Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 2 – What we know

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Dead ReckoningParamount Pictures

Here’s everything we know about Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 so far, including its release date, cast, plot, any early footage, and more.

Steven Spielberg told Tom Cruise to his face that he might have saved the theatrical moviegoing industry with Top Gun: Maverick, the second-biggest blockbuster of 2022. With Mission: Impossible 7, an ante-upping stunt-fest that pushes action further than it’s ever been, it’s hard to disagree.

The first half of the double-bill event is arriving in cinemas worldwide this week, reuniting audiences with Ethan Hunt and his bomb-defusing, terrorist-chasing IMF team for their toughest mission yet. If you’re just out of the cinema and want to catch yourself up on the ending, head over here.

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Of course, you’re probably wondering how long you’ll need to wait for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 – so, here’s what we know.

Spoilers for Part 1 to follow…

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 release date

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 will hit cinemas on June 28, 2024.

The sequel was originally set for release on August 5, 2022, but as a result of global restrictions, it was delayed until November 4, 2022, before being shifted again to July 7, 2023. Part 1 pretty much took its spot, with the second half being punted all the way to summer 2024.

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Originally, it was going to be filmed back-to-back with Part 1, a bit like the initial plans for John Wick: Chapter 4 and a fifth entry, but this wasn’t feasible in the pandemic. Principal photography kicked off in March 2022, and in trademark M:I style, it’s been another globe-trotting shoot – but it was halted recently amid the writers’ strike.

As per Empire, the strike has “stopped [director Christopher] McQuarrie in his tracks”, so we’d expect production to resume once a deal has been reached. This could lead to a delay, but we’ll keep this space updated.

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At the premiere for Part 1, McQuarrie told Collider: “We’ve shot all but one of our international locations. We’ve shot our big action except for the biggest set piece, the central set piece of the film, which is massive and unlike anything we’ve done, and, I think, unlike anything you’ve seen.”

Is there a Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 trailer?

There isn’t a trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2… but there is footage.

To open the first screening of Top Gun: Maverick at CinemaCon, Cruise and McQuarrie sent over an incredible video of the star standing on top of a biplane while filming in South Africa, one of the locations in Dead Reckoning Part 2. “See you at the movies,” he says, as the plane plunges downward.

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In another video from South Africa, Cruise took viewers with him as he skydived. “Thank you for allowing us to entertain you. It truly is the honor of a lifetime,” he said, coming amid the box office domination of Top Gun: Maverick. So, we can expect some hefty aerial sequences in the next movie.

This is your final spoiler warning…

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 cast

We can expect the following actors and characters in the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 cast:

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  • Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt
  • Hayley Atwell as Grace
  • Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell
  • Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn
  • Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis
  • Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge
  • Esai Morales as Gabriel
  • Shea Whigham as Jasper
  • Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas
  • Pom Klementieff as Paris

There are two people we’ll (probably) not see again: Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust and Cary Elwes as Denlinger, as both characters were killed off in Part 1.

Ilsa was first introduced in Rogue Nation and seemed like a natural fit for Ethan, but she’s murdered by Gabriel in a sword-and-knife fight on the streets of Venice. As for Denlinger, the head of national security, he’s also killed by Gabriel with a flick of a blade to the throat.

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There are a host of new additions, but their exact roles haven’t been confirmed: Holt McCallany, Hannah Waddingham, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Rolf Saxon, Janet McTear, and Nick Offerman.

We’ll keep this space updated with any new information regarding the cast.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 plot

Well, we don’t have any official plot details for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2… but we know what it’ll be about.

After Part 1, we’re expecting to see Ethan Hunt and his IMF team (Benji, Luther, and Grace) racing against Gabriel to find the Entity; more specifically, the Sevastapol submarine that holds its secrets.

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However, McQuarrie isn’t even at the finish line yet in terms of piecing the story together. “I don’t know what the ending of Part 2 is, so I couldn’t tell you,” he told Collider.

“I’m not being evasive. I could tell you that I know what the end of Part 2 is, but I can’t guarantee that that will be the ending when we get there.”

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1Paramount Pictures

He added: “Tom and I never obsess about executing the plan. We always have a direction, we always have a place we’re going. In our trying to describe the process, in retrospect, it sounds as though what we do is just flying by the seat of our pants and making it up as we go along. That’s not an accurate description. You are definitely flying in a direction, you’re definitely prepared. You couldn’t be that cavalier without somebody getting seriously physically hurt. These things are planned within an inch of their life. Along the way, we see a shiny object and go for it.”

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We can also expect the relevance of the title to be even clearer in Part 2, with McQuarrie telling the Light the Fuse podcast: “The title for the first movie was nearly a title that referred to something like a Ghost Protocol kind of thing. It was a government policy – It wasn’t a government policy. It was a government, what would you call it? A government measure of last resort, with catastrophic consequences.

“By the time we got to the end of Part 1, that had distilled down into an entirely different set of circumstances that appear in Part 2 and not in Part 1. So, the word would no longer have been appropriate for the title of Part 1.”

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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 is in UK cinemas now, and it’ll arrive in the US on July 12. Check out our other coverage below:

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