Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning is the latest, and probably should be the last, movie in the MI franchise. Once again led by Tom Cruise, who’s 62 and starting to look it, Final Reckoning delivers all the big action, spy thriller, end of the world suspense you’ve come to expect from almost 30 years of this series.
After the events of the previous film, Dead Reckoning, Ethan Hunt is in hiding from the world’s governments. The mysterious AI power known as The Entity has been wreaking havoc on a global scale. People can’t trust anything they see digitally anymore, and anything connected to cyberspace is suspect or compromised. Most importantly, the AI has started to gain access to the command and control systems of the world’s nuclear powers. Hunt is in possession of the key to access The Entity’s original hard drive, and could access the original source code and shut the AI down. The problem is that corrupting or killing The Entity could throw global economic and social systems into disarray. However, the alternative seems to be allowing one of the world’s superpowers to control the AI, and Hunt simply doesn’t trust anyone with that much power. As he and his team of trusty sidekicks race against the clock to stop the apocalypse, Ethan will have to decide exactly who to trust, who to sacrifice, and how to make a decision that could end the world as we know it, no matter which path he takes.
Final Reckoning is much like Dead Reckoning, in that it really does pack a lot of punch in terms of spectacular action, big set scenes, beautiful camera work, and an all-star cast. However, it’s also like its predecessor in that it has a few faults that might have you shaking your head during the movie.
This film is packed with faces you’ll recognize. In addition to all the main trio of MI characters (Cruise, Rhames, and Pegg), this movie brings back Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales as the main antagonist, and Angela Basset as the US President. The film then adds Nick Offerman (Parks & Rec, The Last of Us), Tramell Tillman (Severance), Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), and Mark Gatniss (Sherlock), plus a host of others you’ll recognize as well. Unfortunately, this onslaught of characters along with a lot of accompanying exposition makes the movie a bit bloated. With a run time of 2:49, it’s not short.
The nostalgia factor is dialed up high, and this is the second weakness of the movie. Likely because this is intended to be a final installation in the series, the film makers thought it would be good to tie nearly every character or plot point to something from previous MI movies. You’ll find characters who are unexpected children of previous characters, plot points from earlier movies that have been retcon’d to be something meaningful in this chapter, and even returning minor characters who are now crucial to the plot. It gets a little bit old before very long.
The bloated plot and cast of characters, the self-congratulatory nostalgia, along with some excessive exposition and clumsy writing, all make for some moments that’ll just have you shaking your head asking “Really?”
That said, the movie is fun, action packed, and full of the big stunts we’ve come to expect from Mission Impossible. Cruise does a good job carrying the film, although his age is definitely showing. There’s less emphasis on gadgets, tricks, and misdirection, and more on the ticking clock, but it still makes for a suspenseful ride. If you enjoyed the rest of the series, you’ll probably like this one as well. Final Reckoning is Rated PG-13 mainly for action and violence. If you’ve got a long weekend for the holiday, and you’re looking for a fun big budget action movie to eat up about 3hrs of it, this movie is probably what you’re looking for.
