Briefing: 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning'
Your full debriefing on a franchise that traded spycraft for spectacle - but still packed theaters like it was a matter of national security
Good evening, moviegoer.
In this review package, you will find your briefing on the latest and most likely final mission of Ethan Hunt. Should you choose to continue reading, be advised: there will be humor, sardonic jabs, good-natured sarcasm, and not an inconsiderable amount of grammatical stunts.
Classified Addendum — Spoiler Alert:
This briefing covers not only Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, but the entire IMF operation to date. Expect references to prior missions, compromised agents, and key plot intel from previous installments. Proceed with full decryption clearance.
It has been a long ride, packed with action, intrigue, conspiracy, and stunts that seem hellbent on outdoing the last in sheer lunacy. But the curtain is finally falling on IMF super agent Ethan Hunt, or so they claim, in a film with a title that sounds like it was pulled straight from fan fiction: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
But will it be the last one, as the title and the metric tons of marketing materials suggest? Will Tom Cruise, now in his early 60s, really hang up the stunt harness? The man's charging into each film like a space church Evel Knievel with a messiah complex - too hooked on velocity, adrenaline, and applause to quit. This is the natural endpoint for a franchise that's shifted from spycraft to spectacle, with each stunt now seemingly engineered to out-madness the last.
Just look at the marketing. It's a full-blown adrenaline-drenched circus of stunts, stunts, stunts. Whether jumping off Norwegian landmarks or hanging off trains and biplanes, it's like Cruise is auditioning for some kind of deranged Cirque du Insanity instead of starring in a spy thriller with an actual plot. Remember those? You know, stories with tension, twists, and maybe even a villain who isn't an algorithm - just some monocled lunatic with a scar and a volcano lair. Come to think of it, can you even name any of the villains in this franchise? Was it EuroVillain #7? Badguy McKillface?
Maybe that's a bit harsh. While the franchise's bad guys might not have the staying power of certain Bond villains, the Mission: Impossible series has had its great antagonists. Sean Harris' whispery renegade-spy-turned-cult-leader Solomon Lane and Henry Cavill's mustachioed battering ram August Walker are my favorites - menacing, memorable, and unhinged. Both would be more than enough to give the average Bond villain a run for their ill-gotten money.
I know, I know… It's not that kind of super spy franchise. And fair enough. The ride we got onto in 1996 has been an exciting one. Based on the 60s TV series, which was resurrected for cinema, the fledgling franchise stumbled through an early identity crisis, with different filmmakers trying to reshape it in their own image.
Starting with Brian DePalma's stylish, tense, and conspiracy-fueled thriller - full of daring heists, unnerving Dutch tilts, and more noir lighting than a 40s spy flick - it was white dove enthusiast John Woo's turn next, delivering an operatic action orgy packed with slow-motion martial arts, motorcycle duels, and a bad guy so comically over-the-top he'd make Dr. Evil snicker, pinky finger and all.
This tonal whiplash was corrected with the third and fourth films, and with them, the series began to find something of a coherent style and rhythm. And with it, something shifted. Tom Cruise, the adrenaline junkie that he is, threw himself into bigger and more insane stunts. The audience loved it, and once the massive marketing apparatus behind these movies caught on, the shift was sealed.
And as director Christopher McQuarrie entered the picture in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, it was done. Everything was about the stunts. And the running. Can't forget the running, right? The story? Not that important. The convoluted spy plots? Practically background noise. At least compared to the stunts that were now blatantly front and center on every marketing poster, as if the now elusive and complicated stories were written around them.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning arrived in 2023, the first half of Ethan Hunt's swan song. McQuarrie and Cruise pulled out all the stops, flooding the market with shots of the super agent launching himself off yet another Norwegian rock formation - this time on a motorcycle.
It was on all the posters, and as a Norwegian, I remember my heart sinking every time I drove past them. Yet another reminder that the franchise had traded story for spectacle, and our national landmarks had become mere action set pieces.
What was the plot in that film? Something about a submarine carrying a dangerous artificial intelligence sinking with everyone onboard, and the hunt for a gold key needed to control it. It's a screenplay no doubt inspired by the trendy cautioning against uncontrolled technology, the advent of AI and ChatGPT, but hopefully not written by it. It feels timely, but what could all that possibly have to do with Tom Cruise driving a motorcycle off a cliff? And while it was fun, it's certainly no Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which is my favorite in the franchise.
