Tom Cruise. The so-called “savior of cinema” following the global success of 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick.” A film that, according to Box Office Mojo, earned nearly $1.5 billion at the global box office despite releasing during a nervous period of the world bouncing out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cruise returns to theaters with the final chapter of American cinema’s most beloved action franchises. The “Mission: Impossible” franchise is known for the absolute adrenaline rush it provided audiences, so the mere thought of a dull entry in the series felt, well, impossible. With success like this, Cruise has proven to be a guaranteed ticket for success at the box office. But while the stunts soar, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – fails to reckon with its meandering, unsatisfying story.
The film follows Ethan Hunt and his loyal IMF team as they go on a globetrotting mission to shut down the Entity, a malicious sentient AI with the power to destroy the world. With the Entity increasingly infiltrating government networks across the globe, Hunt and his IMF team must race against time before the AI sets off the world’s supply of nuclear weapons. But haunting the team are the consequences of Hunt’s choices he’s made throughout the series. To make matters worse, Hunt must contend with a mysterious villain from his past threatening to take the lives of those he loves and gaining control over the Entity.
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” drags under the weight of its 170-minute runtime. This surprised me because previous Mission: Impossible films were famous for their complex yet focused narratives and tight pacing. From the unpredictable twists of director Brian De Palma’s 1996 classic to the dreadful, nuclear doom stakes of 2018’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” the franchise has always emphasized their strong narratives.
“The Final Reckoning,” on the other hand, feels quite unsure of what it wants to be. The film takes on the impossible task of trying to connect this massive, complicated franchise of nearly 30 years to offer a worthy conclusion. After the first hour, however, it feels as if the film loses interest in this and spends the next half hour meandering around to try and get Cruise to do some kind of death-defying stunt.
Making matters worse, the film attempts to expand upon the plethora of characters introduced in 2023’s “Dead Reckoning,” but struggles to provide them with any purpose. A new addition to Hunt’s IMF team, Degas, played by Greg Tarzan Davis, even has a moment where he says he has nothing to do. A meta joke or scriptwriting laziness? Regardless, he was right. His character, despite all the build-up and tease from “Dead Reckoning,” practically served no meaningful purpose in this film.
This ultimately undermines and contradicts the series’ themes of celebrating community and collaboration in a world favoring individualism. How am I supposed to believe in the film’s genuinely necessary message of uniting together to work toward a better future? Of course, it’s thanks to the contributions of the IMF team that Hunt can accomplish the insane missions he’s sent on. But in this film, he’s often portrayed as some Christ-like figure destined to maintain the world’s peace and prosperity. Hunt is one of the great heroes of modern American cinema, but the constant spotlight and glorification of Cruise rubbed me the wrong way. Especially considering how much it sidelines the rest of the equally charismatic cast of his team.
Interestingly, the film is at its best when it drops its overstuffed narrative to lock in with its pure, unhinged insanity seen in action setpieces. It’s astonishing to see Cruise at his age flipping around and dangling off a constantly rotating plane, as well as many other equally wild stunts. The latter portion of the film crafts masterful action that far surpasses the set pieces of “Fallout,” a film widely considered (myself included) as not just one of the best in the series, but one of the best action movies ever made, period. I don’t think I’ll ever see action filmmaking greater than the final hour of this film for a very long time. Maybe not ever.
Admittedly, as awkwardly strung together as the film’s narrative was, its themes involving nuclear doom deliver some of the most effective dread I’ve ever experienced in entertainment. The threat of AI and its power to potentially destroy the world was quite believable. However, they dramatized it to such a cartoonish extent it took me out of it a little. In the end, for a film depicting a probable, disastrous consequence from the desire for power, every stake ended up feeling too inconsequential to keep me hooked.
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” being this much of a mess hurts me as a fan. For a finale this disappointing, I wouldn’t even mind if they made an additional “final-est reckoning” just to get things right. As masterful as the action filmmaking is in its final act, it’s very difficult to justify its nearly 2 hours of inconsistent slop viewers must push through to get to it.
3/5
