If this is the final film in the Mission: Impossible series, it ends on a suitably climatic final note, providing a satisfying blend of jaw-dropping practical stunts and well-earned character moments.

Premise: Months after the end of the last film, the sentient AI known as the Entity has destabilised global politics and is on the verge of seizing control of the world’s nuclear arsenal. In a last ditch attempt to avoid nuclear apocalypse, US President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) turns to rogue IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team, who may know the only way to destroy the Entity.

Review:

So here we are, 29 years after Tom Cruise first donned a rubber mask in Brian De Palma‘s 1996 Mission: Impossible, looking at what may be the end of the movie series. No one can accuse them of having “churned out” these films (8 films in 29 years isn’t up there with the likes of the MCU or even the Fast & Furious films), but as a result, it’s arguably been one of the most consistently entertaining film franchises in recent movie history. There’s barely been a weak link (although I’ll admit that John Woo’s hyper-stylised M:I-2 perhaps hasn’t aged all that well), but interestingly, different viewers seem to have their own favourite eras, whether that’s the grounded espionage of the first film, the villain-focused Mission: Impossible III, or the cliché subverting Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. The series has never simply settled for making the same film twice.

But for me, as much as I enjoyed the earlier movies, I’ve loved the “second era” of the Mission: Impossible series which began when writer/director Christopher McQuarrie first took the helm in 2015‘s Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. “McQ” became the first director to return to the series, and he’s now been responsible for half of the entire series – but again, no two of his films have been quite the same. The strength of Rogue Nation was its focus on introducing the enigmatic Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), while for me, I think 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout perhaps remains my favourite of the entire series, balancing the action, the character moments, the twisty plot and the memorable villains in a near-perfect way.

“…provides all the plot developments that the first part was lacking…”

Interestingly, when Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (the first part of this two-part “finale”) came out in 2023, I loved its character moments (including the introduction of Hayley Atwell as Grace, who was arguably that film’s MVP) and its jaw-dropping stunt sequences, but I did feel that it was very light on plot. It was essentially a treasure-hunt movie, with the various factions all after a vague “MacGuffin” – but like the “Rabbit’s Foot” in Mission: Impossible III, the cruciform key in Dead Reckoning was an object that everyone was after without it really directly effecting the plot (none of the characters even knew what the key opened in the first part!).

Conversely, whereas Dead Reckoning was light on plot and heavy on action and stunts, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning takes the opposite approach, providing all the plot developments that the first part was lacking, and focusing more on the tension and character moments than on the action. That’s not to say that The Final Reckoning doesn’t deliver on the action – it provides some of the series’ best stunt sequences – but they come towards the end of the movie in the climactic final act.

“…emotionally charged from the outset, with a real sense of foreboding…”

The tone is also very different in this second part – Dead Reckoning’s tone, in comparison, was quite light for the most part, with the Ethan/Grace scenes in particular having quite a playful, caper feel to them. The Final Reckoning, on the other hand, has a fairly sombre tone from the outset – which is perhaps only fitting for the final movie in the series. There’s a real sense of foreboding, and you truly feel that the stakes have never been higher. In the other movies, Ethan Hunt’s team have had to save the lives of millions, but for this final chapter, it really is nothing less than global armageddon that’s at stake. This provides a great excuse to bring Angela Bassett back as former-CIA-Director-now-US-President Erika Sloane, who gets her own plot strand where she and her most senior advisors (including Nick Offerman, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Mark Gatiss, Charles Parnell and, of course, Henry Czerny as Kittridge) face increasingly stressful moral dilemmas as they deal with their very own Cuban-Missile-Crisis-style game of brinksmanship.

But first and foremost, the focus remains on Ethan Hunt and his team – both old (Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg have been playing Luther Stickell and Benji Dunn since 1996 and 2006 respectively) and new (Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff and Greg Tarzan Davis all returning from part one as Grace, Paris and Degas respectively). Given that this appears to be the swansong for the series, it’s emotionally charged from the outset – there’s even a montage of flashes from all of the previous movies in the opening sequence, that genuinely got me in the feels. This film gives the characters moments to breath and develop, and as an audience, you also realise how far you’ve come with these characters over the last 29 years.

“…provides some of the series’ best stunt sequences…”

The rest of the supporting cast list is also stacked – Shea Whigham is back as Kittridge’s dogged agent, Briggs (and we learn more about the personal beef that he has with Ethan, as hinted at in the last film), as is Esai Morales as Gabriel, the main human antagonist. After his failure to capture the key in the first part, Gabriel has now been forsaken by the Entity, but his new-found sense of desperation arguably only makes him more dangerous. There are also great cameos from the likes of Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman and Katy O'Brian, as well as the surprise return of a familiar face from a previous movie (which I won’t spoil here in case you missed the original casting announcement).

If you’re a very casual fan of the Mission: Impossible series, it’s possible that The Final Reckoning won’t have the same emotional resonance with you as it had with me – but as someone who remembers seeing the first Mission: Impossible film as a teenager back in 1996, the emotional notes really hit home. This isn’t a film that’s simply relying on cheap nostalgia – this is a film that is genuinely engaging with the passage of time for its characters, and with the bonds that have been forged and the prices that have been paid. A central theme is that the characters are the sums of the choices that they’ve made, and we’ve watched Ethan Hunt grow from a fresh-faced naïve agent, through his attempts at a life outside of the IMF, to his position as the moral compass of the intelligence community, for whom the life of his friends is as important as the fate of the world. As the (recently invented) IMF oath goes – “We live and die in the shadows, for those we hold close, and for those we never meet”.

“…a well-deserved victory lap for the film series…”

It’s hard to imagine a better send-off for the series, or for the character that Tom Cruise has been playing for nearly 30 years (beating even Hugh Jackman’s 24-year run as Logan/Wolverine). Some have described Tom Cruise as being the last real “movie star”, and while he (and I) don’t necessarily agree with that description, I do think it’s fair to say that he’s been one of the most passionate and influential ambassadors for the spectacle of cinema, and for crowd-pleasing, jaw-dropping, blockbuster entertainment – and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning feels like a well-deserved victory lap for the film series that he’s given so much to over the last three decades.