Despite Tom Cruise's insistence that he'd like to still be making Mission: Impossible films 20 years from now, the title of the franchise's latest instalment doesn't inspire much confidence. Add on the fact that Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning ties together the entire eight-movie arc — including Rolf Saxon's revival of William Donloe, the CIA agent Cruise's Ethan Hunt stole the NOC list from in the original 1996 film — there is certainly an air of completion for Cruise's journey in the series. Hopefully, though, this isn't the case, as Cruise, the franchise and fans deserve better.
Unlike every other Mission: Impossible film, The Final Reckoning begins with not a bang but a deluge of team meetings that could've been an email. The first third of the lengthy 170-minute film dedicates itself to a rehashing of not only 2023's Dead Reckoning Part One, but the entire franchise. The walk down memory lane does evoke welcome nostalgia, especially for those of us who have loved every moment of Ethan's battles, but mixed in with the explanation of "the Entity" (the AI baddie carried over from Dead Reckoning), the endless verbal description quickly wears thin.
As Ethan and his crew continue their mission to stop Gabriel (Esai Morales) from controlling the Entity, President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) works with the nation's defence team, many of whom don't appreciate Ethan's antics like we do, to grapple with the program's hold on the world's nuclear arsenal, with the US being the last to be infiltrated. President Sloane's decision making proves to be the more interesting element of the film, perhaps because such a predicament doesn't feel that far off from reality; however, a personal element to her story muddles things, feeling tacked on and random.
We don't show up for Mission: Impossible for the story, though, and the film contains two major action sequences to satisfy our appetite: an underwater mission in frigid Arctic temperatures, and a battle with Cruise atop old-school aircrafts. The latter is impressive, especially knowing the actor's penchant for performing such stunts himself, and the clear shots of Cruise fighting the elements only adds to his bravado. The underwater nonsense, though, is laughable.
For a franchise that has constantly upped the ante on what's impossible, The Final Reckoning has finally hit a ceiling made of thick, contrived Alaskan ice. Watching Ethan battle subzero temps elicited uproarious laughter in my screening, laughter I don't believe was intended. The feeling in the room came with a mixture of "this fucking guy" and "seriously?" — a precarious balance between admiration and derision.
Mission: Impossible movies always put set pieces ahead of story, a conceit that rarely works in other franchises but somehow Cruise has consistently pulled off. The problem in The Final Reckoning is that the set pieces don't do enough of the heavy lifting to mask the weak plot that we happily overlooked in Dead Reckoning.
Of all the franchises kicking about, Mission: Impossible has been a steadfast favourite. Since 1996, each film has gotten better and better until recently, and there's plenty of gas in the tank to make these films entertaining and clever. The callbacks and retrofitting of past films to create a cohesive story from the first film to now works well enough, but hopefully this only marks a way forward for the franchise, rather than an end point.
A series of films like Mission: Impossible deserves to go out with a banging explosion and maybe a HALO jump or two, not the pitter patter of exposition.