WARNING: The following has some mild spoilers from “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1”. Although the scene is very early in the movie (about 20 minutes in – right before the opening credits) so there are no big spoilers in this.
For the 2nd year in a row, I don’t agree with almost everyone else about a Tom Cruise movie. Last year, I didn’t like “Top Gun Maverick” much (I thought it was basically the first movie remixed along with an ending that seemed suspiciously like the ending to the original “Star Wars” movie) and this year I didn’t like “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1” much. I didn’t like it for a lot more than the following scene (I’m working on my review right now) but the scene was the first – and biggest – thing in this movie that I didn’t like. If there were a “worst movie scene” category in the razzie awards, I would nominate this movie.
The scene happens early in the movie. There’s an airplane hangar sized room where a lot of people are working (it’s a part of the plot – I’m limiting the spoilers so I won’t be revealing the plot of the movie). On one side of the hangar there’s an office overlooking the big room. In the office there’s about 10 people in the room. Most of them are explaining to the director (Cary Elwes) what has happened and what is happening (the backstory for the plot of this movie). While they’re talking, a man goes through a security checkpoint with a face scanner and a scanner for the briefcase he’s carrying. He is permitted to enter and a few seconds later he enters the room that the other people are having a meeting in while Kittridge (Henry Czerny – last seen WAAAY BACK in the first “Mission Impossible” movie) is talking.
(HERE BE SPOILERS) While the other people are talking, the man opens his briefcase, pulls out a gas mask and hands Kittridge a small case with another gas mask. After he hands it to him, he removes a few small orbs from his briefcase and throws them up in the air. The orbs are gas bombs that knock out everyone else in the room except for the two people with the gas masks (the photo from the trailer is the gas exploding).
After everyone else in unconscious the man who threw the gas bombs pulls of his mask to show that he is actually Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). Kittridge and Hunt talk for a few minutes (a lot of what Kittridge says is in the trailer for the movie). Then the phone rings. Kittridge answers it because the director is “unavailable”. The security person is calling to warn him that there is an imposter in the room. They’re sending security to the office right away. After that, Hunt puts on a new mask with Kittridge face and then shoots Kittridge with a knockout dart.
The first question I have with this scene is why are there so many people in the meeting? Was there a contest I didn’t hear about? ENTER TO WIN A SMALL SPEAKING ROLE IN THE NEXT “MISSION IMPOSSIBLE” MOVIE!!! Almost every person in the room has at least one line. A couple times, one person starts a sentence and then another person ends the sentence. Did they stay up all night rehearsing what they were going to say before the meeting happened? It almost seems like a scene from an Aaron Sorkin movie or TV show where multiple people are speaking almost at the same time (except it isn’t set up as well as the scenes Aaron Sorkin writes).
The second problem I have with the scene is it’s basically in the movie to explain the backstory and plot to the audience. There are several different ways they could have done this. They didn’t really need to explain it since it’s very early in the movie. The story so far isn’t that complex that it needs to be explained (although there are things later in the movie that I wish were explained).
The next problem I have has to do with the lack of security in this supposedly government building. The have a face scanner that is fooled by a mask and they have a scanner for the briefcase that apparently didn’t see the two gas masks and the orbs of gas that were inside the briefcase. If there is something possibly an issue at the airport, they will inspect your bag. I guess the security at the airport is a lot better than the security in this building.
The lack of security continues when the man enters the meeting room. A couple people look at him when he enters the room but then doesn’t notice when he opens his briefcase, hands a gas mask to Kittridge (at least Kittridge noticed) and threw some gas bombs into the air. Also, the meeting room is right next to the giant room with a lot of people working in it. Yet, when some gas bombs explode in the room no one in the larger room notices (see photo above) and no alarms go off. Nothing happens for a few minutes while Hunt and Kittridge are talking. The first thing that happens after that is a phone call. It would have probably been quicker and easier to send security to the office instead of just a phone call asking if everything is all right like when someone accidentally calls 911.
Another problem I have is something the scene doesn’t answer. How does Hunt leave the building. He’s wearing a mask that looks like Kittridge but will probably be stopped once security arrives in the meeting room and discovers Kittridge still in the room. He may be able to leave the room before anyone arrives, but they should be able to stop him before he gets out of the building. I guess the filmmakers also couldn’t figure out how he gets out of the building because in the next shot is somewhere else. Naturally, Hunt managed to get out of the building.
The final and biggest problem I have with the scene is that it ruins the flow of the movie. There are a couple action scenes before this scene then the pacing slows down to a crawl – even with the gas bombs going off.
To recap: The scene didn’t need to be in the movie, it didn’t need to have so many people in it, it’s badly staged and written especially the lack of security in the government building, and it kills the pace of the movie. The conclusion is the scene should have been cut from the movie. I’m not sure why it’s even in the movie other than to introduce Kittridge and Denlinger (the character Cary Elwes plays).
I’m not alone about this. Some friends I’ve spoken too also thought the scene was terrible. One of them sent me a joke where the people are negotiating who will say what line the night before the meeting happens.
Of course, there are bad scenes in movies. There’s a couple more in this movie and there are some in other movies I’ve seen recently (a lot of scenes in “Oppenheimer” could have been cut in my opinion). However, the scene is my nomination for the WORST SCENE in a movie in 2023 (so far). If anyone had nominations for something like that.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 