The Mission: Impossible movies have essentially become the American equivalent of James Bond. Ethan Hunt is the picturesque Hollywood-American: charismatic, patriotic, but also independent and constantly breaking rules for the sake of his friends and the greater good. While the Bond films have been on the decline we've seen a upgrade in quality for M:I, especially in the 2010s with Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and Fallout. While many argue that this franchise has a strong overarching narrative, one that the new entry posits, I've never seen it as that; these are great episodic spy thrillers that have managed to keep the genre alive in a time where politics have become far too complex and divisive for such simplistic antics.

But now we have Final Reckoning, a Part Two to 2023's Dead Reckoning, that aims to be a stopping point for the series. It strives to "wrap everything up", to take the previous seven films and bundle them up in a nice bow, while also delivering an exciting entry on its own. While I think it definitely delivered a thrilling globetrotting adventure, I find that it has a weak story both on its own and as a nostalgia-baiting resolution.

Personal Score

this criteria uses the DecentFilms rating formula.

Letter-Grade Recommendability: B-
Artistic/Entertainment Value - ★★★★☆
Moral/Spiritual Value - 0
Age Appropriateness: Teens & Up

Now this score may come as pretty harsh, and it's really the most negative I can be about this movie. Despite the politicking and the nostalgiabaiting this is a thrill ride just the same as the others, in several scenes even moreso. I will start with the story first, however, as the action can come later.

It's only fitting I do this because the movie does the same thing. Clocking in at a whopping 170 minutes, this movie feels like its runtime, really taking its time with exposition and introducing various elements from other movies. There is a lot of flashbacking here, even to the immediately preceding entry, at just about any mention of something from the past. This is something it somewhat shares with the other films, as they all have a tendency to exposit the franchise's history at ever turn, but never has it been this blatant and frankly annoying. I think a solid chunk of runtime could have been cut if these references were removed, and it would not detract from the story in the process.

There are a lot of elements from previous films that do have a more natural place in this one. Donloe and Kittredge are smoothly reintroduced from the 1996 original and have their part to play in this plot. The Rabbit's Foot from Mission Impossible III gets a renewed importance as the vagueness surrounding it is leveraged for this film. Sure they're callbacks, but they're smarter ones that help not only support this film as a finale but also make this alternate timeline from our own a cohesive one.

Speaking of alternate timelines, the most exciting topic of all must be mentioned: politics. Angela Bassett plays the Madame President of the United States, a clear Kamala parallel that has already dated the film in a humorous manner. AI is also present, as anyone who saw Dead Reckoning is aware, and there is a minor angle involving average laymen radicalized by the Entity's misinformation; it gives Cruise an opportunity to call someone terminally online while kicking him in the head. These elements are far funnier than the writers intend them to be and I would call them harmless as a result, especially as the rest of the international aspect is treated very neutrally. Perhaps a bit too neutral, since there should have been more emphasis on how the whole world is treating what is an actual global crisis rather than just the American stage.

The antagonists of the film are frankly a bit weak. The Entity, as much as the movie hypes it up, is so far removed from the physical things going on that the stakes feel contrived. In Dead Reckoning they try to patch this by adding a human face in the form of Gabriel, who is a better antagonist purely due to performance. Final Reckoning evolves his character further, making him a more active participant in the plot rather than just a walking mouthpiece, and I do think he's better here. I would rank him between Rogue Nation's Solomon Lane and Fallout's John Lark; his hatred-fueled mania especially at the end really makes him a threat to the team (even if his end is a bit anti-climactic).

The IMF team that exists in this movie has a bit less personality than previous entries. It probably hurts that the Rogue Nation/Fallout team had such good chemistry, because the new characters just can't compete. The two new girls have their strengths, but their dynamics are almost exclusively with Ethan alone and don't match up to the complexity Ilsa Faust brought to the team. Benji and Luthor carry the brunt of side-characterization, but even in that respect there is less to work with as the film takes itself far seriously than the others. It makes sense why there's less personality than usual - the entire world is falling apart in real-time - but it does make this feel lacking as a team-oriented story. And with Ethan basically carrying the entirety of the plot on his back until the final act, it doesn't feel like his friends are that important especially with the new members who don't contribute much.

Speaking of Ethan, however, it's time to get into the real fun of this film.

In previous entries, there was a lot more emphasis on team-based espionage leaning more towards heist tropes than anything else. Here, however? A definite emphasis on action-adventure with a whole ton of CGI (Cruise Going Insane). Ethan and Co. are jumping all over the world, going from one literal hemisphere to the other to beat the Entity's convoluted (and a bit nonsensical) scheme. This isn't a smart movie, but it's clearly an intentional direction that began with Fallout on the direction of Christopher McQuarrie. I don't hate this direction, though it is inferior, because it makes for some quality action and setpieces that are heightened by the production quality.

This movie has an absurd budget, tallying at around $400 million according to reports. That puts it in the same ballpark as Avengers: Endgame, but unlike that movie the quality really shows. Paramount has touted just how practical everything is, how Tom Cruise really is doing all of the crazy stuff on camera, and I've heard the term "stuntslop" applied to the movie as a result. It does really has the desired effect on the viewing; blurring the line between an effect and a stunt makes it feel much more believable even as the sequences grow increasingly insane. Final Reckoning has some of the craziest sequences in the entire franchise, both in scale and in presentation, and that makes this a real winner for fans. I would put the submarine and plane scenes up there as two new cinema icons, up there with the CIA break-in from the original and scaling the Dubai skyscraper in Ghost Protocol. As sequences like these are a primary appeal to me as a viewer, I was extremely pleased with how these turned out after they were advertised so much in the promotional material.

If you're like me, then the action of Final Reckoning is worth the price of admission (as well as the time investment). This is as close to a "turn your brain off" movie as I think I get: just plain and simple adventure without too much care for anything too deep. The movie doesn't say really treat this as the last of these films, but I do hope it is, as this is a pretty alright wrap-up for a 30 year-old franchise.

While I'm at it, here's my ranking of all of the films I have watched:

M:I:5 - Rogue Nation
M:I:6 - Fallout
Mission: Impossible
M:I:4 - Ghost Protocol
M:I:8 - Final Reckoning
M:I:7 - Dead Reckoning