It is with a heavy heart to say that after 30 years and 8 films, the “final” installment is something no film in the franchise has been so far: boring. Yes, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is an unfortunate misfire, rife with nearly every IP pitfall imaginable and then some. A bland affair that sheds any sense of espionage or personality, “The Final Reckoning” concludes the long running series with a whimper instead of a bang. It’s hard to even comprehend how much the film gets wrong considering that this is the 4th film helmed by Christopher McQuarrie. You would think that for someone so capable at the helm – a director who not only reinvigorated the franchise and pushed Tom Cruise to unlimited possibilities and made one of the best entries to date with “Fallout” – would know how to land the plane after sending Cruise up, up and away on one so often.
Alas, McQuarrie seems to have doubled down on all the wrong takeaways from the franchise’ success and indulge all of his worst narrative tendencies. “The Final Reckoning” is a somber rather than celebratory reflection on the series, ending with an exhilarating final hour bogged down by a meandering first hour and a half. Overlong, overstuffed and overwritten, the fun of the franchise is traded out for incessant exposition and needless retconing that prioritizes connective tissue over everything else, including telling an interesting story as a “final” sendoff. It abandons every ounce of intrigue and thrills save for the last hour and delivers breathtaking action set pieces without any context surrounding them. It’s just Tom Cruise doing Tom Cruise things, and the spectacle loses its allure when there’s no why attached, leaving every major moment in “The Final Reckoning” feeling unearned and flat.
A direct continuation of “Dead Reckoning,” we once again see Ethan Hunt (Cruise) on the run and in a final stand off against The Entity, an all knowing AI program bent on taking over the global digital systems and eradicating humanity. With a combination of old and new team members, the last of the IMF is all that stands in the way of global nuclear war and total fallout. It’s a race against time to find the macguffin and connect the thingamagig to the whatchamcallit before whoseaman get to the mumbo jumbo before Ethan can stop them. The plot of “Mission: Impossible” films have never been their strong suit, but they have almost always leaned on their knack for chases and exotic locations and elaborate plans based in good old fashioned spy stuff. “The Final Reckoning” may on paper sound like the others, but I assure you it is anything but, unfolding with such a misguided sense of self seriousness it forgets that these films are supposed to be fun. The film stars literally everyone from every movie still alive to be in this one and even adds a few stars for reasons?
I get the metatextual commentary on AI in filmmaking and the dangers of the digital age ruining the theatrical experience and framing Hunt/Cruise as the last vestige of hope that cinema will be restored to its rightful place. But I can’t think of a more uninteresting premise than “super spy battles a computer virus” and then run that idea for 5 and half hours across two films. “The Final Reckoning” doesn’t even bother to spend most of its runtime telling that continuation, instead spending the first 20 minutes recapping the entire franchise through voice over montages and flashback recaps. Don’t worry if you forgot anything from Part 1; “The Final Reckoning” goes out of its way to constantly SHOW you what happened. It’s like watching every movie except the one you’re seated for, and only in the last hour or so does “The Final Reckoning” attempt to stand on its own. But by that time, the rest of it so exhausting (for the wrong reasons) you simply don’t care. This is “The Rise of Skywalker” of the MI franchise and I mean that in the most pejorative way possible.
Even if you could look past the constant exposition dumps and previous film flashbacks, “The Final Reckoning” also decides to randomly retcon forgotten plot points and useless characters. Things like The Rabbit’s Foot and Jim Phelps’ son to the guy from the first movie that did that thing that time (it literally doesn’t matter) are all brought into the fold and shoved into the story like they’ve mattered to it all along. It’s the connective tissue fallacy that has gotten the MCU into its recent run of troubles, and “The Final Reckoning” takes all the wrong cues from the wrong playbook to rush a series conclusion rather than give the film anything for itself. Look, the death defying stunts are astounding here, with both the underwater submarine sequence and aerial battle being some of the most riveting action set pieces the series has to offer. At the very least “The Final Reckoning” keeps that much in tact and delivers on some truly breathtaking visuals. Sadly it’s not enough and comes too late to save the film from itself.
I wish so much that “Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning” was better. Cruise was born to play Hunt and put his body on the line time and time again for our viewing pleasure, and for 7 films what he’s given us has been worth every crazy moment. Sadly, when it came time to say goodbye – or at the very least pretend to – “The Final Reckoning” comes up short and delivers a major mixed bag of captivating visuals and incomprehensible narrative. It forgoes fun and self awareness for dreary disposition and a self serious tone. Honestly, I don’t think a single character smiles once the entire movie.
The bad news is “Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning” is a sour note end on. The good news is that the Oscars will have a Stunts category in 2027 and there is no way in hell Tom Cruise is going to let that slip by without a nomination, so we’ll most likely get another crack at this ending.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars
“Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning” is now playing in theaters. You can watch the trailer below.
