‘Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’ Review

Almost 30 years since the first film, the Mission: Impossible franchise has gone through its ups and downs, but has become one of the most dependable blockbuster action franchises led by Tom Cruise’s unwavering determination to entertain audiences. The direct sequel and second part of 2023’s Dead Reckoning, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning sees Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s creative relationship continue to deliver in that regard. However, fitting to its title, their latest collaboration also attempts to close the series in on itself, find a way to tie the franchise up with a neat bow and put the final touch on an exploration of Ethan Hunt’s ethos. Despite some extraneous exposition that teeters between necessary and repetitive to truly sell the film’s gargantuan stakes, The Final Reckoning is the kind of cinema that thrives within the theatrical experience and features two truly staggering set pieces that are among the franchise’s best. Cruise and McQuarrie continue to breathe rarefied air in the blockbuster space as Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is a satisfying, though slightly frustrating, celebration of the series that maintains its quality craftsmanship and thrilling spectacle.

Picking up after the previous film's events, Hunt (Cruise) is on the run with the key to the Sevastopol—a Russian submarine that sank and houses the source code of a rogue AI called “The Entity.” In the time since Dead Reckoning, Gabriel (Esai Morales) has been cut loose from The Entity’s plan and now wants the code for himself in order to do what every other nation in the world is trying to do: control it. As The Entity slowly takes over the world’s nuclear arms, Hunt and the rest of the IMF team are hellbent on getting the source code before anyone else does and killing The Entity before it takes complete control of the world’s nuclear weaponry. While the prior films in the franchise have tackled global warfare pretty regularly, there’s an unrelenting barrage of scenes that emphasize just how much more serious this is than the “great suffering” proposed by John Lark in Mission: Impossible - Fallout or the biological weaponry of Mission: Impossible 2. It becomes almost suffocating how much McQuarrie and co-writer Erik Jendresen lay on the severity of the situation to the point where it feels like the film might never quite get to the mission to save the world and instead doomscroll its way to the credits. As much as the film’s first act wavers in quality, it’s primarily frustrating because it belabours points made in Dead Reckoning, which was already exhausting in its dedication to illustrating how scary The Entity would be to global communications and safety.

However, it’s a necessary evil. The Final Reckoning leans on the IMF oath that actions are taken “for those we hold close, and for those we never meet.” It’s still important to know who those we never meet are when trying to establish the stakes. Though it’s been touched on in the past films, here it’s made crystal clear that Hunt’s concern with saving the world cannot bring him to sacrifice the lives he holds close. The Entity and Gabriel interrogated that idea in Dead Reckoning, and it’s further prodded as Ethan’s decisions now play with the lives of everyone and his team—Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), and Grace (Hayley Atwell). It’s the character-focused narrative that helps justify The Final Reckoning’s repetitive first act as Hunt adds a few more members to his team, such as Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) and Paris (Pom Klementieff), because he can trust them but only puts more lives immediately in harm’s way as Ethan stares down the barrel of the end of the world. Ethan’s narrow focus on what’s in front of him keeps the world spinning—an ideal that doing what’s right will always be a net positive.

A significant portion of Dead Reckoning’s cast returns, but familiar faces from previous films also get looped into the action, such as Angela Bassett’s Erika Sloane and Rolf Saxon’s William Donloe in a surprisingly significant role that probably wasn’t necessary but lets the film have a little fun with its past and show some of the consequence that ripples out from Ethan’s actions. New additions like Nick Offerman, Holt McCallany, Katy O’Brian, Hannah Waddingham, Janet McTeer, and Tramell Tillman are all given varying levels of importance, but deliver sturdy performances that accentuate how finely tuned the casting machine is with this series. The same applies to the technical side of things, as many of the team behind the scenes on Dead Reckoning return to deliver fantastic work.

Still, the film buckles slightly under the weight of its title. Not only are the stakes raised to a fever pitch, but The Final Reckoning also doubles as a legacy sequel in the vein of Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick (which McQuarrie co-wrote). While there still seems to be a dismissal of John Woo’s Mission: Impossible 2, some surprisingly well-done connections are made between the original and the third film in the franchise to the current narrative. It's an impressive feat of retconning multiple plot points and characters from past films to create something sprawling and connected simultaneously. It all exists to drive home further the notion that “our lives are the sum of our choices” and that Ethan’s solutions to specific problems have a knock-on effect that has gotten him into the situation he faces today, as The Entity identifies the pattern that illuminates Ethan’s principles and governs his decisions. There’s a lot put on Ethan’s plate that motivates an entertaining adventure, but also leaves a question of how much responsibility one man should have.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning eventually shifts gears and outlines a plan to save the world that is pure adrenaline and the essence of what makes the franchise so entertaining. Spliced throughout the first act is some entertaining close-quarters combat, but it’s the massive achievement delivered in a later underwater sequence that starts making up for any shortcomings the film had prior, and only escalates from there. The tension is immense. It is the crown jewel of the movie because it is simply unlike anything else in the franchise while evoking the same visual pressure as the narrative. Everything from that point forward is tense in a more familiar way to the franchise. However, it’s still a scene that understands Ethan’s ability to achieve impossible feats under immense pressure is useless without his team to save him if things go awry. Despite the many times the franchise has depicted Ethan as invincible and superhuman, it has always captured the importance of a team dynamic and ensuring everyone takes care of each other. Chance and improvisation are crucial to the franchise’s DNA and impossible for a person to navigate alone at this scale.

For a franchise that has been this long-running, it is shocking how little there has been a dip in quality since 2011’s Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Brad Bird’s lighter approach to the franchise established a formula that got finessed and perfected when McQuarrie came on board for 2015’s Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. While the two worked together prior, Rogue Nation signalled a truly special collaborative relationship between them that has since brought about two of the best American action films of the past decade, with Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Top Gun: Maverick, and its star’s commitment to the craft has brought the art of making a movie to the forefront of everyone’s mind when watching his films. The Final Reckoning may not be as impressive narratively as some of the previous films, but it’s another incredible showcase of what passion looks like when translated to filmmaking. Even with the first act's slight missteps, nothing is more exhilarating than watching Ethan Hunt and his team confront another impossible scenario with only their skills and a prayer. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is not without its flaws, but it’s a testament to a sturdy foundation of creative talent and passion that still provides a breathtaking cinematic experience that reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place.