Everything has led to this. At least, that’s what the marketing for the eighth and ostensibly last Mission: Impossible franchise film, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025), has promised audiences. Star Tom Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie pull out all the stops in an attempt to deliver a fitting send-off to Ethan Hunt and his rag-tag IMF team. When it finds its rhythm, it’s an impressive, gargantuan feat. Unfortunately, the dense spycraft, larger-than-life stunts, and lovable cast present in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning wage their own war against McQuarrie’s script. An overreliance on dense exposition, hasty retcons, and endless references to Ethan Hunt’s previous adventures leads to an uncommonly messy crossing of the finish line.
Although it’s titled The Final Reckoning, don’t be mistaken: this new Mission: Impossible movie is unequivocally Dead Reckoning Part Two. Picking up two months after Dead Reckoning (2023), IMF (Impossible Mission Force) agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his trusted associates Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) are searching for Gabriel (Esai Morales), a mysterious figure from Ethan’s past hell bent on controlling a malevolent artificial intelligence virus known as The Entity. This A.I. has already wormed its way into the atomic arsenals of the world’s most powerful nations, leading Ethan to recruit expert pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell) and former adversaries Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) for one last mission to prevent nuclear armageddon.
Christopher McQuarrie Reaches Stratospheric Levels of Ambition
The ambition of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is in the stratosphere. Christopher McQuarrie’s “grand finale” aspirations are prominent in his sprawling cast. No one can play an action hero like Tom Cruise, and no one can play his affable compatriots like Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames. Newer additions like Captain America star Hayley Atwell, Greg Tarzan Davis (Top Gun: Maverick), and a scene-stealing turn from Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy) all make a welcome mark. Meanwhile, the “suits” include franchise returnees Angela Bassett and Henry Czerny, as well as the additions of Nick Offerman and Holt McCallany, who are each torn on helping Ethan since The Entity could also destroy all of cyberspace if defeated.
Christopher McQuarrie and co-screenwriter Erik Jendresen are committed to maintaining Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s ethos of returning the intricate spycraft to the franchise. The concept of The Entity is a prescient one that plays into relevant fears of artificial intelligence. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning uses these fears to allow Ethan Hunt to outsmart the machine. Moreover, the plot is extremely complex, with many interested parties all racing to extract The Entity for their own fascinating ends. There are moments of such brilliance that this feels like it could be the most well-written Mission: Impossible film yet. That notion ends when the true villain of the flick rears its ugly head: nostalgia.
The Final Reckoning is Too Stuck in the Past
Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie were already in testy waters when Dead Reckoning upended Ethan’s backstory by revealing that a significant number of IMF members are reformed criminals who were given the choice to join. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning “amends” this by being far too reverent of previous films of the franchise. The narrative goes through heavy pains to recontextualize every single one of Ethan Hunt’s past missions as a stepping stone in one epic narrative. Why is this a problem? These movies were originally nowhere near conceived in that way, making the screenplay clumsily fall over itself in order to present this as a cohesive story.
There are several moments in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning where it feels like the filmmakers want viewers to point and clap out of acknowledgment that a previous movie was referenced. In fact, Rolf Saxon as the very minor character William Donloe from the first Mission: Impossible (1996) gets a beefy role in this film for seemingly little to no reason other than to tie things together in a neat bow. Elsewhere, a downright wrong-headed reveal gives unnecessary importance to Agent Jasper Briggs, played by Shea Whigham. All around, it’s a franchise celebration that is more forced than genuine, leaning into the crossover storytelling of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Sam Mendes’ ill-fated 007 film Spectre (2015).
The Action Delivers, But with a Hint of Familiarity
What’s especially irksome is that all this time wasted on nostalgia could have been devoted to the aforementioned new supporting characters, or even a plethora of other ones played by Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Tramell Trillman (Severance), and Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding). Additionally, some of the film’s nearly 3-hour runtime should have been used to build out Gabriel’s motivations, who still feels like a miscast blank slate of a moustache-twirling villain. It’s incredibly strange to see so many plotlines from Dead Reckoning (which was originally sold as the “part one” to this finale) shoved aside to make room for a hit of nostalgia. What’s worse is that this replay of the greatest hits also extends into the action.
Slickly photographed by cinematographer Fraser Taggart, a mid-film excursion into the Sevastopol submarine deep in the Arctic sea will make moviegoers hold their breath and lean forward in their seats in a sustained sequence that keeps frantically evolving. Of course, a big reason people come to these movies is to see Tom Cruise flirt with death, and a third-act bi-plane battle delivers on that in a big way. Still, both of these action sequences reflect older set pieces that were done in better movies, like the underwater heist in Rogue Nation (2015) and the helicopter chase in Fallout (2018). Despite this slight repetitiveness, fans will still get an adrenaline rush when the roaring score and iconic theme kick in.
A Grand Mess of a Finale
It’s sad, then, that we have to call a spade a spade: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ultimately isn’t up to the lofty action blockbuster standards of the franchise. As a send-off, the movie hits its marks when it needs to. Yet, Christopher McQuarrie’s writing and direction have a reach that exceeds its grasp, leading to a kind of mess that is more concerned with being a capstone than a part of the premier American spy franchise. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning wants to remind audiences of the past. Audiences will likely wish they were watching one of the past entries instead.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and will hit theaters on May 23!
Release Date: May 23, 2025.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie.
Written by Christopher McQuarrie & Erik Jendresen
Based on Mission: Impossible created by Bruce Geller.
Produced by Tom Cruise & Christopher McQuarrie.
Executive Producers: Chris Brock, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Tommy Gormley, Don Granger, & Susan E. Novick.
Main Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Rolf Saxon, Nick Offerman, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Mark Gatiss, Charles Parnell, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Indira Varma, Tommie Earl Jenkins, Katy O’Brian, Stephen Oyoung, Mariela Garriga, Pasha Lychnikoff, & Lucy Tulugarjuk.
Cinematographer: Fraser Taggart.
Composer: Max Aruj & Alfie Godfrey.
Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Skydance, & TC Productions.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures.
Runtime: 170 minutes.
Rated PG-13.
