June 13, 2025 • 15 mins
🎙️🔥 John dives into the adrenaline-fueled world of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the 2023 blockbuster starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. From jaw-dropping stunts to high-stakes espionage, John breaks down what makes this latest installment a thrilling addition to the iconic franchise. He reviews the action sequences, plot twists, and character moments to see where it ranks among the best in the series—and in the wider action movie universe. Strap in for an explosive episode packed with speed, suspense, and some classic Ethan Hunt bravado!
E-mail your fan questions, comments, and suggestions to TheRankwithJohnandZac@protonmail.com.
Support the show by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/TheRankPodcast.
For up-to-date rankings, check out The Rank's website at TheRankwithJohnandZac.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So when the train actually does go over, the production
physically crashed a train on location in England.
So I think that is really cool to see and everything, but it
does feel like a little bit of awaste because you could just
build models for that. It would still look cool with
the model and I bet we wouldn't know the difference.
(00:35):
Welcome back to the rank. I'm John and today we're going
to be ranking Mission ImpossibleDead Reckoning Part 1 starring
Tom Cruise written by Eric Genderson and Christopher
Mcquarrie, who also directed it.If you're enjoying these
rankings or you just like the idea of getting a review of an
action movie based on it being an action movie, please consider
subscribing and or following liking and reviewing.
(00:57):
Please put any of your questions, comments, or
suggestions into the comments ore-mail the show and if you super
duper like it, consider becominga patron at patreon.com/the Rank
Podcast. If you've been a fan of the
journal for a long time, you know that Zach and I ranked
Mission Impossible and Mission Impossible 2 two years ago back
when this movie came out. But I decided to do this one
because I was going to be ranking the the final Reckoning.
(01:19):
And since that technically is Dead Reckoning Part 2, you know,
I just, I had to do both, right?So I realized that I haven't
reviewed or I haven't ranked Mission Impossible 3 or Ghost
Protocol Nation or Fallout yet but I will.
With that being said, let's diveinto Mission Impossible Dead
Reckoning Part 1 starting with the Potent Notables.
Now quickly before we go into it, I want to say that I will
(01:42):
try to refrain from giving any spoilers but I do make mistakes
so here that's your spoiler. So as always the Potent notable
start with the movies financials.
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 made $172.6
million domestically and $398.5 million internationally for a
worldwide total of 571.1 milliondollars.
(02:02):
It sounds like a lot, right? But this was against the budget
of $291,000,000, so that budget is absolutely insane.
So they say you have to double your budget in order to make
money, and you'd think that overhalf a billion would be more
than double, but it's actually not.
So I still think this movie mademoney.
It's probably considered just a moderate hit, which is crazy to
(02:25):
say something like that about a movie that made $571.1 million.
I'm sure it made less than Paramount was hoping for, but I
guess I guess we'll have to see if The Final Reckoning does any
better. It was part of the largest
Memorial Day box office weekend ever, which is pretty cool.
Now to keep going on the budget here it was the delays because
(02:45):
of COVID that caused the budget to balloon.
So up until Mission Impossible the Final Reckoning, this was
the most expensive Mission Impossible Tom Cruise and
Paramount ever produced. Now these big studios cover
their asses by getting insurancefor scenarios like this.
They used a company called Chubb, who gave Paramount about
$5.4 million for the delays, arguing that the cast and crew
(03:06):
could still fulfill their dutiesto the production despite being
infected with COVID-19. Now, Paramount ended up suing
Chubb in 2021, and they settled the next year.
Chubb ended up giving Paramount about $71 million for the
delays, which in effect reduced its budget to $220 million.
So knowing that, he does end up making decent money, right?
I mean, that's more than double.I guess you're right.
(03:27):
Yay. I guess this was the movie set
where the famous rant from Tom Cruise came from, where he
yelled at everyone for not following COVID protocols.
Of course, there still ended up being delays because of COVID
anyway, and actually, while filming in Italy, 12 people on
the set tested positive. As a result, when filming
resumed in the UK, Tom Cruise personally paid £500,000 for an
(03:48):
old cruise ship for the cast andcrew to isolate on.
When Ethan and Grace meet for the first time at the airport,
Tom Cruise insisted on performing the magic trick with
the two halves of the key practically, despite numerous
failed takes. The desire to was ultimately
achieved in camera with little to no visual effects.
