“Our lives are the sum of our choices,” says Tom Cruise, age 60, as he constantly chooses to tempt fate on his own life by stopping his motorcycle right before a cliff in the new trailer for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. Judging from the trailer for the film, out July 12, his other choices also include questionable behavior, like lots and lots of running, slugging baddies on top of a moving train, and plenty of knowing stares. There is, however, a peaceful gondola ride.
There’s also all the action you’d expect — submarine torpedoes, car crashes, guns, katana swords, and helicopters — from a Mission: Impossible movie. And, of course, Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, drives his motorcycle off another cliff later on and even jumps off it midflight. “Your life will always matter more to me than my own,” he says at one point.
The picture’s plot, which probably sounds more trite to read than to watch, finds the indefatigable Hunt searching for a dastardly, humanity-destroying weapon before a group of bad guys gets to it first. Meanwhile, a mysterious villain hunts Hunt.
Filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie, who helmed the Rogue Nation and Fallout installments of the franchise, again directs both episodes of Dead Reckoning. He also co-wrote the screenplay and co-produced both new films, the second of which will come out next year with Cruise.
In addition to Cruise, the cast includes returning franchisees Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Fredrick Schmidt. It also features Hayley Atwell, Cary Elwes, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, and Rob Delaney, among others.
In one tense scene, Cruise menacingly declares, “If anything happens to them, there’s no place that I won’t go to kill you — that is written.” From the look on his face, he means it.