Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Footage Reaction: Tom Cruise Defies Death, Again [CinemaCon 2022]

Today's the last day of CinemaCon and it could certainly be argued that they've been saving the best for last. It's been some time since Tom Cruise last put his body on the line to provide us with memorable thrills in 2018's "Mission: Impossible – Fallout." The incredibly long-running franchise happens to boast one of the longest tenures of a movie star portraying a single action hero — much longer than that of Daniel Craig's recently-completed run as James Bond or Robert Downey Jr.'s as Tony Stark! With Cruise back and ready to reprise his role as Ethan Hunt alongside director Christopher McQuarrie for the next few installments, fans are left to wait in eager anticipation over how the creative team could possibly one-up themselves after the heart-stopping set pieces featured throughout "Fallout." Well, Tom Cruise is either going to find a way to do exactly that ... or die trying.

And the newly revealed title seems to emphasize that. The film will be titled "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning — Part One."

Paramount has seen fit to cast an even more exciting ensemble of newly-cast stars for the seventh installment of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, with Haley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Cary Elwes, Indira Varma, Shea Whigham, and even original cast member from the 1996 "Mission: Impossible," Henry Czerny, set to star in the upcoming film. The talk of the day is sure to be the new footage screened for lucky attendees at CinemaCon, which we were lucky enough to have boots on the ground for with /Film's Ben Pearson. Check out all the exciting details of the next "Mission: Impossible" movie below!

The footage from the new film showcases some of the many, many action scenes we will see when Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt returns in the next film. We see shots of him engaged in a fistfight in the middle of a nightclub, then driving in a vehicle with doors ripped off like he was chasing Dominic Toretto. There are also shots of green gas clouds exploding in the middle of a conference room, probably because of Ethan's shenanigans. The action highlight of the footage is our first look at the highly anticipated train stunt where Ethan jumps across a moving train, which looks so kinetic and blood-pumpingly cool that you'll want the whole movie injected into your veins for that sweet, sweet adrenaline rush (we're paraphrasing our writer on the ground's words here, but the excitement is contagious). 

We also catch up with some old friends, like Ving Rhames' Luther, Simon Pegg's Benji, and Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust, who is seen wielding a sniper rifle against a gorgeous Italian sunset. The biggest surprise, for those not aware of casting news, is the return of Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, who will make his triumphant return to the franchise to scoff at Hunt, telling him "your days of fighting for the greater good are over." More ominous is a shot of Kittridge telling Ethan to "pick a side," which has us believe there will be some Dom in "Fate of the Furious" seemingly-betraying-your-friends-but-not-really sub-plot. In any case, we are in for a wild ride.

The next two "Mission: Impossible" movies have been beset by delays primarily because of the pandemic, further pushing back what's likely to be Tom Cruise's last outings as Ethan Hunt. At last count, the seventh "Mission: Impossible" film has been scheduled to debut in theaters on July 14, 2023.