Film Review: ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ Finds Tom Cruise Intensely Bringing the Franchise Home

Watching Ethan Hunt save the world has been among the most cinematic things audiences could do for the past several decades. Tom Cruise as the agent who always figures things out is exciting, fun, and often the height of what films can offer up, spectacle wise. Two years ago, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One came out (reviewed here) and attempted to take the franchise in a new direction. Not just being a two part entry, it also had a more science fiction leaning premise, one that provided divisive. That was a first for the films, at least in several entries, but full judgement was reserved for when this one came out. Now, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is here to complete the story, not just for this two-parter, but for possibly the series as a whole. In doing so, it’s the biggest movie the property has offered to date, but is it the best? Unfortunately, it does offer up a lot of the same benefits, as well as issues, from last time around.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning brings Hunt’s adventures to a potential close in its biggest fashion yet. Now, if you weren’t a big fan of the sci-fi stuff last time around, that’s still in play here, though there’s less tech stuff at least. The big set-pieces and spectacles are certainly there still, which is a franchise requirement. There’s just a bit less fun here than usual, which makes the weight of the premise feel suitably heavy, though it does make it all a bit overwrought at times. At the end of the day, when the chips are down, Ethan Hunt coming to save the day still manages to thrill.

Picking up a few months after the events of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the spread of The Entity, an advanced, self-aware rogue AI, has continued unabated. Technology has been all but completely infected, to the point where few know what’s true anymore. Whole governments have been lost, along with their nuclear arsenals. The United States has only a matter of days until their missiles will belong to The Entity, leading President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) to reach out to Ethan Hunt (Cruise), in the hopes he’ll come home, along with the key he possesses that could be the only chance at stopping this rogue AI. Ethan resists, choosing not to allow the United States the chance at taming The Entity, as that’s too much power, though with the AI having forsaken its human servant in Gabriel (Esai Morales), he know has to deal with a separate rogue agent as well.

When circumstances dictate that Ethan turns himself in, he pitches an impossible plan to Sloane, utilizing his team, as well as some government property, to go looking for the downed Russian submarine that possesses The Entity’s original source code. If he can get it, Luther (Ving Rhames) has designed something that just might stop it. So, Ethan, Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), and other friends, both old and new, set out for their most dangerous mission yet. Looming at the end is a face-off wit The Entity itself, one that threatens to end the world regardless of what the outcome ultimately may be.

Tom Cruise is front and center, as always, and this sequel asks him to be as intense as ever. There’s less humor to his role than we’ve seen previously, but he does wear the weight of the fate of the world with aplomb. Cruise knows how to play Ethan Hunt in his sleep, so it’s not surprising that he’s up to the task. As always, he’s at his best while doing insane stunts, letting the camera capture him in death defying situations. It’s a series staple and also just a strong use of Cruise throughout. It’s always fun to see him teamed up with Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, though Hayley Atwell gets a lot of his attention this time around. Esai Morales is less of a factor in this one, though right there for some of the biggest moments, while Angela Bassett makes for a fun President. Supporting players in this epic consist of both returning players and newcomers. They include Henry Czerny, Greg Tarzan Davis, Pom Klementieff, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Katy O’Brian, Nick Offerman, Charles Parnell, Rolf Saxon, Tramell Tillman, Hannah Waddingham, Shea Whigham, and more, but through it all, it’s Cruise’s show.

Christopher McQuarrie again directs, working on the screenplay with Erik Jendresen. The time jump from the last flick does allow Jendresen and McQuarrie to move things forward and raise the stakes, which prevents too much repetition from setting in. At the same time, they lean so much on all of the other installments in the franchise, with a few of the earliest ones gaining added importance, that the callbacks almost become too much. Some returning characters are a riot to see, though giving one new character an added backstory played like parody. Still, McQuarrie has been at his best here with the direction of Cruise’s big action scenes, and here they’re as strong as ever. They’re not all-timers like we’ve seen previously, but they do feel suitably big for this doomsday scenario playing out. If anything, tighter pacing would have been welcome here, given the nearly three hour running time, but when the highs are hitting, they hit quite effectively.

I’ll rank the franchise in its (potential) entirety next week, but having this story wrapped up does allow it to feel like more of the whole. Cruise and McQuarrie going down this tech rabbit hole may have been necessary to keep things fresh, but it does feel less like Mission: Impossible at times. That changes when we get to the big submarine sequence or the airplane one at the end, but when there’s a conversation with The Entity? That just doesn’t feel as much like Mission: Impossible as in prior installments to the Reckoning duo.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning works more than it doesn’t, but it does combine with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One to potentially end the series on a lower note than previous installments. Taken just as a big sequel, it more than works. It’s just that when there’s sequels in this franchise like Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and especially Mission: Impossible – Fallout, this one can’t help but feel like a slight missed opportunity to do what audiences want most out of Ethan Hunt. Still, even if this one isn’t great, it’s still pretty good, while more than scratching an action itch.

SCORE: ★★★