I'm curious what little to no means like did he actually do
(04:09):
it? Or if you listen to the to the
potent notables from the first Mission Impossible from 1996, I
talk about the magic trick he does there with the CD and how
he insisted on doing it himself and learning how to do sleight
of hand tricks. So this is really no surprise
here. But in the other one he was able
to do it. So I'm curious when it says
little, no visual effects, was he not ever able to really fully
(04:30):
get it? So let's talk about the train
car stunts and scenes. Practical train cars were built
and placed on huge hydraulic rigs constructed by the special
effects department. These rigs could lift the
carriage around 80 feet into theair and tilt it 30°, Fraser
Taggart, the the film's cinematographer, said it quote.
The scene has the train moving like a Caterpillar, whereas the
(04:52):
weight goes over into the falling edge.
It lifts the carriage behind andslams it down.
Sort of A0G moment. All the physical effects were
quite incredible. Haley amazed me the 1st.
This time she did the run with Tom.
We're on safety wires but we are80 feet in the air with them.
She and Tom have to trust everyone around them.
She went for it on the first take and it was brilliant.
So when the train actually does go over, the production
(05:14):
physically crashed a train on location in England.
So I think that is really cool to see and everything.
But it does feel like a little bit of a waste because you could
just build models for that. It would still look cool with
the model and I bet we wouldn't know the difference, but
whatever, it's cool now. East Side Morales, who who plays
Gabriel on the film, actually replaced Nicholas Holtz, who was
originally cast as Gabriel. The Holt was forced to drop out
(05:37):
due to a scheduling conflict with filming Season 2 of WHO
Lose the Great caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and
subsequent production delay. Aren't we all glad that we're
not talking about COVID causing delays and all this other
nonsense all the time anymore? You can say that again.
What an annoying time that was. Anyway, I have to say that after
I read that Nicholas Holt was supposed to be Gabriel, I felt a
(06:01):
little disappointed. I would have liked to have seen
Holtz portrayal of Gabriel here.All right, but the final vote
notable here is that in in true actor wackiness, Pom Clementif
models her performance after theshoebill stork because of
course, because she had very little dialogue, she needed to
convey her emotions through expressions and gestures.
(06:21):
So she studied videos of the shoebill stork because she
thought it had a seemingly menacing demeanor.
Now I will say I've seen a shoebill stork and it does have
a menacing demeanor, so I get it.
But it sort of reminds me of Anthony Hopkins saying that he
he patterned handle the Lecter after what a lizard and I don't
know something else. I can't remember what it was
exactly, but actors are pretty wild where they find their
(06:43):
inspiration. But that's those are all the
potent notables. Let's go to the movie overview.
Now we start off in a Russian submarine and they use a trick
from another movie that starts off in a Russian submarine where
they begin with subtitles and the crew is speaking Russian and
then the Russian slowly fades into English and we remove the
subtitles. I actually really like this
trick and I'm surprised it isn'tutilized more often now.
(07:04):
The presented idea is that they're still speaking in
Russian, but we're hearing it inEnglish.
It's like reading a book and it was written, He says blah, blah,
whatever in Russian. And by the way, the movie I was
referring to where they did thatwas The Hunt for Red October,
another Russian submarine, wherethey start out speaking Russian
with subtitles and then it fadesinto English.
And so then we don't have to do deal with subtitles for this
thing. I just, I really like that.
(07:26):
I think it's a really clever technique and I don't know why
movies don't do it more often. So I't use my Hollywood clout.
Your what you know the 10's and 10s of my listeners giving me
that clout. I'm going to implore more movies
to utilize that instead of always resorting to subtends.
We get a relatively quick build to the story and they're using
some economy and storytelling which you wouldn't think given
(07:49):
the the runtime which is almost 3 hours, but they get you up to
speed rather quickly. They also utilize good
techniques in their exposition. For instance, he figures in the
movie have to explain what the entity is while our hero is
hiding in plain sight and getting the information for us,
the audience. There are plenty of movies that
use too much exposition or too little.
Both are frustrating, but it's the ones that feel that the
(08:11):
audience can't figure out anything that are more
frustrating. To me.
This threads the needle well of giving you a good amount of
exposition but not being like, look dummy, here's the stuff we
were talking about. Good old fashioned stupidity.
