisfying gain over the Blu-ray's SDR colors. Tones are, here, richer and deeper, and the image is, overall, a little brighter while still adding a noticeable gain in color depth. Skin tones are much more lifelike here (not that they were not also excellent on the Blu-ray), black level depth is wonderful with inkier true black presentations and superior shadow detail, and whites are very crisp and brilliant. Noise management is better on the UHD and there are no encode issues to report. This is a top-tier, high-end new release blockbuster UHD and it delivers exactly what it is expected of it.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Paramount releases Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One to UHD with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. The track is everything it needs to be. It's a reference and powerhouse presentation for all facets of excellence: surround immersion, subwoofer usage, musical fidelity, effect clarity, atmospherics engagement, and dialogue purity. The track offers a seamless sound field that takes full advantage of the entire listening area, never content to simply "get by" but rather immerse the listener into the visual spectacle with appropriately rich, deep, and engaging elements. Whether that is the widely engaging and perfectly clear music, the excellently balanced sound effects, the prodigious yet even and accurate bass, or the wonderful action elements that engage the stage through every quarter and with a variety of content, the track is always pushing forward through some example or another of sonic excellence. The overhead channels are not used sparingly, but neither are used with an endless stream of discrete elements, either They are very supportive and elegantly integrated into the overall listening experience. Dialogue is, of course, pure and front-center positioned for the duration, unless a specific moment calls for more spatial reverb or other directionality.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One contains extras on both the feature film and bonus discs. A digital copy code is included with purchase. This release ships with a slipcover. UHD and Blu-ray (Feature Film):

• Audio Commentary: Director Christopher McQuarrie and Editor Eddie Hamilton explore the film with a nice balance of full spectrum insight, not just limited to more technical elements as listeners might expect. It covers film structure, cast and characters, action, shooting elements, and plenty more.
• Isolated Score Track: Watch the film with just the film's score, presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

Blu-ray (Special Features):

• Abu Dhabi (1080p, 3:55): Making a bigger and more global film, here exploring working in the beautiful and cinematic Abu Dhabi airport and in the vast deserts nearby.
• Rome (1080p, 4:12): Taking advantage of the great, yet challenging, Rome setting for a practical and stunning vehicle chase sequence. The piece explores not just the setting but the technical details behind its construction.
• Venice (1080p, 4:12): Fulfilling the longtime desire to shoot in Venice, filmmaking challenges, shooting at night, action scenes, and more.
• Freefall (1080p, 9:05): Making a motorcycle jump in Norway, a stunt years in the making. The piece takes a very close and detailed look at the various disciplines and elements required to make a spectacular shot.
• Speed Flying (1080p, 4:17): The thrills, and dangers, of speed flying (one of Tom Cruise's hobbies) and how it was integrated into the film both technically and aesthetically.
• Train (1080p, 5:32): Making the "romantic" train sequence with all of the impressive, and dangerous, practical filmmaking that went into making the sequence in Norway.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dead Reckoning hasn't just been "churned out." So many franchise films these days feel "churned out," but not this one. Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie have taken the time to build a near perfect Action film and a near perfect example of a franchise film. It pushes the boundaries for spectacle, yes, but it does not do so in an empty way. The spectacle is always in support of the story and is never its center. That's why these movies continue to play so well after nearly three decades of faithful film service. Paramount's UHD is top notch, delivering reference 2160p/Dolby Vision video and Dolby Atmos audio along with a nice selection of bonus content. Very highly recommended.