Ever since the first flick hit the Big Screen in that heady year of 1996, brought to unlikely life by Brian DePalma (The Untouchables), of all people, I’ll admit that I’ve been a steady fan of this strangely long-lived franchise, despite one significant caveat –
I think Tom Cruise, The (possibly) Human, who plays the series lead character, ‘Ethan Hunt’, is a fucking lunatic.
A well-toned meat puppet for that fucked-up cult of Hollywood dipshits, Scientology. Just bizarre, sinister weirdos, man. Based on that, scores of people out there will enthusiastically boycott anything the man touches (which, largely, can’t be faulted)…which I used to do (as with other notorious Tinseltown true-life scum like Mel Gibson, Bryan Singer and Kevin Spacey, to name a few)…till I reminded myself that Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is but one cog on a project that employs literally hundreds of other cogs. Working class peeps and creative talent. Director right down to catering. Movies are a collaborative effort and take a lot to make, and make well.
Plus, insane bastard or not, I have to applaud the man’s dedication to the art of filmmaking and the work he puts into some of the most insane stunt-work (as performed by a ballsy / insane lead actor) I’ve literally ever seen.
Something I’ve found fascinating is that it’s a multi-title franchise that has somehow defied the odds and actually got better with each successive installment, in my humble opinion. Most series, right around the third one, start showing the potential for wear…or they just straight up shit the bed. Admittedly, the franchise looked like it stumbled early with 2000’s M:I 2, with legendary Hong Kong action maestro John Woo’s operatic style clashing with the somewhat grounded presentation of DePalma’s original, with the 90’s novelty of Woo’s two guns / slow motion doves-style already starting to show wear.
But then came hot-at-the-time wonder-kid JJ Abrams (Super 8), who managed to hit it out of the park with his feature film debut, 2006’s agreeably gritty Mission: Impossible III, which is also the entry with which the franchise seemed to have found its stride. It’s also where M:I fixture Simon Pegg comes aboard, as loveable comic relief analyst-turned-field agent ‘Benji’.
Next came 2011’s surprisingly fun Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, helmed by accomplished animation director Brad Bird (The Incredibles), continuing with Cruise’s stated theme of having a fresh take from a different director with each successive sequel.
Next up was writer / director Christopher McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun), and that whole cool idea went straight out the window, as he stuck around to helm the next four, being 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Part One, if going by original release title) and finally this, 2025’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Given the effectively entertaining spectacle that the Mission: Impossible franchise has reliably become, I’ve made it a point to catch every one of them at a theatre, and I have not been disappointed.
HOWEVER, in this case, Life did what Life does…and got in the fucking way, causing me to miss it when it passed through the small-town multi-plex we have in my coastal neck of the woods. Now, having finally caught up with it via used Blu ray-purchased-online, I curse the events that diverted me from catching this one on The Big Screen… cuz this shit was crazy!
I had originally planned to check this out on the upcoming Friday, chilling after the work-week while taking care of my two dog-girls (while the ex is outta town). However, as one is dealing with an unfortunate and irritating skin condition, I took advantage of leftover Sick Time and GTFO of my day of corporate servitude. After tending to my canine dependents (dogs are amazing, just sayin), I had the rest of the afternoon to…well…watch Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, I guess.
So that’s what I did.
Reheated some coffee, had a quick puff, grabbed the pen and paper…and hit PLAY.
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to note that the following scribbles ensued during the flick’s admittedly hefty 2 hour and 49 minute run-time…“
-VHS? Retro most welcome. Given the digital nature of the enemy, it makes sense. I’ve always liked the clever new ways that the Impossible Mission Force teams get their covert communications. In this case, some fondly remembered vintage tech is put on display. At first, I just thought it was cool cuz they hadn’t used that one in the series yet. But then, in the context of the overarching story and in particular, the Antagonist, it’s actually clever and logical. Approved!
-OK, full franchise recap. Highlight reel. There’s an extended montage touching on all the flicks that came before and it was the first inkling I had that this may actually be the final entry into this particular version of Mission: Impossible. It felt…reminiscent. Almost…whimsical.
-Tommy’s starting to show the age. For years, people have always talked about how Tom Cruise doesn’t appear to age. Well, no more…for the years are definitely showing now, you 63 year old son-of-a-bitch! But, let’s take a minute to appreciate that this motherfucker can still action the hell out of a scene, as he does many times in this story. As stated previously, crazy but dedicated.
