Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
The IMF team goes on one last mission to save the world in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Two months after the events of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team of Grace (Hayley Atwell), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) are on the trail of Gabriel (Esai Morales), to find a way to stop the artificial intelligence known as The Entity. Along the way, the team recruits reformed French assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff) and US Intelligence Agent Theo Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis). Meanwhile, Ethan is wanted by both CIA director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and US President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), as the world begins to fall into chaos due to the Entity.
To stop the Entity, Ethan and his team must locate its source code in a sunken Russian sub. Luther has created a malware called the Poison Pill, which should help the team secure The Entity on a secure drive. However, the Poison Pill is stolen by Gabriel, and the IMF has to race against the clock to prevent total nuclear disaster.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Synopsis
Originally titled Dead Reckoning, Part 2, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is the conclusion of the two-part finale of the franchise, once again co-written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who has directed every film in the Mission: Impossible franchise since 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning picks up right where Dead Reckoning left off, as the malevolent AI known as The Entity has taken over cyberspace and is on the verge of taking control of the world’s nuclear arsenals. Ethan Hunt is given three days by US President Erika Sloane to stop The Entity, before the US is forced to make a preemptive strike.
Ethan Hunt does the mission mostly solo this time around, as he boards a submarine commanded by Captain Bledsoe (Tramell Tillman), in order the locate the sunken Russian submarine containing The Entity’s source code. It is up to the rest of the IMF team, now led by Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn, to get the coordinates of the submarine from a sonar station in the arctic. This results in them crossing paths with a familiar face.
My Thoughts on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning was released the same week as the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike in the summer of 2023. It can be fair to assume that this contributed to the film being released about a year or so later than originally intended, hence the change in title to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The title is also about the fact that this is supposedly the final film of the three-decade-long Mission: Impossible franchise, which has become the primary focus of Tom Cruise’s career in recent years.
As the so-called final chapter of the franchise, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning does quite a bit of retconning to try and tie all eight films in the series together. This includes setting the origins of The Entity back to the events of Mission: Impossible III and the unexpected return of a minor character from the original Mission: Impossible. Probably the most eyerolling connection is the sudden vengeful backstory given to Intelligence agent Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham).
Running at a length of 2h 49m, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is the longest and most bloated film of the franchise. The main reason for this is the overuse of expositionary dialogue, which includes explaining the aforementioned connections to previous films in the franchise, complete with clips. The film also features a very large cast of peripheral characters played by the likes of Holt McCallany (The Iron Claw), Nick Offerman (Civil War), Mark Gatiss (The Favourite), Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding), and Tramell Tillman (Severance).
Despite the bloat, I still have to give Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning props for the crazy stunts Tom Cruise insists on performing himself. In the case of this film is the climactic chase scene involving two biplanes and includes more than a few death-defying moments. Less impressive, but still pretty crazy, is a lengthy deep-sea diving sequence towards the end of the film’s second act, which includes one of the most eye-rolling sights in the entire Mission: Impossible franchise.
Despite the title, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning leaves enough of a door open to say that this film concludes the franchise with an asterisk. While there is at least one major casualty in the film, it does get frustrating how much plot armour the IMF team has, especially since the inciting incident of the original Mission: Impossible film in 1996 involved Ethan Hunt’s entire team being killed off. It is probably for that reason that after three decades, the original remains my favourite, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning goes out with more of a whimper.
Trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
