As the Mission Impossible franchise reaches a possible climax, the final entry makes an unsure landing. Head of Reviews Robert Flynn reviews the high highs and the low lows of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
One of the most recurrent plights that has become commonplace in modern blockbuster filmmaking is a tendency for long running franchises to become reflective and immersed in its own mythology and legacy. The Mission Impossible franchise, just on the verge of turning thirty years old, has largely avoided this pitfall, being one of the more unsentimental film sagas in the action blockbuster arena. The franchise’s apotheosis, Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) showcased the most fine-tuned version of a mission impossible film: a broad terrorist-epsionage narrative, light character development strongarmed by reliable performers and, memorable, enthralling set pieces all coalescing to create one of the most effective blockbusters of recent years.
The latest entry in Tom Cruise’s decade-spanning franchise is supposedly the final chapter. This isn't insider knowledge either. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) is quick to announce itself as an important all-encompassing culmination of all seven prior entries. The film's very self-reflective introduction, as well as much of the first hour, becomes borderline elegiac.
The Franchise’s climax also bears the weight of the financial disappointment of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), which was originally intended to be a two part experience, Final Reckoning supposed to be the accompanying second part. As a result, much of Final Reckoning’s first hour is dedicated to revising and rewriting the plot points set forth in Dead Reckoning.
While Mission: Impossible as a franchise has proven to work best when keeping its narratives sparse and focusing instead on economical blockbuster storytelling, Final Reckoning detracts from the usual conventions of the series due to how saddled it is with the weight of the franchise. Though a bloated hour of expository dialogue may seem like box office poison, once The Final Reckoning takes off, Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie are able to muster up some of the most tense sequences throughout the entire franchise.
Following the events of Dead Reckoning, the Entity, a self-learning, hostile, and invasive form of artificial intelligence, has grown exponentially more powerful and uncontrollable due to the pursuits of Gabriel (Esai Morales) who is dedicated to seeing that the world becomes unburdened by the presence of humankind: the ideal reality that the Entity wishes to achieve. In possession of the cruciform key, the key that gives access to the source code of the Entity, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his usual team of determined renegades (Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell) must trap the Entity before Gabriel allows the nefarious AI to gain access to all nuclear powers across the globe, allowing it to eradicate any presence of human life. With Ethan’s own government trying to find his location and halt his pursuit of the Entity, Hunt and his skilled cohort must extract the Entity’s source code from a decaying submarine submerged in an undiscovered body of water.
Understanding the complex role of the Entity and its implications is imperative in getting on board with Final Reckoning. In addition to methodically revising the events of Dead Reckoning and tying unnecessary links to prior entries in the longstanding franchise, Final Reckoning uses the first hour to elucidate the Entity’s convoluted role in the film, as well as the entire franchise. It cannot be understated how much context and exposition is thrown at the audience within the initial sixty minutes. Ironically, once seen, it is quickly forgotten.
Luckily, once the pursuit of the Entity gains its full momentum, the franchise reaches new exhilarating territory. The central set piece of Final Reckoning involves Hunt being gradually lowered into the depths of the ocean to locate the source code in a Russian submarine. The sequence is tensely paced, with McQuarrie’s commitment to shooting stunts in-camera adding to the visceral realism of Hunt being submerged under water for minutes at a time. Water splits across the camera at nauseating diagonal angles as the submarine unforgivingly turns and decays further, throwing Hunt’s escape plans into complete disarray. While McQuarrie was known for bringing excellent fast paced, nail biting action sequences to the Mission Impossible franchise, The Final Reckoning demonstrates how the director can bring the film to a near stop and slowly unsettle the audience through patient coverage of Hunt wading through rising water.
Once McQuarrie and Cruise enthrall you once, it can be hard to resist what Final Reckoning has to offer for the remainder of its runtime: tightly shot combat, irresistible bomb disarmings, and Hunt hijacking old-timey planes mid-air. While the introduction of Mission Impossible’s supposed final entry borders on the unforgivable, Final Reckoning eventually finds an exciting pace that often exceeds expectations and offers a convenient and perfectly sentimental close for the franchise.
As a finale, McQuarrie and Cruise’s final entry feels incongruous with most of the previous Mission Impossible films due to how it fails to learn the lessons in blockbuster filmmaking that the franchise had taught up until this point: never dwell on past success, always strive to find new territory.