-Luther done dirty. The one recurring side-character that has been there from the start is master hacker ‘Luther Stickell’, played to burly perfection by Ving Rhames. The dude has always had ‘Ethan’s back and here was no different. It’s just too bad he got stuck with…*SPOILERS*…some terminal disease that’s clearly shaving years off the man’s life. Had me thinking of how Val Kilmer’s ‘Iceman’ was handled in another Tom Cruise joint, Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
-Cool prison break / Mexican stand-off. This early sequence was all at once surprising, tense, clever and funny. The grinning had begun.
-“Keep telling yourself, it’s only pain.” Riiigght… Exactly what someone who’s never been tortured before needs to hear…right before they’re tortured.
-I do love the fight scenes in these flicks. Christopher McQuarrie had been steadily honing his craft as a more-than-capable Action Director with these last few M:I flicks and he keeps the action here fast and furious, packed with kinetic energy and propelled by terrific shots and edits.
-All pre-credits. (23 min) Yep.
-This is straight-up science fiction now. The Big Bad, the steadily growing evil AI, the Entity, now comes across as borderline alien and omnipotent. Obviously it’s a timely issue, as AI is currently already showing signs in Real Life of it’s havoc-wreaking potential, but somehow, this tech was on another level. The fact that specific dates play into the narrative, you can’t just wave it away as ‘futuristic’…just ‘elseworld’, or alternate timeline.
-Why down the middle of the road?! Sidewalk not cool enough? No M:I movie is an M:I movie unless there’s an extended sequence of lil Tommy running his ass off to…somewhere. Here, he goes ripping up the dead centre of a night-time roadway, when there’s a wide-ass sidewalk RIGHT THERE! Nope…up the middle of the road he goes.
-Dramatic send-off. Well played. ‘Luther’. I’ll just leave that there.
-Oh, damn! ‘Jim Phelps’’ kid. Uh oh! Yep, one biggish ‘reveal’ is that secondary character Agency goon ‘Briggs’ (Shea Whigham) turns out to be the spawn of former IMF team lead / villain ‘Jim Phelps’, as played in the ’96 original by Real Life piece of shit Jon Voight (Deliverance). Add some more tension, why don’t ya!
-Ridiculous war room. Cartoonishly big. I swear, ever since Kubrick unleashed Dr. Strangelove on the world in ’64, war rooms in movies get more and more outsized, until we come to something like THIS, which is hilariously cavernous. Seriously, THAT many large and oddly placed screens and terminals are needed?! Made me think of the final shot of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). If you know…you know.
-Holt! There he is, ladies and gents! Onscreen and larger than life! Holt muthafuckin McCallany!! Who played that loveable scamp would-be rapist ‘Junior’, in Alien 3 (1992). *sighs wistfully*
-Angela most welcome. Ever since she turned up as ‘Mace’, in the highly underrated and under-seen (and personal favorite) James Cameron / Kathryn Bigelow collab Strange Days (1995), I’ve appreciated it whenever Angela Bassett turns up onscreen. The woman has a certain ‘gravity’ about her.
-Some beautiful aircraft carrier shots. There are beautiful aircraft carrier shots too!
-Donloe. Full circle. One thing this flick clearly wants to do is tie a narrative bow on the whole franchise and one way they do this is bringing back the character of beleaguered CIA analyst ‘William Donloe’ (Rolf Saxon), the poor bastard in the first film that ‘Ethan’ and his team victimized during their now-infamous Black Vault heist. Haven’t seen him the entire franchise…yet here he is.
-HPNS? Was that a nod to The Abyss? I love James Cameron’s first deep-sea epic, 1989’s The Abyss (second, if you MUST include 1981’s hilarious Pirahna 2: The Spawning) and High Pressure Nervous Syndrome plays a key part in the plot, first established through a tense dialogue involving the soon-to-be villain…whose eventual dastardly deeds are directly due to HPNS. The HPNS speech here was VERY close, even in cadence, to the sequence from Cameron’s masterpiece.
-Holy shit! What was that building made of? Gas-soaked kindling? One flame applied to one thing…and *WHOOSH!*…up goes the whole place. They’re called building safety codes for a reason, dammit!
-As usual, great set pieces and clever inter-cutting. Don’t want to ruin much, but some slick work was done in editing, working with some spectacular action footage and cool visual concepts.
