Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett
Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen
169 mins. Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief language.

Sticking the landing is incredibly difficult, and whether you view the newest Mission: Impossible film as the conclusion to Dead Reckoning or the entire franchise (for now), this series of films has had a mostly impeccable run of films (the less said about MI2, the better), so I felt fairly confident that Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick) and director Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) could put together a satisfying culmination. While the finished product is probably the lesser of the 4 installments they’ve collaborated on (McQuarrie took over starting with Rogue Nation), it’s still an endlessly entertaining and quite dark installment that raises the stakes and hits our heroes with everything in its arsenal, making for a very entertaining and ambitious action picture that feels slightly more in line with the original.

Two months after the end of the previous film, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is already hiding in the shadows as the Entity, an unchecked and powerful AI system, has infiltrated all parts of the world, including several nuclear weapons stockpiles of various governments. As he assembles his team, including thief-turned-ally Grace (Hayley Atwell, Avengers: Endgame) and former enemy Paris (played by Pom Klementieff), Ethan must find the missing Sevastapol submarine to steal the Entity’s source code, all the while pursued by the various US government agencies and also the spurned criminal Gabriel, who hopes to use the source code and the cruciform key to take control of the Entity for himself. They are running out of time, though, with mere days before the Entity takes complete control of Earth’s nuclear arms and ends all life on the planet.

It’s clear that The Final Reckoning positions itself as a culmination by making connections to several of the previous Mission: Impossible films, especially the earlier installments that have not been as interconnected as the recent fare, and most of them work here, particular in how Ethan and Gabriel’s mutual past goes all the way back before the first film, but a few of them do not, most notably in some surprise character connections that are introduced here that felt unnecessary and shoehorned. I love the idea that Ethan’s always protected his team and that has occasionally led to deaths, primarily in the first film where he was not the leader but also most recently with the loss of Ilsa in Dead Reckoning as that adds so much tension, and I love the team he’s assembled recently, so the finality that McQuarrie brings to The Final Reckoning made me consistently more tense and concerned for their welfare.

Where the film faltered for me was the characterization of the Entity. Mostly embodied by Gabriel in the previous film, the Entity is now on its own working hard to destroy all life here, and it plays a bigger and more overarching role in this film, but I think that McQuarrie was more successful in Dead Reckoning because the Entity always felt one step ahead of the team, whereas this time, it should feel more menacing that it does. Perhaps this is because it wants Ethan to complete a task for it, but I often wondered why it simply allowed him to roam in public without acting, as it seemed to be far cleverer in Dead Reckoning, mimicking the voices of characters and manipulating situations. Here, it’s just kind of a countdown, an effective one, but less imposing than before. It’s a hard task to make an AI character work, especially without a human element, and I think The Final Reckoning doesn’t fully catch that idea, ambitious as it is.

The Final Reckoning is less action-heavy than the marketing would have you believe. It’s a lot more of an effectively-building thriller, excellently tense, with a few big action set pieces to cling to, including an all-timer featuring the Sevastapol sub. This isn’t a knock, as the building tension feels very reminiscent of the original film, which is especially helpful as some returning characters and plot threads from the first film are referenced and brought back into the fold. There’s a lot happening in The Final Reckoning, a ton of plot threads moving around, so it’s more enticing to spend time on that than action scenes that don’t feed into it, but that also means there are large portions of the film where characters discuss (and occasionally re-discuss) everything that has come before, the importance of it all, and why they need to do what they are doing. This repetition is unnecessary, but I was still enthralled with the narrative choices and the globe-trotting thrills of it all.

This finale also has a grander group of characters, with some of the story devoted to characters we don’t normally get to spend time with, including a subplot with Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett, Soul), now President, having to decide whether to trust Ethan and an important choice she must make to save the American people by potentially dooming other nations. Bassett is always excellent, and McQuarrie’s decision to give her something of value helps immensely with the larger scope of The Final Reckoning.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a very ambitious finale, and I appreciate that McQuarrie and Cruise aren’t just doing more of the same but making it bigger. It’s less successful than the other McQuarrie films in the series but still quite effective and thrilling. It’s narrative complexities occasionally drift into convolution but the tension and character work, particularly from its returning cast is amazing (except for one notable character that I’d have liked to be better worked into the story). It’s a bit less pristine, but it’s flaws are small when compared to the grandness on display. It’s never boring and often jaw-dropping in its excitement, and it should make Mission: Impossible fans very happy.

4/5
-Kyle A. Goethe