This is an area that the final reckoning, nay dead reckoning
Part 2 is unsuccessful. They make the mistake of trying
to give us too much much lower. So I've got another question.
(08:34):
How has Hayley Atwell not been abigger star?
She's fantastic, she's gorgeous.Aren't those the two prereqs for
becoming a big star in Hollywood?
I can't figure that one out. Anyway, she fits into the
Mission Impossible universe really well and can handle all
the action that's thrown her way.
And there's lots of action. This movie continues in the
tradition of jaw-dropping stuntsand incredible action sequences,
(08:55):
culminating in a heart pounding final showdown.
So many people are back, Luther naturally.
Ilsa, Faust, Benji, even Kittridge from the original 96
movie. Kittridge was a lot of fun to
see, and it continues to be weasely.
Everyone keeps you engaged in this movie, which is again
shocking considering its length.It's also surprisingly funny.
I especially enjoyed Ethan's reticence to perform the biggest
(09:16):
stunt in the movie, which just Tom Cruise is a madman.
All right, well, that's enough of the overview.
Let's let's see how this thing ranked a wank.
So the rank is where I ranked the movie based on 10
categories. Story, acting, originality,
action sequences, film coherence, hero appeal, villain
appeal, slash hatred, supportingcharacters appeal, the final
(09:37):
showdown, and my personal rank. I ranked on a scale of one to
five, one being the worst, five being the best.
And the first category is story,which I gave a 4.25.
So the story isn't super convoluted like some Mission
Impossible movies can be. It's actually pretty
straightforward. Bad AI trying to take over the
world must get key to stop AI, right?
That's the story, things are delineated and clearly set, and
(09:58):
I was happy to partake in it. I also think it did a good job
of presenting itself as a complete movie, even though it
was only Part 1. So to the next category, which
is acting, I gave a four. The acting is fun and great, but
the earnestness can drag it downat times because it breaks into
silly at times. I don't know if that's the
actor's fault necessarily, but I'm putting it on them because
I'm a jerk, I guess. Still, 4 is a great score, so
(10:21):
shouldn't be upset about that. The next category is
originality, which I also gave afour.
If this were only based on stunts it would be a 5 easy.
The originality and uniqueness of this series, action sequences
and stunt coordination is is unrivalled in my opinion.
As far as story originality, it's decently original.
I mean the whole AI takes over the world thing has been done a
(10:42):
lot, but this is a unique enoughperspective that it deserves
some originality points. So on to the next category which
is I mean as we all know is going to be its best.
It's action sequences, which I gave a 5I mean, what else can
you say about this series of movies, the Mission Impossible
movies? It's really the pinnacle of
action sequences. It almost feels like this
belongs at a six, like it shouldhave its own ranking because I
(11:04):
don't know that anything else that I've ranked as A5 can
really be put at the same level as this.
That's how impressive these action sequences are.
So let's go to film Coherence, which I gave a four, and I might
be giving this a higher score than I should because of having
seen the sequel or second part acouple days before.
I was so happy with how they putthis together as far as
Coherence is concerned compared to Part 2 that I may have
(11:27):
overindulged on the score. Either way it was fun and I
followed it with no issues. So let's go to hero Appeal,
which I gave A5. Ethan Hunt is pretty iconic at
this point and he doesn't he doesn't fail us here.
You root for him throughout while always thinking is a
badass. It's it's great stuff.
So let's go to a villain appeal slash hatred, which I gave a 3
1/2. Gabriel is decently menacing in
(11:49):
this. His arrogance and self
assuredness help with getting the audience behind rooting
against him, but he's lacking inany real charm go to or bad that
can tells you to really hate him.
Still, he was pretty good. He was a pretty good bad guy
though. I do wish I could have seen
Nicholas Holt in this world. Some alternate universe.
He did it and I I bet it's good.So let's go to supporting
characters appeal, which I gave A5.
Benji, Grace, Luther, Ilsa, the agency guys chasing Ethan, Paris
(12:14):
Kittredge the director of National Intelligence.
There are just a ton of supporting characters in this
and they're all engaging. I originally gave it a 4 1/2,
but considering just how many characters of this movie made
you engage with and be interested in, it deserves A5 O.
Let's go to the final showdown, which I give a 425 O.
