Dir: Christopher McQuarrie
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Janet McTeer, Tramell Tillman
They may be guilty of talking down to their audience, but Cruise and McQuarrie continue to up the stakes in this thrilling final instalment of the long-running action franchise
Following in the footsteps of his tenacious on-screen persona, Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise took on a seemingly impossible mission several years ago as he vowed to single-handedly save Hollywood as it entered one of its darkest times during the COVID-19 pandemic. With movie productions coming to a halt worldwide, the future of cinema was going to take a considerable hit, and even five years later it still remains a shadow of its former self, with annual box-office figures still being impacted by the public’s apprehension in returning to the movie theatre. During this troubling time, Cruise and frequent collaborator Christopher McQuarrie were in the midst of producing the seventh and eighth instalments in the long-running “Mission: Impossible” franchise, in which Cruise has starred for almost thirty years. Believing in the power of the cinematic experience, and determined to keep industry professionals in a job, Cruise and McQuarrie continued to pay the wages of the entire crew while production was at a standstill, despite the potential financial implications it may have on the acclaimed action franchise in the future.
Cruise was more than happy to take the hit, believing that producing a run of breath-taking cinematic exhibitions would encourage movie-goers to once again flock to the cinema. With the pandemic now behind us, it is great to see that the film industry is still alive and well, and while it may not be at the heights it was before 2020, it is stars and filmmakers like Cruise who have prevented it from falling into oblivion entirely.
While their budgets may have been blown way out of proportion due to Cruise’s philanthropic efforts, the 62-year-old Hollywood star has delivered two of the most entertaining action flicks in recent years with “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) and the prematurely titled “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (2023), and with the latest and final instalment in the Ethan Hunt franchise boasting the best opening weekend for a “Mission: Impossible” to date, I think its safe to say Cruise’s mission was a success.
Those who missed, or have since forgotten, the events of the previous instalment two years ago will be reminded in surprising long-winded and clunky fashion, as the entire opening act of “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) taking a trip down a memory lane. Numerous flashbacks, covering events from previous films take us all the way back to 1996’s “Mission: Impossible”, as McQuarrie and Cruise remind us of the many perilous situations the IMF agent has found himself in over the years by, desperately tying all seven previous instalments together, retconning and shoe-horning in new information as they see fit. The only events that audiences truly need to remember took place during “Dead Reckoning Part One”, where Hunt and his IMF team acquired both parts of a cruciform key, capable of retrieving the source code of the malevolent artificial intelligence known as the Entity.
In the two months since the events of the previous film, the Entity has begun taking control of global nuclear systems intending to have the nuclear-weapon states annihilate the global population whilst it secures itself in a digital bunker in South Africa. With only 72 hours until the Entity takes control of the last of the nuclear powers, Hunt, his IMF team; Grace (Hayley Atwell), Benji (Simon Pegg), and new recruits Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), must locate and access sunken Russian submarine, the Sevastopol, retrieve the Entity’s source code, and upload a malware developed by IMF agent, and Hunt’s best friend, Luther (Ving Rhames).
Having been such a fan of this franchise, and how tight and well-paced they have been ever since the third instalment, I was quite dumbfounded as I found myself sitting through countless exposition dumps during the first of of “The Final Reckoning”. McQuarrie is an experienced director, producer, and above all else, screenwriter, having won an Academy Award in 1996 for penning the razor-sharp and ingenious mystery-thriller “The Usual Suspects”. However, the 56-year-old filmmaker drops the ball by not trusting his audience to follow proceedings. While they appear overly convoluted on paper, the “Mission: Impossible” films tend to be relatively straightforward, usually involving a rogue Ethan Hunt as he locates a narrative MacGuffin before it falls into the wrong hands. While the franchise has a tendency to be stretch the realms of possibility, with its death-defying stunts, preposterous gadgets, and farcical use of masks, it has established itself as one of the most beloved and acclaimed action franchises of all time by embracing its lunacy. Surprisingly, for the first time in its 29-year history, it feels like it has to hold the audience’s hand as Ethan Hunt sets off on his latest globetrotting adventure.
While this slightly pretentious opening act does weigh the film down, it never becomes boring, and once the action gets underway, Cruise and Co more than makeup for lost time by delivering two of the best action set-pieces the franchise has ever produced. One of my criticisms of the foolhardy stunts Cruise has done throughout this series of films is that the A-lister’s exceptional stunt work is occasionally masked by unnecessary visual effects, which does have you question the authenticity of the very real stunt. Two standout examples of this include the heavily marketed motorcycle jump from “Dead Reckoning”, and the underwater stunt from “Rogue Nation” (2015), both of which Cruise did for real, but look fake when on the big screen. I think Cruise has taken on board some of these mild criticisms regarding his stunt work, as the underwater sequence we are treated to this time around may be one of the most nail-biting and well-choreographed set pieces he has ever done. Then of course there is the big aerial finale as Cruise leaps and weaves between two bi-planes mid-flight….sensational stuff.
Cruise’s stunt work has always been at the forefront of the franchise’s marketing campaign, but I think the bona fide action star’s acting skills remain criminally overlooked. This is the eighth time Cruise has portrayed Ethan Hunt, and as the franchise has slowly settled on an identity following McQuarrie’s first involvement ten years ago, the character has undergone incredible emotional and physical strain, with his IMF role forbidding him from having any life outside of saving the world. It may be rewarding, but Hunt is an incredibly lonely character having lost so many fellow agents and loved ones over the years.
The IMF team itself may also be the strongest it has ever been, with elder statesmen Luther and Benji continuing to assist Ethan having been introduced in the first and third films respectively, providing much of the film’s emotional depth. It is also great to see so many talented actors appear throughout the lengthy runtime, with the likes of Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, and Hannah Waddingham joining the franchise, not to mention “Severance” star Tramell Tillman, who fully embraces the “Mission: Impossible” ethos despite his limited screentime.
Verdict:
While it may not be as structurally tight as the previous entries, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” continues to up the stakes, thrills, and stunts as Tom Cruise continues his one-man mission to save the film industry from the abyss. A more than fitting send-off for a character who has graced our screens for almost thirty years, and if the subsequently dropped “Part One” of the previous film is anything to go by, who knows how final “The Final Reckoning” really is.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now showing in UK Cinemas
Dan Loves Film 
You really gotta raise a glass to ole Tom. He’s been such a good Hollywood Movie Star for so damn long!🥂Him swimming around in that sunken Russian sub was my favorite part. (I also liked Katy O’Brien giving non-binary vibes as a member of the US military and Angela Bassett as POTUS…in the type of America that we used to think was just around the corner, but now seems like just a dream.)
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I met Cruise three times and he was gracious, a total professional, and when he walked in to one interview room, he went to every single crew person individually, introduced himself and shook their hand…a real class act.
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What a gem
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