Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One just set a record for the franchise and for Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise returns to the big screen this week, fronting one of the summer’s most anticipated movies thanks to the July 12 release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. It’s the seventh installment in what’s now a nearly 30-year-old franchise, and it’s already racked up a slew of glowing reviews praising the jaw-dropping effects and the overall spectacle — meaning fans can rest assured, in other words, that this new go-round for Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his IMF team definitely brings the goods.

In fact, now that we’re 48 hours out from the highly anticipated release, the new Mission: Impossible title has also just reached an impressive milestone — not only for the franchise itself, but also for its leading man.

• First, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is now the most critically acclaimed movie in the entire franchise, given the near-perfect 98% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score so far (based on 180 reviews). Moreover, with Rotten Tomatoes critics’ scores that are above 90% for four of the franchise’s titles, Mission: Impossible is now one of the most critically acclaimed movie franchises of all time.
• As for the record I mentioned for Cruise himself, his latest has also given Cruise his highest score on Rotten Tomatoes to date (Fun fact: His lowest? That would be 1988’s Cocktail, which has a pretty terrible 9% critics’ score).

Other franchise records are almost sure to come, with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One also expected to have the best opening-weekend performance at the box office for the entire series. Moreover, the film will more or less be able to run the table at multiplexes around the country for two weeks, with no real competition until the mammoth double whammy on July 21 of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

Having said all that: What else is there to add, really, about the new Mission: Impossible? These films generally offer fan service of the highest order. The effects and action sequences are always massive and get your pulse racing, and involve Cruise generally putting himself into all sorts of perilous and wild scenarios (like hanging off the back of a plane that’s just taken off or riding a motorbike off the side of a cliff).

As for the story itself here, it’s not anything we haven’t seen before, really. Track down a deadly weapon. Keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Save the world. Rinse, repeat. Don’t get me wrong, though; that’s not me criticizing the material. On the contrary, it’s just that you already know what you’re getting with a film like the new Mission: Impossible: A rollicking good time at the movies that will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. Give me my ticket already.