The final showdown is the final fight between Gabriel and Ethan.
(12:34):
It's incredible to watch with amazing stunt work.
However, it doesn't really give us a conclusion.
So there's not as much catharsisas a final showdown should
really give you. It's great that he gets one over
on Gabriel, but it just felt incomplete.
Of course, this makes sense because it was a Part 1.
To sort of hammer home this point, to give you context here,
I view the final showdown as thefinal fight between the, you
(12:56):
know, the villain and the hero. And that ended and then the
train scene continued. So from the point that Gabriel
is out of the picture, the fightis over.
That's the end of the final showdown.
So it's it's not as cathartic asas you would expect As for a
final showdown to be. So let's go to the final
category, which is my rank. I gave it A5.
(13:17):
I thought this movie was absolutely excellent, as you're
maybe starting to see from theserankings.
I'm not afraid to give A5 to a movie I really like.
But I just want to say this movie absolutely deserves a
watch. If you haven't seen it or scared
off by the runtime, please watchit.
It doesn't feel like it's runtime it it entertains
throughout and you don't even realize you've been watching a
movie for that. That's a big thing to say for a
(13:39):
nearly three hour. So that puts the total of
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 at 44 points,
which puts it in the supreme cinema tier.
And this puts it right in between The Avengers right above
it and Predator just below. Now how does it stand against
the original Mission Impossible and Mission Impossible 2?
You know the other ones that we've ranked?
Well, the original had a 42 point O25 and Mission Impossible
(14:03):
two had a 32.7. How does it rank against its
direct sequel? That one got a 38.
So this one so far is the best Mission Impossible made
according to the rank. Again, we we still haven't
ranked four of them, so it mightnot always remain at the at the
best Mission Impossible ever made, but this was a damn good
movie. I'm excited to find out I I
(14:23):
can't wait to rank the other Mission Impossibles at some
point and see which which one actually is the best.
It would take a lot for this oneto get beat.
Now, my memory of watching Mission Impossible Ghost
Protocol in the theater makes methink that one would end up
being the best, but you know, hard to say.
All right, well, thanks for listening and or watching.
If you'd like to see a list of our updated rankings, you can do
(14:46):
that on our website at the rank with John and zach.com.
Remember to subscribe, review and comment.
And please consider supporting us on our Patreon site at
patreon.com/the Rank Podcast where you can get exclusive
perks. OK, Zaijin.
(15:11):
Now I'm not sure if these he's not moving, he's thinking.
So when the train actually does go over, the production
physically crashed a train on location in England.
So I think that is really cool to see and everything, but it
does feel like a little bit of awaste because you could just
build models for that. It would still look cool with
the model and I bet we wouldn't know the difference.
(00:35):
Welcome back to the rank. I'm John and today we're going
to be ranking Mission ImpossibleDead Reckoning Part 1 starring
Tom Cruise written by Eric Genderson and Christopher
Mcquarrie, who also directed it.If you're enjoying these
rankings or you just like the idea of getting a review of an
action movie based on it being an action movie, please consider
subscribing and or following liking and reviewing.
(00:57):
Please put any of your questions, comments, or
suggestions into the comments ore-mail the show and if you super
duper like it, consider becominga patron at patreon.com/the Rank
Podcast. If you've been a fan of the
journal for a long time, you know that Zach and I ranked
Mission Impossible and Mission Impossible 2 two years ago back
when this movie came out. But I decided to do this one
because I was going to be ranking the the final Reckoning.
(01:19):
And since that technically is Dead Reckoning Part 2, you know,
I just, I had to do both, right?So I realized that I haven't
reviewed or I haven't ranked Mission Impossible 3 or Ghost
Protocol Nation or Fallout yet but I will.
With that being said, let's diveinto Mission Impossible Dead
Reckoning Part 1 starting with the Potent Notables.
Now quickly before we go into it, I want to say that I will
(01:42):
try to refrain from giving any spoilers but I do make mistakes
so here that's your spoiler. So as always the Potent notable
start with the movies financials.
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 made $172.6
million domestically and $398.5 million internationally for a
worldwide total of 571.1 milliondollars.
(02:02):
It sounds like a lot, right? But this was against the budget
of $291,000,000, so that budget is absolutely insane.