But enough context. Let's get onto the main event, shall we, before this review spirals into an unhinged rant about self-mythologizing actors and the slow death of substance in blockbuster action thrillers.
The story of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning picks up a few months after the events of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, and the world is on the brink. The artificial intelligence known as the Entity has infected the world's digital systems and is on the verge of taking complete control of every nuclear missile and defense network, with the intention of eradicating humanity. As a defensive measure, human governments are relying on analog tech and plain old pen and paper to save the world, buying hours and minutes on the doomsday clock.
Meanwhile, Ethan Hunt, having secured the golden MacGuffin key from the previous film, is in hiding. Trusting no one but his team, he refuses to hand it over, knowing that any nation gaining control of the Entity would become a new tyranny. On the flip side, destroying the Entity would collapse every digital system on the planet, plunging humanity into a technological dark age. But the lesser of two evils - while still evil - might be the better choice. So destroy it he will. The question is: can it be done without destroying society along with it?
Enter Ethan's good friend, Luther (played by Ving Rhames), in many ways, the soul of this film. When we meet him, the old hacker is sick, but still kicking, working from a hidden hospital bed, developing a digital "poison pill" virus to take down the Entity. Through intensive planning and technobabble, the mission is on. The goal: save the world before humanity is enslaved or destroyed by the Entity.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning pulls out all the stops in its effort to wrap up Ethan Hunt's story. It does so by trying to connect all the Mission: Impossible films together, and much of the first act uses flashbacks to tie everything back to the 1996 original. Apparently, nothing was not connected to this finale. For instance, remember the "Rabbit's Foot" from Mission: Impossible III? I get the idea that nothing in Ethan Hunt's life was an accident and that everything was in some way connected, but I do wish the film didn't rely so heavily on flashbacks, as it causes this section to drag more than necessary.
This first stretch of storytelling is exciting enough, though, reuniting us with the team: Ethan, Luther, Benji (Simon Pegg), and Grace (Hayley Atwell). We also have new additions to the team, such as the former Interpol agent Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) and French psychopath-turned-ally Paris (Pom Klementieff), who has a murderous grudge against former Entity disciple Gabriel (Esai Morales) after the villain left her for dead with a knife in her side on that train in the Swiss Alps (or was it Norway?) in the previous film.
While the story feels like a step up from the vague threats in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, this final installment still has a villain problem. Esai Morales, who reprises the role of the aptly named Gabriel - the digital Entity's prime disciple - is a very good actor. But in this role, he leans a bit too much toward mustache-twirling.
However, the film struggles to balance its human and digital antagonists. Throughout, I felt that Morales' character would have worked better if he had more screenplay to chew, not just scenery. At the same time, the threat of the Entity, while looming, doesn't feel real. There are moments where it makes its presence known, but it's a constant push and pull for villainous attention, and the balance suffers because of it.
But you're not here for the convoluted spy plots, are you? You're here for the stunts and action set pieces. And here, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning delivers.
You have, of course, seen the cool shots and clips of Tom Cruise hanging off the side of that biplane. If not, how? It's all over the marketing. The scene is over-the-top and exciting, and again, it makes me wonder if Tom Cruise has some kind of contract clause to up the stunt risk of every film in the franchise. But while exciting, I refer again to the introduction of this briefing. When does it become too much? Is Tom Cruise just coming up with ideas for stunts he wants to do, then McQuarrie has to scramble to write a screenplay around them?
One sequence I found more thrilling, however, was the big underwater set piece where Ethan Hunt has to dive to a sunken submarine. Maybe it's my fear of deep water talking here, but that worked much better for me - a long, claustrophobic sequence, with only Tom Cruise, submerged in icy depths, and not a single line of dialogue. And the whole sequence was driven by the plot, not a recreation of a 1925 barnstorming act.
Still, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is a thrilling and worthy sendoff for Ethan Hunt. It might not reach the lofty heights of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, in my opinion, but it is still one of the stronger entries in the franchise.
So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the nearest theatre - preferably one with the biggest, loudest screen you can find - and watch Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. Should you or any of your friends disapprove of the film, the writer of this briefing will disavow all knowledge of your actions.