Talk about putting the “grand” in grand finale. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning isn’t just the ending of a two-part story, but touted as the potential ending to the nearly 30-year-old blockbuster franchise. Whether that’s actually true or not, The Final Reckoning is such an exhilarating ride that I didn’t want to
Picking up two months where Dead Reckoning left off, the sentient, truth-altering AI known as “The Entity” has run rampant across cyberspace, taking control of nearly every government agency on the planet and spreading worldwide chaos through misinformation. At the end of the last film, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team had managed to get hold of both halves of a device that allows access to the Entity’s source code. Even better is that now, Ethan’s best friend and fellow agent, Luther (Ving Rhames), has come up with a technological “poison pill” device to capture and even destroy the Entity.
Only a few problems are in the way: The first being that the source code is located in a sunken Russian sub somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. The second is that they have to deal with two other conflicting parties who want the code to control the Entity for their own goals. On one end, Ethan’s nemesis, Gabriel (Esai Morales), and on the other, CIA director Eugene Kittredge (Henry Czerny) and intelligence agent Jasper Briggs (Shea Wingham). Oh, I should also mention they all have around four days to get to that code before the Entity takes control of every nuclear facility on the planet and causes a global apocalypse.
“The first act in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, in particular, is very dense with exposition…”
It sounds like a lot is going on in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and truthfully, there is. There’s raising the stakes, and then there’s raising the stakes on a rickety bridge that also happens to be on fire, something Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie seem all too content to do. Every set-piece—from heart-pounding deep-sea dives to the jaw-dropping biplane chase—seems to establish that Hunt can only ever survive them by a combo of instinct and sheer luck. Even as there are moments within these sequences that stretch incredulity even by Mission: Impossible standards, Cruise’s physical performance remains as impressive (and deranged) as ever.
That “Yes, and…” mentality also extends to the story, to more mixed results. The McQuarrie-helmed M:I flicks have previously dabbled in the serialization route, but Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning goes elbow-deep into it; calling back to moments of films past and bringing back side characters across the entire franchise, like Fallout’s Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) and the original film’s William Donloe (Rolf Saxon).
The first act in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, in particular, is very dense with exposition, and even as repetitive as some of these narrative beats got, I never found myself disengaged with it. In fact, my bigger issue with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was the frequent re-use of flashbacks from previous films. It’s one thing to flash back to the famous wire rappel from the original for context, but it’s another to see the same clip three more times with no additional reason than “remember this thing from this scene?” ad nauseam.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning does cut down on the member-berries as it goes on, but with an already-gargantuan 170-minute runtime, it could stand to cut down a few more. The film’s best non-action moments are the (too few) moments it confronts Hunt’s simultaneous dedication to both the mission and his team, as well as his refusal to sacrifice either of them.
Speaking of which, the entire ensemble continues to be consistently great. Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff fit perfectly within the great dynamic established between Cruise, Rhames and Simon Pegg. Esai Morales is still a captivating antagonist, and even scenes of generals sitting at a table discussing possible global war are exciting when you’ve got Bassett, Nick Offerman and Holt McCallany on screen.
Ultimately, it comes down to Cruise and co. on whether there’s another Mission: Impossible film after this, but I feel like Final Reckoning is the best way for this franchise to wrap up. Even with the callbacks giving the film an air of finality, I don’t really know how much bigger you can go than trying to stop an omnipotent AI while dangling off the side of a plane thousands of feet in the air. That being said, you know Cruise will probably find a way, and I’ll be back in that theatre regardless.
