Paramount Pictures
I cannot be entirely certain, but I think I watched that original 1996 Mission: Impossible movie either around then or shortly after when it was on video. I think it still essentially holds up, dated tech references and all — it was just a fun time with a great set piece and an okay mystery behind it. The second movie was inferior in general, and the third was a bit of a step up from that without hitting the highs of the original (although it did introduce Simon Pegg as nerdy Benji, who has now become a necessary staple). Number 4, Ghost Protocol, was a more slick, modern take, and the follow-up Rogue Nation started the Christopher McQuarrie road to now. It also brought in Rebecca Ferguson as the impressively cool Ilsa Faust, and the most dynamic character since the first movie really.
Anyway I didn’t really love Fallout because the story made less sense than usual, but Henry Cavill was great, and the previous Dead Reckoning infuriated me with the nonsensical evil AI plot and obvious replacement of Ilsa with Hayley Atwell’s pickpocket Grace (and nothing against Hayley Atwell, who I think is great, but nobody had chemistry with Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt like Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa, despite many, many romantic pairings over the years in these). But Esai Morales as the sinister Gabriel was an effective human villain with delightfully devilish aplomb and supreme chemistry, and I always like seeing Pom Klementieff kick ass (here as Gabriel’s assassin helper ‘Paris’ — because she’s French, just like Grace is grace).
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning comes from director Christopher McQuarrie and was written by him and Erik Jendresen (who also wrote the last one) and immediately follows up the 2023 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The whole gang (other than the ones that have died pointlessly) returns, including Ving Rhames’ impossibly talented hacker Luther, who’s been here since the start. Naturally the entire thing once again comes down to nuclear annihilation, so the movie must contort itself for it to make sense — and it ultimately does work, even if it’s again pretty cliched as a concept (hardly the first time we got a nuclear AI).
Just like the last one, Esai Morales is a compelling counter-Ethan Hunt, supremely confident and competent, and is much more interesting than the ‘Entity’, which remains a MacGuffin to the end. Due to the nuclear threat, we spent a non-insubstantial amount of time with President Sloane (Angela Bassett) as she struggles with impossible decisions as per usual. She’s great enough, even if the character must be one note by definition — steely and implacable with a hint of emotional turmoil. We also follow agent Briggs (Shea Whigham) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) as the similarly competent ones trying to track Ethan down, so yeah, it’s a bit crowded.
Paramount Pictures
The movie is literally an hour longer than the first Mission: Impossible and absolutely does not need to be that long. There’s a 15 minute plane action scene that could’ve been cut in half, and a 30 minute underwater sequence that also could’ve been cut in half — both are visually impressive with a lot of fun beats, but also a few too many ‘how will he get out of this one’ fake-out moments.
I mean I know that’s basically the whole series and there should be literally no suspension of disbelief at this point, but it felt like there was too much plot armor which is odd considering this should’ve felt like the last one and thus potentially everyone would be at risk. Not that I thought they’d fail completely, but you could’ve made it a bit more Pyrrhic and less absolutely easy. Of course Tom Cruise is still showing off in his 60s, with I think something like four running scenes, which would be a joke if it wasn’t meant to be cool. He’s still got perfect form, after all.
But what I did appreciate were all the references to the first movie — a few fleeting ones to the others here and there, but really this felt like it was tipping its hat to how it all started. If this is the last movie in the franchise, it really did go out with a decent bang — but if they continue it, it’ll feel like they could’ve trimmed this one down a bit more. A decent set of laughs, some nice character beats and moments, a plot that doesn’t matter, and two unhinged Tom Cruise stunts — that’s the franchise in a nutshell so it knows the score by now.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has a run time of 2 hours 49 minutes, and is rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief language.
Paramount Pictures