Mission: Impossible – The Last Reckoning

For nearly three decades, the Mission: Impossible film saga has been a testament to the enduring appeal of old-school action cinema, a provocative roar against the era of algorithm-driven blockbusters and green screen fatigue. It all began in 1996 with Brian De Palma's sleek and deliberately complex thriller, in which a 33-year-old Tom Cruise reinvented espionage with a character unlike any of his television predecessors. In this film, Ethan Hunt was vulnerable, driven by betrayal and haunted by his emotions. He wasn't yet the global superhero we know today: he was a man caught in a web of lies, accused of crimes he didn't commit and plunged into an international game of cat and mouse. What has happened since is not just a cinematic evolution, but a true metamorphosis. In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise and his longtime collaborator Christopher McQuarrie once again attempt the impossible: to bring to a close a saga that has always pushed its own limits and pay tribute to a legacy built blow by blow, punch by punch, and aerial stunt after aerial stunt.

The film doesn't open with a sense of urgency, but with reverence, in a slow, almost ceremonial procession of flashbacks and reminders that unfold like a farewell montage. There's no rush to jump into the action, no sudden chaos to light the fuse. Instead, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning takes its time, long enough to allow the audience to catch up with the convoluted narrative left hanging by Dead Reckoning Part One, released in 2023. The malevolent force at the center of the story, the Entity, an omnipotent artificial intelligence born of military mismanagement, continues its insidious expansion, infecting global systems, manipulating geopolitics, and causing the rise of apocalyptic cults. But this is not just a technological thriller. The stakes are apocalyptic, with the Entity's influence threatening to trigger a nuclear war and reduce the digital infrastructure of modern civilization to ashes. It's the kind of threat tailor-made for Ethan Hunt, who, despite a career marked by clandestine operations and insubordination, is once again called upon to save a world that never seems to stop asking him for the ultimate sacrifice.

While Dead Reckoning Part One played with ideas of techno-dystopia and our growing dependence on misinformation, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning pushes this paranoia to its limits. But it does so in a way that is both ambitious and frustrating. Much of the first hour is weighed down by exposition-heavy dialogue, endless boardroom debates, and grim monologues about the nature of truth, choice, and destiny. We are repeatedly told that this mission is different, that Ethan is the only one who can do it, and that this is indeed the end. These proclamations, while thematically in line with the film's swan song intentions, become stifling. We begin to crave not more clarity, but more action, that thrilling impulse that defined the most iconic episodes of the series. Yet it's hard not to admire the scale of the ambition, even when the narrative feels weighed down. McQuarrie is aiming for grandeur, meaning, and myth. And in some ways, he achieves all three. At the center of it all is Tom Cruise, whose performance, now imbued with a solemnity rarely seen in previous installments, feels more intimate and desperate than ever.

Ethan Hunt is no longer just a man on a mission, he is the living memory of all past missions. There is obvious fatigue in Tom Cruise's eyes, a melancholy in his silences, as if Ethan Hunt himself is aware that his time is running out. He still sprints with the same intensity, still clings to the sides of planes and dives into icy oceans, but his recklessness is now tinged with gravity. In a breathtaking sequence, Ethan Hunt dives into the Arctic to retrieve the Entity's source code from a sunken submarine, crawling through claustrophobic corridors as the vessel threatens to collapse around him. It's pure physical cinema, a feat of set design, sound, and performance that rivals anything the franchise has ever put on screen. Later, when he commandeers a biplane in midflight, walks along its wings under the force of G-force, and jumps from one plane to another in midair, the film reaches its lyrical crescendo. Not because of an excess of special effects, but because we know—we truly believe—that Tom Cruise is doing this for real. He's not playing to the camera. He's playing to the audience, as if to say: You still matter. It still matters.

Yet despite all the spectacle, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is also a film deeply concerned with its own mythology. It references not only events from previous films, but also buried emotional arcs, forgotten supporting characters, and even Ethan's early choices as a young IMF recruit. The return of Rolf Saxon as William Donloe, an analyst who appears briefly in the first film, is emblematic of the film's mission: to come full circle and reward longtime fans with emotional continuity. Even the date of May 22, 1996, the premiere date of Brian De Palma's original film, becomes part of the plot, a sign of the franchise's intertwining with its own history. But this recursive gaze also becomes a trap. The film is sometimes so obsessed with its legacy that it forgets to breathe. Grace, played by Hayley Atwell, who made such a charming and energetic entrance in the first film, is reduced here to a mere vehicle for exposition and romantic tension. Her chemistry with Ethan Hunt seems forced, and her dialogue lacks the spark that made her so remarkable. Similarly, supporting roles such as Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are relegated to the sidelines, their characters serving more as vehicles for ideas than the dynamic trio we've come to love.

And yet, despite these flaws, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning retains an emotional charge that is difficult to ignore. When President Sloane, played by Angela Bassett, congratulates Ethan Hunt, it is impossible not to hear these words addressed as much to Tom Cruise as to the character. Because Mission: Impossible is no longer just a series of films, it is Tom Cruise's personal achievement. His career is now inextricably linked to Ethan Hunt's journey, a fusion of art and identity where making movies becomes a mission in itself. Cruise is no longer content to play a hero. He is fighting for the very soul of cinema. He wants us in the theaters. He wants to win our admiration. And even if the film sometimes lacks pace or fluidity, it never lacks sincerity. That counts for a lot, if not everything, in an era of meaningless spectacle.

The film doesn't end with a definitive call to arms, but with a discreet nod to legacy and perseverance. Christopher McQuarrie wisely avoids slamming the door. There is no funeral, no final explosion. Instead, there remains a lingering sense of passage, that this may be the last time, or maybe not. Perhaps the story of Ethan Hunt isn't really over, because perhaps stories like this, which are about belief, about doing what's right when all logic says otherwise, never really end. What began as an adaptation of a 1960s television series has, against all odds, become one of the most enduring film sagas of our time. Alongside James Bond and Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt now occupies a place of his own: that of a tireless, loyal, often misunderstood hero who fights not for glory or ideology, but for the simple principle that one person, with the right friends and the right instincts, can make a difference.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is an imperfect but fitting conclusion to this legacy. It's pompous, indulgent, and over-the-top. But it's also bold, sincere, and spectacular. It's a love letter written in choreographed stunts and stitched together with flashbacks to the past. It may not be the best installment in the series—Fallout and Ghost Protocol remain the best—but it may be the most self-aware, elegiac, and personal. If this really is Ethan Hunt's last mission, then he's not running away, he's flying away. Not because he has to, but because he believes we're worth it.

Mission: Impossible – The Last Reckoning
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
Written by Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen
Based on Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller
Produced by Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie
Starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett
Director of photography: Fraser Taggart
Editing: Eddie Hamilton
Music: Max Aruj, Alfie Godfrey
Production companies: Skydance Media, TC Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates: May 14, 2025 (Cannes), May 21, 2025 (France), May 23, 2025 (United States)
Running time: 171 minutes

Seen on May 17, 2025 at Gaumont Disney Village, Theater 1, seat N19

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