I am going to let you in on a little secret, I have not seen all of the Mission Impossible films. I haven’t seen the first three films and I have only seen bits of Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. The first Mission Impossible film I watched in its entirety was Fallout. So yeah, I’m definitely a bit behind when it comes to this franchise. That said, I was still able to more or less piece together the broader story. So when going into the Final Reckoning, I didn’t have any skin in the game as all I wanted was an entertaining blockbuster that served as a fitting conclusion for the franchise and it’s kind of that.
Picking up a couple of months after the events of Dead Reckoning, we follow Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team race against time as the rogue artificial intelligence known as, “The Entity”, begins its conquest to take over the world by wiping out humanity with their nuclear arsenal. However, with numerous government officials and agencies panicking, this task will be the most dangerous mission yet for the IMF as the world is at stake.
What really ends up hurting The Final Reckoning is that the first hour plays like a self-indulgent exposition dump, overloaded with clips from the past films. It’s an overwhelming, nonstop barrage of information that doesn’t give you a second to breathe or process anything. I get that the movie’s trying to reorient the audience and catch everyone up, and yeah, like every Mission: Impossible, it insists on laying out the plot step by step. But here, it’s so poorly edited and clumsily stitched together that it turns into a chore to follow. It’s trying so hard to remind you of every little detail from the earlier movies that it loses focus. The heavy reliance on nostalgia and the constant over-explaining just comes off as self-congratulatory, more interested in flexing how badass Tom Cruise is than telling an actual story. And honestly, if that entire first hour vanished, the film wouldn’t lose a thing..
But once The Final Reckoning finally moves past that bloated, chaotic exposition dump of an opener, the film actually finds its rhythm and delivers the kind of blockbuster experience I was hoping for. Almost every scene from that point on keeps you locked in as this is some of the best action the franchise has ever pulled off, and it looks incredible on the big screen. The submarine sequence, in particular, proves that less really is more. With barely any dialogue, a stripped-back score, and just the sounds of shifting air and water pressure, it turns into one of the most intense, nerve-wracking stunts Mission: Impossible has ever done. I was fully on edge. Then there’s the climactic dogfight in the skies and watching Tom Cruise hanging onto a bi-plane was just as dazzling as it was anxiety-inducing. Sure, it echoes the helicopter chase from Fallout a bit, maybe a little too much, but it’s still an absolute spectacle.
There’s been talk that The Final Reckoning might be the last film in the franchise and honestly, it should be. The movie is clearly framed as this big, final send off, and I really don’t see where else they can take it. The stakes have already been pushed as far as they can possibly go, and at this point, there’s just nowhere left to escalate. Unless the series takes a sharp turn and goes for something more grounded, which, let’s be real, Cruise won’t allow that, but it is time. And with the ensemble cast starting to show the beauty of aging, Cruise included, I don’t know how much longer they can keep this up without handing off the torch. Don’t get me wrong, the cast is solid, their chemistry is still there, and Tom Cruise is still a movie star, but it feels like the right time to wrap it up and move on.
So, is Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning a satisfying conclusion to the franchise? Not really, but it could have been, if that bloated first hour had been trimmed down to a tight fifteen minutes. Still, it’s been a wild, often thrilling ride watching this series evolve over the decades, pushing the boundaries of what action cinema can be. But at this point, it feels like the right moment to step away. The franchise has given us more than enough high-octane spectacle, and it’s time for everyone involved to move on to something new and, hopefully, better things.
My Rating: B
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