Directed By Christopher McQuarrie
Starring – Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames
The Plot – Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity, which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe, with the world’s governments and a mysterious ghost from Ethan’s past on their trail. Joined by new allies and armed with the means to shut the Entity down for good, Hunt is in a race against time to prevent the world as we know it from changing forever
Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief adult language.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning | Official Trailer (2025 Movie) – Tom Cruise
POSITIVES
Very few franchises age as gracefully as Mission Impossible has to this point, and while “Final Reckoning” is noticeably inferior to its previous installments since the second film, there’s still plenty in this proposed finale to give fans more of what they’ve come to love and appreciate about the franchise, particularly the spectacle of intensely riveting action set pieces. Despite the fact that there are essentially only two of them in the duration of this nearly three hour movie, they are both spectacularly orchestrated and full of vulnerability, thanks in whole to Tom Cruise still doing his own stunts at the tender age of 62. It’s easy to acknowledge that everything that Cruise is doing a thousand feet in the air during a plane duel, or thousands of feet below sea level is executed with a safety net of professionalism that keeps him safe as humanly possible, however what we’re still witnessing is an actor willing to lay everything on the line for the sake of his limitless craft, and that enticement is ultimately what elevates the thrill factor of these constructed sequences, capped off exceptionally once more by Christopher McQuarrie’s entrancing direction, which constantly pits the camera in the right placements, in order to conjure the breathtaking appeal of seamlessly blurring the line between the fictional fantasy of the silver screen with the authenticity of life. If this isn’t enough, McQuarrie’s decision to score the movie’s charter plane sequence with environmental elements of wind and engine noises, instead of Max Aruj’s enthrallingly epic score, go a long way towards immersing audiences in the unavoidable depths of what transpires, offering an unsettling tranquility of sorts to the isolation of these two men fighting in the skyline, while the world beneath them speculates an uncertain future. Beyond the action, I also appreciated the attempt from McQuarrie’s direction to make this chapter and conflict feel bigger than ever, even if I downright refuse to believe that this is the final installment of the series, as evidenced by some of my hinderances that I will eventually get to. There’s a real sense of intention in tying this movie and all of the paths that have led here to those aforementioned predecessors and some of their most memorable scenes, with compelling tie-ins and character callbacks that not only inscribe meaning and depth to the established conflict at the forefront of this narrative, but also appreciation in the fact that this installment acknowledges all of the good and bad of the past without any semblance of retconning in the resolution, making it artistically feel like the naturally intended direction, even if originally the franchise was consumed as a trilogy and nothing more. In addition, this film, like its predecessor, goes entertainingly out of its way to wage war against artificial intelligence, and the paralleling between the events in the film and those that Hollywood is currently facing help this installment in alluding the idea of being just another Summer popcorn blockbuster flick, as it legitimately has something to say about the ideals we adopt, even if it’s more of the same from anti-Skynet movies of the same flock. For my money, I honestly preferred Ethan and his crew battling off against this unreal entity, as not only do I find Gabriel a boringly stock supervillain with very little compelling in his shallow outline, but also appreciative of the challenges that it takes for Ethan to take down something that he can’t outmuscle with physicality, requiring a far more cerebral tactic in opposition that takes the script down some darkly hopeless roads that we currently find ourselves and the industry lashing out against. Lastly, the thing that is getting the least amount of credit in corresponding reviews are the rhythms and structure of some scintillating dialogue, which helps to keep the storytelling interesting, despite the sometimes long-winded allowance of what these actors are being asked to casually convey. If you told me that acclaimed writer Aaron Sorkin worked under a pseudonym here as Erik Jendresen, I would totally believe you, as the conversations contain a far more noticeable element of elasticity that inspire its characters to bounce energetically off of one another, for the appeal of its exposition, granting us not only accessible insight into the magnitude of their daring mission, but also the radiance of impeccable chemistry between this growing group’s dynamic that synthetically makes them feel like they’re on the same wavelength with one another, with pocketed moments of comedic levity that pay off the tense engagements well, without deliberately sacrificing the underlining intensity of the conflict that binds them.
NEGATIVES
Despite “Final Reckoning” offering more of the high stakes thrills and camaraderie among its characters that fans have come to expect from the eight film franchise, it’s an overstuffed and convoluted finished product that balloons out to a nearly three hour run time that it doesn’t earn or even slightly require. I make this assessment because of the constant exposition dumps and barrage of spoon-feeding flashbacks that not only have very little faith in its audience to capably comprehend the intention of the sequence, but also pad out the run time to excessive lengths that periodically disturbs the settled consistency of the movie’s pacing, leading to a complete lack of urgency within the developed narrative that directly contradicts the intention of the conflict. On that aspect, this movie is essentially just picking up the pieces from its predecessor, however, in terms of new and compelling developments, there’s very little that emphatically justifies the extent of its aforementioned run time, with sluggish sequences balancing out the movie’s two action set pieces, resulting not only in underwhelming resolutions that come on account of anticlimactic directions, but also some surmising arcs that disappear all together from the proceedings. This sequel also continues what few disappointments that I had from “Dead Reckoning”, with the unappealing and underutilized Gabriel serving as the antagonist now for not one, but rather two movies in the franchise. This wouldn’t be an issue if this sequel chose to develop him and his backstory in ways that finally attain meaning in the rumored history to Ethan, or even palpable chemistry leading to some enthrallingly entertaining psychology between their interactions, but there’s simply nothing that feels special or even elevating about this flavor of the week antagonist, and while the franchise’s quality in filmmaking has gotten better since its original trilogy, its antagonists simply can’t hold a candle to Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian, or Jon Voight’s Jim Phelps, a fact made all the more evident with a villain portrayal here that lacks even an increment of personality to properly invest in him. The problem isn’t just with Gabriel, however, as the abundance of assembling characters from previous films have reached alarming levels in the depths of their underutilization, where even during a film with the franchise’s longest run time, still doesn’t find anything of meaningful merit to keep such a remarkably gifted ensemble valuable to the proceedings, with everyone from Angela Bassett, to Nick Offerman, to even Hayley Atwell regrettably wasted in the fold of a cluttered and chaotic timing imbalance. Even when it comes to attaining stakes towards losing any of them, the mood and lasting impact feels so unaffected by what transpires, and it never amounts to anything shattering to Ethan, or overcoming for those still in the game, resulting in a dramatic underappraisal for these characters that makes this supposedly final installment fall so flat
OVERALL
“Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning” is a solid addition to an otherwise legendary franchise, but it ultimately fails to reach the soaring heights of its most recent installments, on account of a convoluted screenplay and bloated run time that completely eviscerate the urgency and magnitude of this advertised final chapter. Despite the conflictions, the film is an intricate love-letter to nearly thirty years of cinema that have continuously pushed the envelope for what’s possible in an action flick, and with two more gut-wrenching sequences involving Tom Cruise once again putting his body and life on the line, rewards the incredible patience of the audience with high stakes escapism that sizzles on the summer stage.
My Grade: 7.1 or B-