Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

Tom Cruise and his super-spy alter-ego, Ethan Hunt, are back, perhaps for their last Mission Impossible. For a number of reasons, what one would’ve assumed would be Dead Reckoning: Part Two is now The Final Reckoning. Let’s see if you should accept this mission.

When we last Ethan and his Impossible Mission Force, they had just grabbed the key to The Entity, that evil AI, from its now-former favorite human, Gabriel (Esai Morales). As we open this mission, The Entity is messing around with international politics with fake videos (yes, really). As if that wasn’t enough, The Entity starts hijacking all the world’s nuclear weapon systems. Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett), previously the CIA director in Fallout and now the President, wants Ethan to give the key to the US Government. Ethan, instead, asks Sloane to let him extract The Entity’s source code from the sunken submarine Sevastopol. Sloane agrees.

Ethan brings along his usual spies, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), Luther Stickwell (Ving Rhames), newbie Grace (Hayley Atwell) and previous antagonists, Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), to the mission. Meanwhile, the US Government and Gabriel engage in a convoluted struggle for The Entity. As usual, not everyone on the team isn’t going to make it out alive. That’s pretty much it.

Cruise’s favorite writer/director, Christopher McQuarrie, once again calls the shots on this mission. McQuarrie and his co-writer, Erik Jendersen, not only load the story with plenty of dynamic set-pieces, but callbacks upon callbacks to the previous films. Among the most prominent is Donloe (Rolf Saxon), a minor character from the first movie, who joins the team an hour or so in. These callbacks are relatively easy to digest, unlike the cavalcade of factions antagonizing Team Ethan. A few other plot threads, such as that concerning Agent Briggs (Shea Wigham), are either left partially explained or not explained at all. This is despite the fact the film runs a rather fitting 169-minutes. 

Still, the mission isn't a complete failure at all. Ethan, Benji and Luther are still a pretty good trio after all this time. Sure, Ethan gets the best stunts, which I'll discuss later, but Benji gets some of the best lines. Luther, meanwhile, gets a rather meaningful final speech. Donloe and his wife, Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk), are both likable and are welcome additions to the crew. It's quite pleasing that Paris survived Dead Reckoning because she gets plenty of great action scenes and meaningful chemistry with Benji here. Sloane is pretty sympathetic as her cabinet pressures her to make a first strike. Out of all the power playing, a surprise hero emerges in General Sidney (Nick Offerman), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In short, I think the acting team is pretty good here.

Now let's talk about the action. Its most highly publicized stunt is Ethan and Gabriel's long biplane chase in the climax. Yes, much of it was shot on real biplanes, but I doubt that Gabriel's hilariously humiliating demise was done for real. Meanwhile, Benji and the others fight to hack The Entity, while Sloane and her cabinet argue. Earlier than that, Ethan makes his way through the Sevastopol just as the submarine decides to sink even further. Not only that, but he's forced to surface without his diving suit! These set-pieces, as well as The Entity's gradual nuclear hacking, are masterfully constructed by editor Eddie Hamilton. Sure, an important scene involving Luther is a bit hard to follow, but the rest of it works wonders. Anyone looking for great action wont be disappointed here.

What else can I say about it? I almost thought the famous theme wouldn't show up, but it actually kicks in at 23-minutes. I re-checked Dead Reckoning just now, and it actually kicks in there at almost thirty-minutes. And yet, I didn't notice that delay last time. Weird, huh? A scene where Ethan gets inside Gabriel's personal sensory deprivation chamber is just as overwhelming to the audience as it is to him. All the flashing lights there aren't a pleasant sight, that's for sure. It's pretty heavy-handed when our heroes have a few conversations that boil down to "The Entity wants you to be irrational. Be rational." But they're still fine. Above all, it's pretty fun when you realize that the plot boils down to the IMF trying to stop Skynet from doing Judgment Day. Will there be robots in a next film, too?

But seriously, I wonder what a prospective follow-up would be like. What kind of crazy action scenes will it have? Who will they assemble for the mission? Like Ethan and Gabriel in the climax, the future is up in the air. But for now, accept this latest Mission Impossible if you want another good time at the movies. You'll just have to see the biplane climax for itself; there's a lot I haven't discussed in this review. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds ...

Or not.