Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One[a] is a 2023 American action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen.

It stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, alongside an ensemble cast including Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga and Henry Czerny.

Dead Reckoning Part One premiered in Rome on June 19, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 12, by Paramount Pictures.

The AI, designated "the Entity", becomes sentient and goes rogue after deceiving the submarine crew into attacking themselves with a torpedo, killing all aboard and sinking the Sevastopol in the Arctic Ocean.

Ethan and his IMF teammates Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell travel to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the second piece of the key.

It is revealed to be a fake, although Ethan encounters Grace, a skilled thief who steals the first piece of the key from him, while Luther and Benji disarm a hoax nuclear device.

Ethan is pursued by US agents but spots his mortal enemy Gabriel, an Entity liaison with ties to his pre-IMF past, and aborts the mission, scattering the team.

Ethan flees the wreckage by paraglider with the completed key, which he pickpocketed from Gabriel during the fight, and rendezvous with Benji to continue the mission to find the Sevastopol and destroy the Entity.

Additionally, Charles Parnell, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma and Mark Gatiss appear as heads of US Intelligence agencies, representing NRO, JSOC, DIA and NSA, respectively.

In March 2021, McQuarrie revealed that Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss and Cary Elwes had joined the cast.

[13] McQuarrie revealed that for the flashback segments, he considered making them reflective of the 1989 setting akin to "Tony Scott’s Mission: Impossible", down to de-aging all the actors and featuring Julia Roberts as the girlfriend murdered by Gabriel.

[33] Under the working title Libra,[34] filming was scheduled to begin on February 20, 2020, in Venice, set up to last for three weeks before moving to Rome in mid-March for 40 days,[35][36] but the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy halted production in the country.

In December 2020, during filming in London, an audio recording of Cruise shouting at two crew members for not following COVID-19 protocols on set was released online.

[46][47] The response from the general public and that of many celebrities was supportive, suggesting that his tone and seriousness were warranted given the extreme circumstances and burden of ensuring production not be halted again.

[54] In August 2021, filming commenced in Birmingham at the city's Grand Central shopping centre, with Cruise and Atwell spotted by onlookers.

The fells of High Crag and Robinson were used as launching points for shooting the speed flying scene, with landings taking place near the shore of the nearby lake.

[61] During the pre-production in late 2019, the Swiss government refused to authorize any explosions for the train sequence in the Alps;[62] as a result, the Skydance Media production team embarked on location scoutings in different countries to find an unwanted railway bridge.

[54] In November 2019, the Polish State Railways proposed Eksner use a 151-meter-long (495 ft), 1908 German-era riveted truss bridge on Lake Pilchowickie, in the Jelenia Góra Valley, in Lower Silesia.

[63][64] In December 2019, Paramount Pictures producers including McQuarrie landed in southern Poland,[65] accompanied in deep secrecy by officers of the Polish engineering troops.

[71][72] In March 2020, after the rejected Eksner spread the information,[54] local authorities and museum officials were appalled by the producers' intention to physically destroy the bridge, instead of using CGI effects.

[86] Filming of the train wreck scene was expected to take place between April and June 2021 on a constructed set in a disused quarry in the Peak District National Park in Stoney Middleton, with a railway line and part of a bridge over the cliff edge.

The projects revealed a parody poster, in which the main characters from the anime series replace the movie cast, and also released a "collab highlights video", narrated by the voice actors of the titular Forger family.

[129] While the film fell short of expectations after it "turned out a much lower opening weekend than expected",[130][131][132] Deadline Hollywood noted that unlike Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), another near-three-hour film that cost around $300 million and opened to $84 million over its first five days, Dead Reckoning Part One benefitted from better critic and audience scores.

[136] Some outlets noted that the film's unexpected box office drop could be attributed to ceding IMAX screens to Oppenheimer, as well as business going to the Barbenheimer doubleheader phenomenon (which Cruise and McQuarrie also promoted) despite Sound of Freedom also outperforming it domestically.

The website's consensus reads: "With world-threatening stakes and epic set pieces to match that massive title, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One proves this is still a franchise you should choose to accept.

[6][153] Brian Truitt for USA Today lauded the action sequences, saying "it's the first half of a man vs. machine epic that doesn't skimp in the thrills department.

"[154] In a mixed review for Little White Lies, Adam Woodward remarked of the film's "diminishing returns amid all the ambitious action".

[155] In contrast to the very positive review by Variety's Peter Debruge,[156] Owen Gleiberman wrote a column about the film for the magazine, stating that he thinks Cruise and McQuarrie should "go back" to what audiences loved about the franchise if they want to "end it on a high note.

[158] After a screening of the film at Camp David, President Joe Biden's chief of staff Bruce Reed stated, "If he hadn't already been concerned about what could go wrong with AI before that movie, he saw plenty more to worry about."

[191] In July 2023, during promotion for Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise expressed interest in continuing to make further films in the series as Hunt.