Tom Cruise Crashes a Party

The countdown to the new mission has begun, as fans prepare to go on another adventure with Ethan Hunt and the team in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The Tom Cruise-led feature helmed by long-time collaborator Christopher McQuarrie will be the beginning of the two-part story that concludes the long and tiring journey of the character that’s been entertaining fans since 1996. As the marketing for the feature ramps up, we are getting the tidbits of the mission we’re about to embark on.

In a new image shared by Entertainment Weekly, we see Ethan Hunt teaming up with Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust. In the background, a palace is bathed in blue and pink lights with a plethora of people around them as the two eye their prize. McQuarrie reveals that Faust and Ethan will infiltrate a swanky event in Italy, further explaining, “They are at the Doge’s Palace in Venice”:

“It wouldn’t be Mission: Impossible if there was not some formal event that our characters had to attend. They’re walking into an event not knowing what it is they’re walking into and it’s compounded by the fact that there’s a great deal of uncertainty. Ethan is involved in something that he himself does not fully understand.”

What to Expect from Dead Reckoning Part One

Along with breaking into a formal event, high-octane action sequences have been a trademark of the franchise. The director revealed that not only did Cruise jump off a cliff on a motorcycle this time around, but the production also managed to wreck a 70-ton train for the big action set piece. “We’re enormous fans of Buster Keaton, John Frankenheimer, David Lean, all of these filmmakers who at one time or another had a fabulous train wreck. I thought, I’ve earned that, I want to wreck one too,” the director admits.

RELATED: ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1’: Release Date, Cast, Trailer, and Everything We Know So Far

The movie will bring back many faces from the franchise to aid Ethan on this mission. Along with Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust he’s accompanied by Ving Rhames‘ Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg‘s Benji Dunn, Vanessa Kirby as arms dealer White Widow, Henry Czerny as former IMF director Kittridge, and Hayley Atwell. The franchise has some new cast members that include Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Esai Morales, who per the director is “one of the antagonists” of the upcoming feature.

Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning drops into theaters on July 12.