Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
Ethan Hunt and the IMF team must track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and 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 the mission -- not even the lives of those he cares about most.
James Saenz reviewedMay 22, 2025
“i swear, your life will always matter more to me than my own.”
“you don’t even know me.”
“what difference does that make?”
in this age of growing over-reliance on artificial intelligence in its myriad forms, an age of burgeoning distrust and disdain where hostility between in- and out-groups festers at the hands of modified and misrepresented information, it’s such a beacon of hope to witness a piece of art that is so deeply entrenched in compassion and humanity. ethan hunt is not just the living manifestation of destiny, but also an avatar of compassion. the entity is cold, callous, unfeeling. it represents the utter lack of empathy and foresight with which both the united states government and capitalism treat people, eager to sacrifice individuality, freedom, privacy and critical thought in exchange for power, complacency and automation. in our modern world, a world in which technofascism is so quickly on the rise, the indomitable human spirit must fight back with the tenacity of ethan hunt.
it’s so poignant that the director of national intelligence in this film would be so willing and eager to marry the entity with the overwhelming might of america’s military industrial complex, so willing to rewrite the truth to suit his own interests. gabriel, the fanatical messenger angel of the entity, does not ascribe to these same ambitions, but his own zealotry’s goals can only lead to another form of human subjugation. this is not even technically a war with artificial intelligence, but rather the philosophy that engenders it. it’s a war against apathy, a war against the relinquishment of agency for the sake of convenience. it is a war against the commodification of every moment of human life, a fight to save the sanctuaries of the human soul and preserve artistic integrity; in cruise’s main point of contention, it’s a war to preserve institutions like the theater. what was born out of passion and ingenuity has deteriorated into huxley’s soma, from exploring imagination to simply consuming content. literature, and by extension art in its countless forms, has constantly warned of this evil. from bradbury to orwell, from huxley’s brave new world to herbert’s butlerian jihad, mankind’s desperate need to innovate and develop has lead to our demise in some fashion intellectually, emotionally, physically, etc. at what point will we ever stop? at what point will we ever realize the gravity of our mistakes, and start to seek our own humanity again? the future is bleak, but the ability change it is always in our grasp.