Directed by Christopher McQuarrie & Erik Jendresen, Mission: Impossible -The Final Reckoning is the eighth and final chapter of the franchise with Tom Cruise as the lead. The film has everything you want from an action film, with minimal sappy love story and a good chunk of action. And what would a Mission: Impossible film be without him running somewhere?
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team are still fighting for control of The Entity, the artificial intelligence that’s threatening to take over the world. Gabriel (Esai Morales) is still a problem and meddles with his plans to stop The Entity. With Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and Briggs (Shea Whigham) still giving chase, Ethan is running out of time to stop the powerful AI before it takes control of the world’s nukes. With Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Paris (Pom Klementieff), and Grace (Hayley Atwell) there to help, Ethan continues to push the envelope and take risks to make this eighth edition of Mission: Impossible the most daring yet.
The story itself is good. Ethan and co. are searching for a way to stop the AI from hacking the U.S. system and controlling its nuclear warheads. Luther and Benji are there, Grace makes her presence felt, and Paris is still a newcomer after what happened in France. There’s lots of action, some fun chase scenes, and plenty of Tom Cruise doing the most. But “the most” was a bit too much and severely affects the film.
The cheesy things, like the multiple scenes of Tom Cruise sprinting for his life, have become a gag and a treasured feature of the series. That’s fine, as it’s become a calling card for the franchise. But other parts of the film felt elongated solely for Tom Cruise to cheat death. For example, there’s a submarine sequence that takes entirely too long, and, based on the information we’re given in the scene before, he should’ve died three times already. Another sequence involves the airplane, a scene that’s been heavily marketed since Cruise does his own stunts. How long can a man stay on a crop duster without goggles or a harness?
The film’s inclusion of flashbacks from past films and character referencing was a nice touch. It was much funnier than I expected it to be, which added another layer of enjoyment to match the action it delivered. But MI8 is weighted down by the overwhelming amount of cheese stuffed into a film that plods almost three hours.
The cast includes Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman and Angela Bassett, Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, with Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk.
Mission: Impossible -The Final Reckoning gets a 7.5 out of 10. This is a good time for the Tom Cruise era to end and for the franchise to close the book altogether. Any excuse is found to heap praise on Ethan. How does he get everyone in the world to give him what he “thinks” he needs to accomplish his goals? Or find ways for him to strip just because? Or do things that would kill him (people warned some actions would result in death), but somehow he survives? Once or twice is one thing, but this level of cheese for this long a runtime? You can wait until this comes to streaming unless you A) want to experience things go boom in IMAX, or B) you welcome all the cheese and everything that comes with it.
The PG-13 rating is reasonable for the colorful language and the violence.
Mission: Impossible -The Final Reckoning premieres in theaters on Friday, May 23.
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Skydance
Genre: Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hrs 49 mins
Trailer: Watch
U.S. Release Date: May 23, 2025