-Very cool, and eerie, ‘exiting the sub’ sequence. The underwater action here was incredible and one shot, with a character standing in a dark flooded airlock aboard a submerged American submarine and opening the hatch to the dark void-like depths in an intimidating wide-shot, just as another sub looms out of the gloom. Gave me shivers! No bullshit.
-Sub to sub transfer. That’s new…and cool. This whole sequence was amazing, both in concept and execution. I’ve never seen a character launch off one nuclear sub…to clandestinely latch onto another trailing immediately behind. Even though the physical medium in which the action takes place is completely different, I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite stunt scenes in a flick, and that’s the amazing jet-to-jet hijack scene from 1993’s Cliffhanger. Still mind-blowing all these years later.
-Think SOMEONE liked The Abyss. Not a complaint. MANY shots from this extended underwater sequence STRONGLY suggested that James Cameron’s 1989 movie played a sizeable role in shaping the look, while several interspersed shots would probably have JC creaming in his pants in approval.
-The movie looks great! Can’t really expand too much on this broad statement, but it’s true…as with the others, this film is gorgeous from shot to shot.
-Awesome rolling sub scene. The physical mechanics of how they pulled this scene off are nothing short of amazing, with something like an 8 million gallon tank and a huge rotating set on a 360 degree gimbal. Another gnarly concept pulled off in-camera extremely well.
-Peril is set up well. Things pay off. And that’s how good screen-writers do it. McQuarrie has demonstrated this in every one of his entries in this series, not to mention his previous writing efforts, and here was no different.
-Aw shit. Torpedo. During the crazy out-of-control sinking of the already sunken sub, a loose underwater missile gets in the way.
-WTF?! Cut the tank off, not all your duds. As expected, since nothing can just be easy in this franchise, ‘Ethan’ discovers, with no time to spare, that his tank is too big to allow him to get into a torpedo tube to escape before the stricken sub vanishes forever into the black ocean deeps, to be claimed forever by Davy Jones’ locker. But clearly they hadn’t hit their quota on ‘shirtless Tom Cruise’, so instead of just slicing off the tank, he instead just cuts his entire suit off…at the bottom of the fucking Bering Sea, one of the coldest sections of ocean anywhere. But hey, you do you.
-He’s fuckin dead. Real simple. But damn, exciting as hell ‘sliding sub’ scene. The entire submarine sequence culminates with ‘Ethan’ barely escaping the sub (of course) and ending up in a literal fetal position bobbing against the ice-covered surface for an on-screen duration, and at a temperature, that would kill ALL humans, no question.
All. Humans.
But…
-Haha! Conveniently skipping the ‘how the fuck are they gonna rescue DEFINITELY dead ‘Ethan’ now’ part. Guessing they realized they’d written themselves into a bit of a narrative corner or, taking the already bloated run-time into account, cut the scene out, but we never do see ‘Ethan’s actual rescue from the ice, although the method with which they were going to attempt it was wisely already telegraphed to us earlier.
-Literally said out loud “Let me guess…”long story.” Two seconds later…”Long story.” This is in response to ‘Ethan’ asking how it was that he was saved, because of course it is.
-Cool percussive theme. Tribal. This new flavour introduced to the theme / score was most welcome. As a former DJ who still slaps the wax down from time to time, I was always a fan of the ‘tribal’ sound, especially when melded into a solid progressive house or breaks track (2000-2006, those were the years for techno!), but as a fan of world music as well, Africa is one region who’s music I frequently seek out for casual listening. This is what happens when you’re raised by an obsessive music fanatic / musician who’s wide-reaching blanket of musical tastes bordered on the ridiculous.
-Still packing the 1911? I approve. I’m a Canadian left-leaning centrist who is consistently appalled by the outrageous level of gun violence south of the border…who, incidentally, also legally owns a .45 calibre 1911A1 handgun (a Norinco, but who gives a fuck…still that classic single-action frame), in a progressive country that knows how to hold a potential deluge of mass shootings and random gun violence at bay (emphasis on education, diversity and compassion helps too – looking at YOU, USA!), though I do think Trudeau’s government went a LITTLE too far with their knee-jerk reaction handgun ban (though I will ALWAYS respect his legalization of recreational cannabis).
Here’s hoping Carney loosens a few things up. Don’t victimize the law-abiding sport owners who’ve already willingly signed away certain rights for the PRIVILEGE (gun ownership should NEVER be considered a guaranteed right…it needs to be earned) of being able to own a pistol for sporting purposes, because of the nefarious and inevitable actions of the criminal assholes importing black-market firearms for ‘the streets’, or simply 3D printing ‘ghost guns’ in some clandestine workshop somewhere. Go after those fuck-tards!