So they say you have to double your budget in order to make
money, and you'd think that overhalf a billion would be more
than double, but it's actually not.
So I still think this movie mademoney.
It's probably considered just a moderate hit, which is crazy to
(02:25):
say something like that about a movie that made $571.1 million.
I'm sure it made less than Paramount was hoping for, but I
guess I guess we'll have to see if The Final Reckoning does any
better. It was part of the largest
Memorial Day box office weekend ever, which is pretty cool.
Now to keep going on the budget here it was the delays because
(02:45):
of COVID that caused the budget to balloon.
So up until Mission Impossible the Final Reckoning, this was
the most expensive Mission Impossible Tom Cruise and
Paramount ever produced. Now these big studios cover
their asses by getting insurancefor scenarios like this.
They used a company called Chubb, who gave Paramount about
$5.4 million for the delays, arguing that the cast and crew
(03:06):
could still fulfill their dutiesto the production despite being
infected with COVID-19. Now, Paramount ended up suing
Chubb in 2021, and they settled the next year.
Chubb ended up giving Paramount about $71 million for the
delays, which in effect reduced its budget to $220 million.
So knowing that, he does end up making decent money, right?
I mean, that's more than double.I guess you're right.
(03:27):
Yay. I guess this was the movie set
where the famous rant from Tom Cruise came from, where he
yelled at everyone for not following COVID protocols.
Of course, there still ended up being delays because of COVID
anyway, and actually, while filming in Italy, 12 people on
the set tested positive. As a result, when filming
resumed in the UK, Tom Cruise personally paid £500,000 for an
(03:48):
old cruise ship for the cast andcrew to isolate on.
When Ethan and Grace meet for the first time at the airport,
Tom Cruise insisted on performing the magic trick with
the two halves of the key practically, despite numerous
failed takes. The desire to was ultimately
achieved in camera with little to no visual effects.
I'm curious what little to no means like did he actually do
(04:09):
it? Or if you listen to the to the
potent notables from the first Mission Impossible from 1996, I
talk about the magic trick he does there with the CD and how
he insisted on doing it himself and learning how to do sleight
of hand tricks. So this is really no surprise
here. But in the other one he was able
to do it. So I'm curious when it says
little, no visual effects, was he not ever able to really fully
(04:30):
get it? So let's talk about the train
car stunts and scenes. Practical train cars were built
and placed on huge hydraulic rigs constructed by the special
effects department. These rigs could lift the
carriage around 80 feet into theair and tilt it 30°, Fraser
Taggart, the the film's cinematographer, said it quote.
The scene has the train moving like a Caterpillar, whereas the
(04:52):
weight goes over into the falling edge.
It lifts the carriage behind andslams it down.
Sort of A0G moment. All the physical effects were
quite incredible. Haley amazed me the 1st.
This time she did the run with Tom.
We're on safety wires but we are80 feet in the air with them.
She and Tom have to trust everyone around them.
She went for it on the first take and it was brilliant.
So when the train actually does go over, the production
(05:14):
physically crashed a train on location in England.
So I think that is really cool to see and everything.
But it does feel like a little bit of a waste because you could
just build models for that. It would still look cool with
the model and I bet we wouldn't know the difference, but
whatever, it's cool now. East Side Morales, who who plays
Gabriel on the film, actually replaced Nicholas Holtz, who was
originally cast as Gabriel. The Holt was forced to drop out
(05:37):
due to a scheduling conflict with filming Season 2 of WHO
Lose the Great caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and
subsequent production delay. Aren't we all glad that we're
not talking about COVID causing delays and all this other
nonsense all the time anymore? You can say that again.
What an annoying time that was. Anyway, I have to say that after
I read that Nicholas Holt was supposed to be Gabriel, I felt a
(06:01):
little disappointed. I would have liked to have seen
Holtz portrayal of Gabriel here.All right, but the final vote
notable here is that in in true actor wackiness, Pom Clementif
models her performance after theshoebill stork because of
course, because she had very little dialogue, she needed to
convey her emotions through expressions and gestures.
(06:21):
So she studied videos of the shoebill stork because she
thought it had a seemingly menacing demeanor.
Now I will say I've seen a shoebill stork and it does have
a menacing demeanor, so I get it.
