Over the course of three decades, the Mission: Impossible franchise has given us some of the most consistently enjoyable cinematic thrills out there.
Thanks in large part to Tom Cruise’s devotion to sprinting and pushing the envelope when it comes to making impossible stunts possible, the series has managed to become a blockbuster singularity which has bucked the inevitable downslope trajectory most franchises succumb to.
But it seems that even an anomaly as impressive as Mission: Impossible must face its reckoning. If 2023’s Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One felt like the M:I franchise finally hitting its diminishing return phase, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is proof that the series has truly jumped the shark.
We pick up where we left off in 2023. The parasitic AI known as The Entity is still at large and has infected global cyberspace. As we’re repeatedly told: “Whoever controls The Entity controls the truth.”
Having failed to stop the gaping digital sphincter in Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team have 72 hours before it gains full control of the world’s nuclear arsenal and wipes out humanity.
Thankfully, Hunt has always been “the best of men in the worst of times.” He is “the chosen one” who can "deceive the Lord of Lies."
Yes, these are direct quotes from this ludicrous new adventure, one whose scale and tone have more in common with the worst chapters of The Terminator and The Matrix films than it does with the franchise’s espionage roots.
Considering this supposed last instalment wraps up the storyline left hanging in the previous adventure, it’s hardly surprising that the eighth M:I film shares its predecessor’s bum notes – notably a jumbled script, laughably portentous dialogue, and one of the most forgettable villains (Esai Morales returning as Gabriel) in the franchise’s run.
Not content to simply ride out this already anticlimactic wave, The Final Reckoning adds a crushing sense of dourness hitherto absent from the series, as well as hefty exposition dumps that make the first hour of this 2h50 runtime an absolute slog to get through.
And then there’s the copious Ethan Hunt mythologising. Our hero is more end-of-times messiah than secret agent here, a grating development galvanized by endless po-faced talk of destiny.
It’s a shame that it should end this way, as the inherently promising AI antagonist had so much going for it. It taps into modern fears regarding the alarming proliferation of artificial intelligence and the correlation with the rise in disinformation. The execution may have been dumb in Dead Reckoning, but there was hope for some redemption – especially when Entity “fanatics” are mentioned at the start of The Final Reckoning.
The IMF team vs a cult devoted to a digital overlord? Sign us up.
Sadly, The Final Reckoning doubles down and makes The Entity a doomsday soothsayer and a manipulator of stakes straight out of a Michael Bay movie.
It’s genuinely baffling how producer / star Tom Cruise and director / co-writer Christopher McQuarrie thought this would be a fitting swansong to the Hunt era. They proved beyond a doubt with Rogue Nation and series high note Fallout that they had finessed the winning formula; here, everything they built is thrown out the window in favour of a lunatic devotion to callbacks and self-congratulatory flashbacks.
By harking back so frequently to past M:I instalments and cackhandedly retconing certain plot points (not quite to the same extent as 007's Spectre, but close enough), they create a clumsy Greatest Hits compilation that falls into the Marvel-shaped trap of attempting interconnectedness at any cost.
Which begs the question: When will directors and studios realise that not everything has to be uselessly intertwined? Most of all, if you’re going to rely on the relentlessly frustrating storytelling device of using clip montages, the current film better be as deliriously entertaining as the past adventures you’re visually referring to. Otherwise, you’re just reminding audiences of films they’d rather be watching instead.
By the time this instalment’s two major set-pieces arrive – a terrifically shot submarine sequence and our indefatigable superspy hanging off a biplane with the fate of the planet still in the balance – the sluggish pace has taken hold and no impressive showdown can make up for it.
Worse, the finale lacks the courage to commit to a send-off befitting the film’s title.
Unlike The Final Reckoning, the James Bond franchise had the cojones to cap off the Daniel Craig tenure with a surprising twist. Love it or hate it, killing off 007 in No Time To Die was bold move.
No such luck here, despite ample opportunity to end with an emotional splat / bang.
It’s with a heavy heart, especially considering the impressive run of tightly wound and thrilling adventures the M:I franchise has delivered, that this legacy-obsessed victory-lap feels like this series’ Die Another Day. If the long-running franchise isn’t dead yet, what’s needed is a Casino Royale–shaped, ground-level spycraft reboot.
For now though, Ethan Hunt is done running, punching, swimming, flying and cheating death at every turn. Should his retirement be permanent, it’s a shame that the fuse fizzled out with The Final Reckoning, which ranks at the bottom of the eight-film run. Because for all the early-00's nonsense that characterised M:I-2, there was never a dull moment in John Woo’s silly ballet of slo-mo doves soundtracked to Limp Bizkit.
Tom Cruise deserved a stronger swansong. Instead, audiences get the first mission they should choose not to accept.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is out in cinemas now. Check out the video above for more thoughts on this final instalment of the series.
