Marketed as the “endgame” of the series, it’s quickly noticeable that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ultimately plays like the culmination of this massive blockbuster franchise. Throughout its dour first hour, the film subjects us in repeated flashbacks and montages of the previous seven installments, recounting Ethan Hunt’s odd-defying achievements to the point that it feels like a greatest hits recap. It’s the last thing I expected from this franchise. Not only does it serve to get us up to speed on where things left off at the end of 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, but also doubles as a sentimental celebration of the legend of Hunt, turning Tom Cruise’s character as this mythical hero.
I do agree that M:I/Hunt has earned the right for some self-indulgence after almost three decades. But for a film that’s so plot and lore heavy, the flashbacks help a bit, but it’s done so much that it furthers the already slow and rocky pacing of the first act. In a series that’s always opened with exhilarating sequences, the clunky first act drowned in labored exposition admittedly had me worried about the rest of the film. Mission: Impossible has always been the most fun when it didn’t take itself too seriously, allowing us to fully revel in the ridiculous set pieces on screen. Every installment featured a new mission, new villains, a few additional teammates and crazy stunts, giving the films enough foundation to be pretty self-contained.
For a long time, these movies were never heavily bogged down by continuity. Christopher McQuarrie, who’s been the sole director since 2015’s Rogue Nation, deserve credit for introducing elements that crossover between films while still maintaining a cohesive narrative structure. But this time, the writer-director, along with his co-writer Erik Jendresen, might have dipped their toes a little too much in the “cinematic universe” style of filmmaking, which were all the rage in the past decade. The manic flashbacks start to make sense because Final Reckoning is cluttered with endless references and revelations (some of them feel forced, admittedly) that trace back all the way to the original 1996 film. While I appreciate a nice callback here and there, it feels unintentionally messy and lazy. The good news is things do get better.
After the events of Dead Reckoning, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is in hiding to prevent the cruciform key from falling into the wrong hands. He is brought back in by President Sloane (Angela Bassett) to stop the Entity, a rogue A.I. that’s threatening to take over the world. The truth-eating parasitical algorithm has already taken over all of cyberspace, manipulating information to turn the human race against each other and towards nuclear extinction. Hunt’s team from the last film – Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), and Grace (Hayley Atwell) – all return, but are joined this time by Paris (Pom Klementieff), a French maniacal assassin who’s silently replaced Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust in terms of cool factor, and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), a CIA agent formerly assigned to track down Hunt. Esai Morales also returns as Gabriel, but sadly still feels bare bones and serves no purpose other than to give Ethan someone to chase.
New faces round up the rest of the enormous cast, including Nick Offerman, Holt McCallany as cabinet members in Sloane’s administration, Hannah Waddingham as a naval officer, and Trammell Tillman, whose performance stands out among the new cast, as a submarine commander.
Of course, a big part of why we love this franchise is to see Cruise doing crazy stunts for our entertainment, and Final Reckoning certainly delivers on that front. One lengthy (and refreshingly silent) sequence occurs inside a sunken submarine in deep sea waters. This whole scene, which finds our hero needing to navigate around floating torpedoes under immense pressure, stands as some of the most thrilling set pieces in this franchise. Another one is the highly-marketed sequence involving two careening biplanes with Cruise climbing around and hanging off the plane’s wings. I promise it plays way better than my description, you just have to see it to believe it. Although these feats are beyond ridiculous, McQuarrie and Cruise have perfected them in such a way that still feels grounded and believable. We know Hunt has overcome impossible odds time and time again, but there’s still that lingering doubt whether or not he’s going to make it.
Running at 170 minutes, I can certainly appreciate the bold ambition of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning to be the biggest entry in the series, but the way it retroactively connects everything together ends up somewhat haphazard and lazy. But here’s the thing, I can never truly dislike these movies, and that’s the unabashed fan in me talking. It really doesn’t take much for Mission: Impossible films to impress me. They’ve already figured out a long time ago the winning formula how to make these movies so effortlessly enjoyable, even when they sometimes miss the mark. So like his team, I will always trust Ethan Hunt.
Rating:
The Talking Screen 