Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (soundtrack)

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Music from the Motion Picture) is the

Lorne Balfe started writing the music for Dead Reckoning three years ago, who recalled that the film's emotion came from "a totally different side to Ethan where he was protective and driven by different things". Like the predecessors, he reused the franchise's opening theme composed by Lalo Schifrin as it was connected well throughout the film and Ethan's musical motif. He went into a darker space for chord progressions looking back to the reinventions of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Igor Stravinsky, which is what "the audience relates to and their connection with it, but it’s twisted differently … It was about taking that and delving into the emotional and tragic vocabulary."^[4]

The score was recorded in conjunction with the filming itself, which took place in various locations in Europe—Rome, Vienna, Venice, Switzerland and London. Balfe wanted to be "pure and honest" on depicting the authenticity throughout the film, hence he brought several local musicians and ensemble across Europe which helped them discover new talents. McQuarrie and Cruise saw the performance of

Balfe recalled there was a lot of experimentation with the score as he had more time working on the film.[6] More than fourteen hours of score had been recorded for the film with over 555 musicians. Due to time constraints, the full score has been edited to two-and-a-half hours long.^[5] On July 8, 2023, Balfe shared a snippet from the orchestral recording that performed the main theme, further indicating the creative process behind the film score.^[7] On October 27, an extended edition of the soundtrack was released, including 15 previously unreleased tracks.^[8] La-La Land Records announced a soundtrack CD featuring the film's "suites and themes" shortly thereafter, featuring the 15 bonus tracks of the extended edition.^[9]

Track listing

All music is composed by Lorne Balfe, except where noted.

Reception

To date, the score has been positively reviewed by critics. Alex Flood of NME called the score as "bombastic" and "reinvented to thrilling effect".^[10] Time Out's Phil de Semlyen called the score as "beefy",^[11] while Tim Grierson of Screen International complimented it as "pulsating".^[12] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter commented "Much of the propulsion is also due to Lorne Balfe’s pounding score, incorporating a thunderous remix of the classic Lalo Schifrin TV theme music."^[13] Jamie Graham of GamesRadar+ also wrote "Lorne Balfe newly ignites Lalo Schifrin’s original theme tune with a percussive makeover that plays like syncopated detonations".^[14] Chris Bumbray of JoBlo.com wrote "The score, by Lorne Balfe, is good as always, nicely complimenting the movie’s darker tone by occasionally taking on a more bittersweet, somber tone."^[15]

References