Stakes Higher Than Ever in 'Mission: Impossible 7' Trailer

"Ethan, this mission of yours... is going to cost you dearly," Tom Cruise's IMF agent Ethan Hunt is told in the first moments of the new Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One trailer, likely the penultimate film in Paramount Pictures' massively popular franchise.

The film's official synopsis explains that "Ethan Hunt and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands."

"With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan's past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins," the synopsis continues. "Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission—not even the lives of those he cares about most."

And it does seem as though the stakes are higher than ever this time around, as a disembodied female voice warns that the world is changing and war is imminent. But not if Ethan has anything to say about it, anyway, as the trailer shows Cruise—who famously performs his own stunts—in a variety of death-defying situations, such as riding his motorcycle straight off a cliff, engaged in high-speed car chases, fighting on a speeding train, and of course, engaged in plenty of hand-to-hand combat.

In addition to Cruise, the seventh Mission Impossible installment features returning faces such as Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Czerny, Vanessa Kirby, and Frederick Schmidt. Newcomers include Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Cary Elwes, and Shea Whigham. Christopher McQuarrie is likewise back in the director's seat, after helming 2018's Mission: Impossible—Fallout. McQuarrie will also direct Part Two, expected to hit theaters next year.

How will Ethan's story end? We'll find out soon enough. Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One comes crashing into theaters on July 12, 2023.