Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Review: A Spectacular, Though Lengthy Send-Off to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt

Watching Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is like a roller coaster ride, albeit in a longer journey at nearly three hours long, mixing highs and lows and somewhere in between. It’s an epic culmination of Ethan Hunt’s journey, the mainstay of the dedicated but often-misunderstood IMF agent played by Tom Cruise since day one. That would be almost 30 years ago, when Cruise was only 34 years old in Brian De Palma’s 1996 original.

How time flies with the franchise evolved over the decades, especially the action and stunt filmmaking that the ever-committed Cruise risks his life taking his Mission: Impossible movies to the next level. The previous instalment, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, was a rousing IMAX-worthy spectacle, despite its rudimentary plot that doesn’t justify its lengthy running time.

With The Final Reckoning stretches even longer, I was initially worried it would be a big mistake, and there’s a chance it might slip into the bloated, yet overly dour farewell similar to how Cary Joji Fukunaga wrapped up Daniel Craig’s James Bond era in No Time to Die four years ago. Thankfully, that’s not the case in The Final Reckoning, even though there are plenty of blemishes to be found, but more of this later.

First, here’s what you need to know: The last time we saw Ethan Hunt in Dead Reckoning, he had successfully obtained the all-important key to access the Entity following a showdown against Gabriel (Esai Morales) atop the moving Orient Express train. Gabriel manages to escape, but most importantly, Ethan has the key, and likewise, he won’t give up until he accomplishes his objectives.

One of them is tracking down Gabriel, and the other is finding a way to infiltrate the sunken Sevastopol to retrieve the crucial source code that comes in the form of a hard drive-like gadget called the Podkova. The Sevastopol in question refers to the Russian stealth submarine previously seen in the opening scene of Dead Reckoning, where it was torpedoed after being deceived by the Entity. It’s up to Ethan to locate the submarine somewhere below the polar ice cap in the Bering Sea.

While Ethan is mostly in charge of the mission as usual, he also get his team back together including Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg) along with the two previous Dead Reckoning characters: the hired pickpocket-turned-ally Grace (Haley Atwell) and Paris (Pom Klementieff), the French assassin previously worked for Gabriel but has since switches side to help Ethan.

The Final Reckoning also sees the return of Angela Bassett’s Erika Sloane, formerly a CIA director seen in Fallout, but she has since become the new U.S. President. There are familiar faces and newcomers too, namely the bespectacled CIA analyst, William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), during the iconic CIA vault heist sequence from the first movie, and Hannah Waddingham as the admiral of a U.S. aircraft carrier.

Christopher McQuarrie wastes no time getting his movie up to speed, with Ethan being given an ultimatum to hand over the key to the government since it’s too big of a risk for him to keep holding onto it. No prizes for guessing what will be Ethan’s final decision, leading to the thrill of the hunt (no pun intended) as he and his team race against time, handling their specific tasks.

I notice The Final Reckoning is considerably toned down in its action set pieces, particularly the major ones, in favour of a plot and dialogue-heavy approach. McQuarrie, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Dead Reckoning‘s Erik Jendresen, throws in exposition dumps and even melodramatic moments in some scenes, making the movie significantly solemn in its tone.

Don’t get me wrong, as you still find plenty of humour here. But compared to the previous Mission: Impossible movies, The Final Reckoning tends to get too serious for its own good. Frankly, the movie could have used some trimming during the protracted midsection, especially given that the story isn’t as intricate as it looks. Certainly not the labyrinthine type seen in the first movie.

Still, The Final Reckoning benefits from Eddie Hamilton’s mix of overlapping and parallel editing to keep the bits and pieces constantly on the move. I love how the movie ties up some loose ends, one of which revolves around William Donloe from the first movie and even an unexpected reveal of a character’s true identity that you just have to see for yourself.

The major action set pieces are largely reserved for the two elaborate sequences, beginning with Ethan having to swim deep underwater to access the Sevastopol submarine. There’s a visceral sense of peril watching Tom Cruise doing his own dangerous underwater stunt, navigating within the maze-like interior of the sunken submarine.

The other one, of course, is the spectacular plane sequence. No doubt one of the best stunts ever seen, not only for a Mission: Impossible entry but also for an action movie in general, the sight of Cruise hanging on the side of the biplane for dear life, filling the IMAX screen, is both scary and breathtaking. All this is executed in-camera as McQuarrie shoots the vertigo-inducing plane stunt both in wide angle and close up while incorporating as much dynamic camerawork as possible to maximise its high-stakes scenario.

It’s truly amazing to see a 62-year-old Tom Cruise still impress when it comes to his commitment to pushing the boundaries without the help of green screen technology. The overall acting performances are competent, with Cruise emoting more than usual, reprising his iconic role as Ethan Hunt for the eighth time. He shares effective and even poignant moments with Ving Rhames’ Luther and Simon Pegg’s Benji. Other recurring cast, namely Hayley Atwell and Angela Bassett, deliver decent support.

As for the newcomers to the franchise, it was Trammell Tillman from Apple TV+’s Severance, who made the most impression here as the sardonic commander of a U.S. submarine assisting Ethan Hunt on a mission. I didn’t like the way McQuarrie handles the Entity, supposedly the main antagonist in Dead Reckoning, but the self-aware A.I. is more ominous this time around, bringing in a much-needed apocalyptic dread to its non-human villain. Too bad the same cannot be said for Esai Morales, whose antagonist role as Gabriel doesn’t make much of an intended impact. Personally, his character still comes across as a standard-issue adversary.

The Final Reckoning is far from the great send-off that it wanted to be, but despite a few shortcomings, this eighth and purportedly final Mission: Impossible movie remains a thrilling cinematic experience worth watching on the biggest screen possible.