‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ Is A Thrilling, Messy Victory Lap

“I need you to trust me… one last time.” So says Ethan Hunt, or really Tom Cruise, in the opening act of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning as he pleads to the top brass of the US government to put the world in his hands again. In the film, it’s Ethan begging for the trust of the world to do the right thing. For the audience, it’s Cruise asking us to go on one more high-octane ride with him.

And despite a number of key flaws – an overlong runtime, a reliance on the greater franchise and a somewhat clunky balance of exposition and action – what a ride The Final Reckoning is.

Cruise’s supposedly final outing as IMF agent Ethan Hunt fighting to save the world (and the movies) showcases the series’ best and worst tendencies, but it’s a convincing reminder that there’s no other modern franchise quite like Mission: Impossible thanks to its utterly insane stuntwork and filmmaking.

Following on from the events of Dead Reckoning, Ethan Hunt is on a mission to destroy the malevolent AI known as The Entity with his long-standing teammates like Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), as well as recent additions like Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Grace (Hayley Atwell).

Together, they’re the only chance the world has to escape the clutches of The Entity and its fallen angel Gabriel (Esai Morales), as they head off on a globe-trotting adventure to save humanity from total nuclear annihilation as it takes over all of the digital world.

A slightly unconventional Mission: Impossible affair

Compared to previous Mission: Impossible movies, The Final Reckoning is a much less lean affair. Clocking in at just shy of three hours, its first hour is particularly slow by the standards of these usually breakneck films as it spends a huge amount of time both recapping prior entries and setting up all the stakes.

It’s in this first section that The Final Reckoning makes some strange decisions in the name of greater franchise connectivity. It even includes the extended appearance of a character from the first film who’s most famous for getting his coffee spiked with a laxative in the iconic vault break-in scene.

A lot of these narrative flourishes are pretty superfluous, with the stakes of this mission already impossibly high without them. It makes the world of this franchise feel a lot smaller, and seems an overt attempt at fan service from a series that’s largely eschewed such pitfalls in the past in favour of pushing the action envelope.

But once Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning gets going, it’s an absolute thrill ride. Though I wouldn’t mind a couple more minor setpieces throughout, the two big moments of the film where Ethan infiltrates a damned submarine and climbs between two biplanes are absolutely unreal displays of action filmmaking.

As with all Mission movies, these scenes are made all the more impressive by the fact that Cruise is actually doing these crazy stunts himself, the utter madman. Long has this franchise been a vehicle for Cruise to put his life on the line for our entertainment, and The Final Reckoning is another satisfying chapter in the meta-narrative of Tom Cruise’s own mission to save the movies.

The Final Reckoning has truly stupefying action scenes

“For those we never meet” is a rallying cry Ethan says many times throughout the film, regarding his vow to save the lives of everybody that he can. But it’s also a mantra for Cruise that represents his insatiable desire to entertain the audience and maintain his status as one of the last true movie stars.

It’s this philosophy which ensures that The Final Reckoning has some truly stomach-churning, brilliant stunt work that channels moments from Cruise’s entire career that left me absolutely dumbfounded while watching. The third act biplane sequence in particular rivals the helicopter chase at the end of Mission: Impossible – Fallout with its truly death-defying stunt work.

Cruise isn’t just putting up a remarkable physical performance here either; this Mission features one of his most emotionally potent turns as Ethan Hunt that’s especially fitting for what may be his last major film as an action star.

The supporting cast are all great here, too. The Mission: Impossible usuals are experts at what they do by now, with Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames providing some seriously emotional moments throughout for any series fans. New-ish cast members like Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff are wonderful here too, with the chemistry between them all making up for the lack of a strong villain despite The Entity’s apocalyptic goals.

This movie is also host to a surprising amount of newcomers who all do serviceable work; however, I’d be remiss to not mention Severance star Tramell Tillman’s brief appearance as submarine captain Bledsoe which coincides with The Final Reckoning beginning to really come alive.

The Final Reckoning is greater than the sum of its parts

All the moving parts mean that The Final Reckoning teeters dangerously close to collapsing under its own weight. I don’t envy the team behind the film as they seek to bring 30 years of history to a satisfying conclusion, all while they faced behind-the-scenes challenges like actors’ strikes and a ruthless pandemic.

Yet despite the fact it breaks from franchise tradition to occasionally mixed results, I can’t deny that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was an absolute delight for me. Even as a huge M:I fan I can acknowledge its many flaws, but the great stuff that Cruise and McQuarrie do in the film is truly exceptional.

Will this film be the end of Mission: Impossible? Probably not, given the intellectual property hellscape we live in… but as a sendoff to the wild adventures of Ethan Hunt and Tom Cruise the stuntman, The Final Reckoning is still an utterly thrilling work of action filmmaking.

★★★★

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is in cinemas now.