‘Final Reckoning’: Spectacle, Stunts, and the Burden of Legacy

Synopsis: Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff

The famous theme music, breathtaking cinematography, and Tom Cruise’s karate-chop running are just some of the elements that make up a Mission: Impossible movie. Now, the wait for the newest instalment is finally over. The film was supposed to be released last year, but was pushed back a year due to additional filming requirements.

Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning was a very good film, but two things may have prevented it from having larger success. One is that it suffered from poor timing. One week after it was released, a pair of films known as Barbenheimer (Barbie and Oppenheimer) were released, dominating the box office in 2023. The other is that the biggest stunt in Dead Reckoning was in the trailer, which took away any element of surprise from the audience.

Dead Reckoning was critically acclaimed and extremely well received by audiences, especially at a time when going to a movie theatre was on the decline.

With the anticipated release of The Final Reckoning, there are a lot of expectations for this film, but Tom Cruise and company are definitely up to the challenge. With every other movie touting the phrase “must be seen on the biggest screen possible”, The Final Reckoning actually lives up to the hype.

With an estimated budget of between $300 and $400 million, this film is a lot of movie and quite the spectacle. It is just under three hours long, and with a budget of its size, one shouldn’t expect a 90-minute film.

From a timeline perspective, this film commences shortly after Dead Reckoning finishes. Ethan Hunt is tasked with saving the world once again. The enemy is AI, more specifically, The Entity—an AI with extreme powers and a mean streak. Hunt and his team are racing against time to stop an all-out assault that could mean the end of the world.

The stakes are always high in Mission: Impossible (MI) films, and this one is no different. As opposed to going long into the plot and the risk of spoiling anything, let’s discuss some aspects that make these films so unique.

Firstly, the lead actor, Cruise, seems to laugh in the face of extremely challenging stunts. It is difficult to determine which is more impressive: the mission itself or the stunts that Cruise undertakes to achieve it.

These films are also beautifully shot. There are some gorgeous scenes captured in this film. Cinematographer Fraser Taggart, who also worked on the last MI film, does a splendid job capturing this film.

Cruise has a strong supporting cast, including Ving Rhames (the only other actor to be in all eight MI films), Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Angela Bassett, Ted Lasso alum Hannah Waddingham, now sporting an American accent, and Nick Offerman.

Christopher McQuarrie, a longtime colleague of Tom Cruise, directs the film. In fact, of the six films McQuarrie has directed, five star Cruise—and both of his upcoming projects do too. McQuarrie earned an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for The Usual Suspects, but the Mission: Impossible films are less “McQuarrie films” than true collaborations. While some directors—like Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, or Spike Lee—leave an unmistakable stamp on their work, few would refer to these as McQuarrie’s films. The franchise clearly belongs to Cruise. That said, Cruise and McQuarrie make a very good team, as demonstrated in their previous films.

Speaking of teamwork, the supporting cast is strong in this film. While the weight of this project truly rests on the shoulders of Cruise, there are a few standout performances.

Esai Morales takes every ounce of evil he used in Ozark and turns the volume up another 50 percent to give us Gabriel, one of the most menacing villains we have seen in the series. His character’s cold-blooded nature rivals that of a Bond villain, and he is the perfect antagonist for Ethan Hunt.

Pom Klementieff is also a welcome addition to the franchise. We were introduced to her character, Paris, in Dead Reckoning, and while her character doesn’t speak a lot, her actions speak volumes. Klementieff was a regular in several Marvel movies; her work in the MI series really stands out.

The same can be said for Hayley Atwell’s Grace—another regular in the Marvel Universe who really shines in this series. The entire ensemble works well together.

At times, the storyline in The Final Reckoning is a bit of a head-scratcher. While the ‘karate chop running’ is entertaining and a staple of these films, there is one particular scene where you can’t help but think ‘a car would have been faster!’ Is he just running for the sake of checking off a box?

There is also one sequence that takes place underwater that weighs heavily on the audience’s willingness to do away with logic. There are times in this film series when we suspend belief and go along with the ride, but there are times when that is asking too much.

Unlike the previous MI film, many of the big action sequences seem to be void of extras. The stunts, as always, are extremely impressive and massive, especially for a film of this scope, but when the film relies on story, it isn’t as strong as others in the series.

Much like how the TV show 24 began to lose credibility—prompting viewers to wonder, “After everything, the government still doesn’t trust Jack Bauer?”—Mission: Impossible treads similar ground, with Ethan Hunt facing the same frustrating lack of trust. He seems constantly at odds with the government. After all of his heroics, you would think he has built up capital with them.

The last time I reviewed an MI film, I started by saying that if Tom Cruise isn’t the best action star on the planet, I don’t know who is. Let me correct that. Tom Cruise is the undisputed best action star on the planet. While there is constant conversation about who could be the next James Bond, there is absolutely no one who could take the baton from Cruise in the MI series or any film that demands his level of stunts.

Some people have commented that they aren’t fans of Cruise, and I can appreciate not being a fan of certain actors, but if you can’t recognize the amazing feats he has performed throughout this series, you’re just a hater.

This film leans heavily, at times, on nostalgia, with many clips from the old movies and some characters resurfacing. There are also some wonderful tie-ins to the overall series. The Final Reckoning is definitely a love letter to fans. As the credits roll, one can’t help but think of the entire body of work and an inevitable ranking system.

While very entertaining, this is not the strongest of the eight films, but it will still be better than most action films released in 2025.

Grade: B

Watch the movie trailer: