(Credit: Netflix)

There are two things Tom Cruise refuses to do: age quietly and sit still. One look at the Netflix UK Top 10, and you will find proof. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning has found its way back into the charts. It was first released in 2023, and now, it is surging again. Maybe people just miss big-screen energy. Or maybe they just cannot resist Cruise doing something dangerously impossible yet again.

The 2023 action blockbuster is the seventh instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise. It reintroduces us to Ethan Hunt, who is not just chasing a villain this time. He is chasing a force that is far more terrifying, an artificial intelligence system called ‘The Entity’. It knows everything, sees everything, and can alter reality with just a few lines of code. The threat is not just global. It is personal, psychological, and eerily familiar.

One of the best things for action lovers in the film is that it does not waste time setting the pace. Tom Cruise does not waste time and dives right into chaos. He, as usual, has performed stunts that blur the line between cinema and daredevilry. From cliff dives to train fights, he keeps proving that he is not here to phone it in. At this point, Ethan Hunt is not just a character, he is a one-man genre.

The film’s director, Christopher McQuarrie, has unleashed his madness with remarkable control in the direction. The action is fast, but does not feel rushed. The perfect way to say it is that there is a rhythm to the madness, and it shows. Something that grabs your attention but refuses to let go.

The other cast of the film includes Hayley Atwell, who has joined the mission as Grace. She plays a thief who is hard to trust and even harder to ignore. Her scenes with Tom Cruise bring humour and tension in equal measure. Apart from her, there lies the core crew of Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Rebecca Ferguson. They continue to feel like the emotional glue of the story. They are not just background noise; they matter.

What makes Dead Reckoning interesting is not just the watch. It is the way the film uses science fiction to explore something disturbingly close to real life. We live in a world where misinformation spreads faster than truth. A place where digital systems influence everything from elections to relationships. In such a space, ‘The Entity’ feels less like a movie device and more like a prophecy.

The reason why the film is climbing the charts on Netflix is that people are gearing up for the final chapter. Or perhaps they are just tired of half-hearted action flicks with too much CGI and not enough soul. Whatever be the reason, its return to the charts is well-earned. This is old-school action wrapped in modern anxiety, delivered by someone who never stops running.

The film does not try to be subtle. It does not need to. In a streaming landscape filled with quiet dramas and true crime docuseries, sometimes all you want is to watch a man dangle from a train because the world might end if he does not.