Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 2

Business-wise, "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" may have been a slight victim of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, but that didn't mean that Christopher McQuarrie's third entry in the franchise wasn't another stellar piece of blockbuster entertainment from what is easily the greatest Hollywood franchise going.

Paramount Pictures made the weird decision of opening "Dead Reckoning" just one week before all the premium screens were swallowed up by "Oppenheimer." However, for those of us who did see it on those screens (I actually saw it four times), it blew us away with its impeccable craft, breathless action, and fun, twisty, timely tale of artificial intelligence. In fact, it currently sits atop my list as the best film of 2023 so far, and when the lights went up in the theater after the film ended, I wanted to watch "Dead Reckoning Part Two" immediately.

Of course, that wasn't possible since they haven't even finished shooting Tom Cruise's eighth outing as Ethan Hunt, but you can't quash my desire for it. If you are still reeling from "Dead Reckoning Part One" and want to ramp up your anticipation for "Part Two," I have got you covered. Here's everything we know so far about "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two."

As of now, "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two" is set to hit theaters on June 28, 2024. Because this is a massive Tom Cruise film shot on IMAX-certified cameras, you know it is going to be on all the premium format screens from IMAX to Dolby to 4DX, and it probably won't make its way to digital purchase and rental for a while after that.

The reason I gave the "as of now" caveat at the beginning is because we are still in the midst of the WGA and SAG strikes, and neither shows any signs of ending any time soon. "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two" has suspended filming during the writers strike, since director Christopher McQuarrie is also a co-writer on the script and "Mission: Impossible" movies undergo rewrites throughout production.

Considering the fact that a number of 2023 releases have already been delayed for later in the year or punted to 2024 (with more delays possibly on the horizon), I would not be surprised if Paramount decides to vacate that June 28, 2024 date. It might even have to, because the movie might not even be done in time due to the delays; McQuarrie said that filming was around 40 percent complete when production was halted. No release date change has been made yet, and my hope is that everything gets squared away for "Part Two" to come out then. But until the strikes are resolved, nothing is set in stone.

Story details are light for "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two," beyond what was set up in "Part One." Partly, that's because the sequel is still nearly a year away from being completed and they aren't going to release a ton of plot information this far out. It is also due in part to how the "Mission: Impossible" movies, especially the ones written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, are made. These are films written as they make them, with characters and story changing on a constant basis during production. You listen to the epic episodes McQuarrie has done on the Empire Spoiler Special Podcast, and you'll hear tale after tale about them creating something incredible by making it up as they go. With this being a "Part Two," I imagine things are a little more focused, but you never know with McQuarrie and Cruise.

Here's what we do know: Ethan Hunt now has both halves of the key and is searching for the sunken Sevastopol submarine, which houses the source code of The Entity, the artificial intelligence that serves as the film's ultimate antagonist. Hayley Atwell's Grace has made "The Choice" and decided to join the IMF. How she joins back up with Ethan and the gang we do not know. Ving Rhames' Luther has decided to go into an offline bunker to further investigate the Entity, which has made its way onto his hard drive. Vanessa Kirby's White Widow is probably none too pleased with being knocked out and used as a pawn in the IMF's game of masks. And we still have Esai Morales' Gabriel on the loose, wondering how the Entity could have been foiled at the end of "Part One." That's a lot of story threads to pick up.

With this being a sequel, we will be seeing all of our old friends again. Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Henry Czenry, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, and Greg Tarzan Davis will all be coming back from "Part One." Also returning will be Mariela Garriga as Marie, the woman from Ethan's past whom we see in brief, wordless flashbacks. In "Part One," she was given strangely prominent billing in the credits. She was even given single-card billing, which Whigham and Davis weren't even afforded despite being all over the movie. So, I imagine we will be seeing a lot more of Garriga in "Part Two," and McQuarrie basically confirmed as much in his latest Empire spoiler Special Podcast appearance.