But it sort of reminds me of Anthony Hopkins saying that he
he patterned handle the Lecter after what a lizard and I don't
know something else. I can't remember what it was
exactly, but actors are pretty wild where they find their
(06:43):
inspiration. But that's those are all the
potent notables. Let's go to the movie overview.
Now we start off in a Russian submarine and they use a trick
from another movie that starts off in a Russian submarine where
they begin with subtitles and the crew is speaking Russian and
then the Russian slowly fades into English and we remove the
subtitles. I actually really like this
trick and I'm surprised it isn'tutilized more often now.
(07:04):
The presented idea is that they're still speaking in
Russian, but we're hearing it inEnglish.
It's like reading a book and it was written, He says blah, blah,
whatever in Russian. And by the way, the movie I was
referring to where they did thatwas The Hunt for Red October,
another Russian submarine, wherethey start out speaking Russian
with subtitles and then it fadesinto English.
And so then we don't have to do deal with subtitles for this
thing. I just, I really like that.
(07:26):
I think it's a really clever technique and I don't know why
movies don't do it more often. So I't use my Hollywood clout.
Your what you know the 10's and 10s of my listeners giving me
that clout. I'm going to implore more movies
to utilize that instead of always resorting to subtends.
We get a relatively quick build to the story and they're using
some economy and storytelling which you wouldn't think given
(07:49):
the the runtime which is almost 3 hours, but they get you up to
speed rather quickly. They also utilize good
techniques in their exposition. For instance, he figures in the
movie have to explain what the entity is while our hero is
hiding in plain sight and getting the information for us,
the audience. There are plenty of movies that
use too much exposition or too little.
Both are frustrating, but it's the ones that feel that the
(08:11):
audience can't figure out anything that are more
frustrating. To me.
This threads the needle well of giving you a good amount of
exposition but not being like, look dummy, here's the stuff we
were talking about. Good old fashioned stupidity.
This is an area that the final reckoning, nay dead reckoning
Part 2 is unsuccessful. They make the mistake of trying
to give us too much much lower. So I've got another question.
(08:34):
How has Hayley Atwell not been abigger star?
She's fantastic, she's gorgeous.Aren't those the two prereqs for
becoming a big star in Hollywood?
I can't figure that one out. Anyway, she fits into the
Mission Impossible universe really well and can handle all
the action that's thrown her way.
And there's lots of action. This movie continues in the
tradition of jaw-dropping stuntsand incredible action sequences,
(08:55):
culminating in a heart pounding final showdown.
So many people are back, Luther naturally.
Ilsa, Faust, Benji, even Kittridge from the original 96
movie. Kittridge was a lot of fun to
see, and it continues to be weasely.
Everyone keeps you engaged in this movie, which is again
shocking considering its length.It's also surprisingly funny.
I especially enjoyed Ethan's reticence to perform the biggest
(09:16):
stunt in the movie, which just Tom Cruise is a madman.
All right, well, that's enough of the overview.
Let's let's see how this thing ranked a wank.
So the rank is where I ranked the movie based on 10
categories. Story, acting, originality,
action sequences, film coherence, hero appeal, villain
appeal, slash hatred, supportingcharacters appeal, the final
(09:37):
showdown, and my personal rank. I ranked on a scale of one to
five, one being the worst, five being the best.
And the first category is story,which I gave a 4.25.
So the story isn't super convoluted like some Mission
Impossible movies can be. It's actually pretty
straightforward. Bad AI trying to take over the
world must get key to stop AI, right?
That's the story, things are delineated and clearly set, and
(09:58):
I was happy to partake in it. I also think it did a good job
of presenting itself as a complete movie, even though it
was only Part 1. So to the next category, which
is acting, I gave a four. The acting is fun and great, but
the earnestness can drag it downat times because it breaks into
silly at times. I don't know if that's the
actor's fault necessarily, but I'm putting it on them because
I'm a jerk, I guess. Still, 4 is a great score, so
(10:21):
shouldn't be upset about that. The next category is
originality, which I also gave afour.
If this were only based on stunts it would be a 5 easy.
The originality and uniqueness of this series, action sequences
and stunt coordination is is unrivalled in my opinion.
As far as story originality, it's decently original.
I mean the whole AI takes over the world thing has been done a
(10:42):
lot, but this is a unique enoughperspective that it deserves
some originality points. So on to the next category which
is I mean as we all know is going to be its best.