*steps down from soap box
It’s a classic design (hence the ‘1911’, the year it was first introduced) and it was cool to see that, in the high-tech world of the M:I universe, our protagonist still relies on the classics – simple, solid and dependable, if just a little limited in the ammo capacity department. This was a small detail McQuarrie and Cruise introduced a couple movies back and I appreciate the continuity.
-Of course, now it’s Benji’s turn. First beloved supporting character ‘Luther’ is dramatically shown the door…then equally-liked ‘Benji’ finds himself in mortal peril. More evidence of a franchise wrap-up.
-And another rad chase – cave. Large powerful vehicles slamming around at high-speed through a variety of mountain caves…what’s not to love?!
-Classic Cruise running scene. Go Tom go! I swear that a ‘Tom Cruise sprints…again’ scene is written into the dude’s contract for every flick. Has to be, given the reliable consistency from title to title.
-Awesome bi-plane scene is awesome. Not much more to say, really. At first, when hints of this were heavily doled out during the ad campaign, it actually seemed a bit gimmicky (which, admittedly, it is) but then, in the context of the story, A) the overall stunt work is WAY more impressive than the tidbits we were spoon-fed, and B) the reason* for the use of the antiquated aircraft design actually holds up to narrative scrutiny.
*see previous scribble regarding the use of VHS.
-Red October, anyone? Anyone who remembers the fate of Sam Neill’s sympathetic ‘Borodin’ character from John McTiernan’s superb 1990 adaptation of Tom Clancy’s novel, The Hunt for Red October, will know what I’m referring to.
-Tom Cruise is a lunatic. There it is again. Besides the dude being a mentally-unbalanced freak in Real Life, his dedication to his stunt-work also suggests some serious screws being loose. But damn…it’s some exhilarating shit, when all pieced together. That’s the good kind of crazy. The other shit…not so much.
-My toes are curling! Crazy ass bi-planes! That’s a thing that was happening. True story.
-Is that a Darwin Award death? When the human antagonist ‘Gabriel’ (Esai Morales) finally meets his inevitable end, it’s almost Loony Toons comical, while also being a bit surprising in the suggested violence of the incident which, for SOME reason, had me thinking of some of the more over-the-top murders in the later Friday the 13th flicks. Not in how it plays out, but in the suggested damage that occurs. Give the man a Tylenol!
-And another ‘how did he get out of THAT one?!’ moment. *shrugs* Yep, another one of these pops up, no clear last-second solution given to a perilous situation. Smartly, McQuarrie keeps the action moving, propelling us past the plot-hole / lazy writing.
-If this is Cruise’s last kick at the can with M:I, strong finish. As Act 3 tangibly works toward its conclusion, the tone undeniably takes on the veneer of a ‘send off’, with the final shot of Cruise being perfectly appropriate, given the shadowy world in which the character inhabits. The story also ties the rest of the franchise together in ways that I was mostly cool with, unlike in the Craig ‘James Bond’ flicks, where the clearly-not-planned overarching storyline reeks of narrative desperation and forced closure.
-A bit long…but definitely cool! Kinda sums it up right there.
If the Powers That Be are smart…this is where Mission: Impossible, in this permutation, comes to an end. This one ably continues the tried-n-true tradition of crazy-ass stunt work, twisting plot-lines and cool characters, keeping the quality high and enabling Cruise, after three plus decades, to walk away proudly, having most certainly left his mark.
The mistake will be if he comes back.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a solid, well-crafted wrap-up (it would appear) to one of the most entertaining action franchises…well…ever. If, in a few years time (6-10 years would be good – take note, Disney), we get a brand-new take on the long-lived spy franchise, fresh and Cruise-less, I’m all for it and would be genuinely curious to experience the new ‘flavour’.
But circling back to this seemingly final entry, if you’re a fan of the series, or simply appreciate spectacle on the Big Screen, then this flick is made for you, assuming you’re not a rabid Cruise hater. You owe it to yourself to check it out! It has everything we’ve come to love about M:I – the twisting plots, the cool gadgets, the shadowy characters, the sprinkles of humor and, of course, the insanely over-the-top action scenes / stunt-work, which in this one, are / is simply amazing.
Do it to it. A good time will be had by all.
This message will self-destruct in 5…4…3…2…
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