"Part Two" also gets a host of new faces people are sure to be pleased about. Joining the cast are Nick Offerman, Holt McCallany, Hannah Waddingham, Janet McTeer, and Lucy Tulugarjuk. Two people we supposedly won't be seeing are Rebecca Ferguson and Angela Bassett. Ferguson's Ilsa met her end in "Part One," but I am still skeptical of whether she is actually dead. Angela Bassett's character from "Fallout" is still alive and well (and her picture hangs on a wall in one scene in "Part One"). She had to drop out of the first film because of COVID-19 issues, but I wonder if there will be a place for her in "Part Two" with shooting being a lot easier now (strikes notwithstanding). Frankly, I hope both of them show up in "Part Two."

As has been the case since the franchise's fifth installment, "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," the director of "Dead Reckoning Part Two" is Christopher McQuarrie. He has been a collaborator with Tom Cruise on nearly every project the actor and producer has made since 2008's "Valkyrie," be it as a director, writer, or producer, and the pair have blossomed as one of the more consistent and exciting creative partnerships of the last 15 years.

McQuarrie is someone who prides himself on not having a particular style, seeing himself as a storyteller in service of the picture rather than an "artist." Consequently, all three of his "Mission: Impossible" films feel like they were directed by different people, which is actually a benefit in a long-running franchise like this because you never know what flavor of "Mission: Impossible" you are going to get. The first four films of the series each had a different director, and even though the last three have had the same man behind the camera, they are just as varied as those four. Whether McQuarrie aims to keep "Part One" and "Part Two" consistent visually and tonally, we do not entirely know, though we do know that some of "Part Two" was shot during the making of "Part One," so stylistic overlap is bound to be unavoidable.

Along with being the director of the film, Christopher McQuarrie is also the co-writer of "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two." Before he even directed a "Mission: Impossible" movie, McQuarrie hopped aboard "Ghost Protocol" mid-production as an uncredited screenwriter and is largely credited with saving that film from being an incoherent mess. He was the sole screenwriter of both "Rogue Nation" and "Fallout," but for both parts of "Dead Reckoning," McQuarrie brought in a co-writer with Erik Jendresen, probably best known for his work on "Band of Brothers."

Tom Cruise is not just the star of the "Mission: Impossible" series, but also a producer. The first "Mission: Impossible" film in 1996 was the first movie he ever produced (with his then producing partner Paula Wagner), and this series has been his baby ever since. The opening credits of these movies now all sport "A Tom Cruise Production" after crediting Paramount. However, Christopher McQuarrie has also joined the ranks as a producer, and "Dead Reckoning Part One" was presented as "A Tom Cruise/Christopher McQuarrie Production." I would assume "Part Two" would receive the same credit. Regardless of how the credits are played out, Cruise and McQuarrie are the two-headed monster that steers this whole operation, and it's worked out pretty well for them so far.

Currently, there is no trailer for "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two" yet available. Paramount had a long leash with "Part One" and was able to put a teaser in front of "Top Gun: Maverick" over a full year before the movie was due to arrive in theaters. If "Part Two" is able to keep that June 28, 2024 release date, I would suspect we'll start seeing some footage for it before a big Christmastime release like "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom." That is about six months before it comes out, which is a reasonable length of time to start promoting a big movie like this. Of course, that would require James Wan's superhero sequel to not get pushed from its release date either because of the concurrent strikes, so we shall see what happens there.

Every single "Mission: Impossible" movie has been rated PG-13, and though the MPA hasn't officially weighed in on "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two" yet (because the film isn't close to finished), it would be shocking were it rated anything else besides that. Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise have teased a "gnarly" movie in their future, but that is most certainly not "Mission: Impossible." This is a big, crowd-pleasing series that aims to get as many butts in seats as possible, so PG-13 is the way to go. Frankly, with the action set pieces in this series being far more focused on wonder than brutality, there really isn't a reason why "Mission: Impossible" should be rated R. Being thrilling is a whole lot more powerful than being explicit.