It's action sequences, which I gave a 5I mean, what else can
you say about this series of movies, the Mission Impossible
movies? It's really the pinnacle of
action sequences. It almost feels like this
belongs at a six, like it shouldhave its own ranking because I
(11:04):
don't know that anything else that I've ranked as A5 can
really be put at the same level as this.
That's how impressive these action sequences are.
So let's go to film Coherence, which I gave a four, and I might
be giving this a higher score than I should because of having
seen the sequel or second part acouple days before.
I was so happy with how they putthis together as far as
Coherence is concerned compared to Part 2 that I may have
(11:27):
overindulged on the score. Either way it was fun and I
followed it with no issues. So let's go to hero Appeal,
which I gave A5. Ethan Hunt is pretty iconic at
this point and he doesn't he doesn't fail us here.
You root for him throughout while always thinking is a
badass. It's it's great stuff.
So let's go to a villain appeal slash hatred, which I gave a 3
1/2. Gabriel is decently menacing in
(11:49):
this. His arrogance and self
assuredness help with getting the audience behind rooting
against him, but he's lacking inany real charm go to or bad that
can tells you to really hate him.
Still, he was pretty good. He was a pretty good bad guy
though. I do wish I could have seen
Nicholas Holt in this world. Some alternate universe.
He did it and I I bet it's good.So let's go to supporting
characters appeal, which I gave A5.
Benji, Grace, Luther, Ilsa, the agency guys chasing Ethan, Paris
(12:14):
Kittredge the director of National Intelligence.
There are just a ton of supporting characters in this
and they're all engaging. I originally gave it a 4 1/2,
but considering just how many characters of this movie made
you engage with and be interested in, it deserves A5 O.
Let's go to the final showdown, which I give a 425 O.
The final showdown is the final fight between Gabriel and Ethan.
(12:34):
It's incredible to watch with amazing stunt work.
However, it doesn't really give us a conclusion.
So there's not as much catharsisas a final showdown should
really give you. It's great that he gets one over
on Gabriel, but it just felt incomplete.
Of course, this makes sense because it was a Part 1.
To sort of hammer home this point, to give you context here,
I view the final showdown as thefinal fight between the, you
(12:56):
know, the villain and the hero. And that ended and then the
train scene continued. So from the point that Gabriel
is out of the picture, the fightis over.
That's the end of the final showdown.
So it's it's not as cathartic asas you would expect As for a
final showdown to be. So let's go to the final
category, which is my rank. I gave it A5.
(13:17):
I thought this movie was absolutely excellent, as you're
maybe starting to see from theserankings.
I'm not afraid to give A5 to a movie I really like.
But I just want to say this movie absolutely deserves a
watch. If you haven't seen it or scared
off by the runtime, please watchit.
It doesn't feel like it's runtime it it entertains
throughout and you don't even realize you've been watching a
movie for that. That's a big thing to say for a
(13:39):
nearly three hour. So that puts the total of
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 at 44 points,
which puts it in the supreme cinema tier.
And this puts it right in between The Avengers right above
it and Predator just below. Now how does it stand against
the original Mission Impossible and Mission Impossible 2?
You know the other ones that we've ranked?
Well, the original had a 42 point O25 and Mission Impossible
(14:03):
two had a 32.7. How does it rank against its
direct sequel? That one got a 38.
So this one so far is the best Mission Impossible made
according to the rank. Again, we we still haven't
ranked four of them, so it mightnot always remain at the at the
best Mission Impossible ever made, but this was a damn good
movie. I'm excited to find out I I
(14:23):
can't wait to rank the other Mission Impossibles at some
point and see which which one actually is the best.
It would take a lot for this oneto get beat.
Now, my memory of watching Mission Impossible Ghost
Protocol in the theater makes methink that one would end up
being the best, but you know, hard to say.
All right, well, thanks for listening and or watching.
If you'd like to see a list of our updated rankings, you can do
(14:46):
that on our website at the rank with John and zach.com.
Remember to subscribe, review and comment.
And please consider supporting us on our Patreon site at
patreon.com/the Rank Podcast where you can get exclusive
perks. OK, Zaijin.
(15:11):
Now I'm not sure if these he's not moving, he's thinking.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.