Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning - Review: Should He Choose to Accept

The past few films starring Mr. Movie Star himself Tom Cruise (“Jerry Maguire,” “Edge of Tomorrow”) seem to have been mirroring the struggles any real-world movie star would be having in this new uber-franchised age of streaming services and A.I. generated content. “Top Gun Maverick” had the air force seek out his character to teach a team of young recruits to do something only a real human could do; no drones, no computer guidance systems, only flesh and blood people. But that film pales in comparison to how on the nose “Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning” was in its plot. That film sees Cruise’s character and his team having to fight back against an A.I. algorithm that is all knowing, shape shifting, and threatening to destabilize the sense of truth in our world as we know it.

It’s quite the precedent narrative to have in your borderline three-hour long blockbuster action epic, even without the public figure Cruise has crafted for himself. After all, when your whole identity is doing stunts and action in films with as little digital fakery as possible, making a film about fighting against a digital entity is quite the move. But it takes more than a clever idea and some stunts to make a good movie, especially to make a good finale.

“Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning,” the eighth film in the franchise and the fourth written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie (“The Way of the Gun,” “The Usual Suspects”), almost directly follows the events of the previous film and sees Ethan Hunt, played by Cruise, and his team, consisting of former pickpocket Grace, played by Hayley Atwell (“Agent Carter,” “Christoper Robin”), computer hacker Luther, played by Ving Rhames (“Lilo & Stitch,” “Pulp Fiction”), technical field agent Benji, played by Simon Pegg (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Star Trek (2009)”), and former assassin turned ally Paris, played by Pom Klementieff (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “The Killer's Game”), hunting down Gabriel, played by Esai Morales (“How to Get Away with Murder,” “Ozark”), as he attempts to control the mysterious rogue A.I. known as “The Entity” as Ethan attempts to find and kill it.

The film certainly involves much more than just that, and it's a veritable who’s-who of past MI installments. Angela Bassett (“9-1-1,” “Black Panther”) returns from “Fallout” as the President of the United States, Henry Czerny (“Revenge,” “The Boys of St. Vincent”) as Eugene Kittridge, director of the CIA, returning from “Dead Reckoning,” and even Rolf Saxon (“Woman in Gold,” “Capital City”) reprising his role from the first “Mission: Impossible” film as William Donloe, among many others. It’s a joy to see so many players from past films come back to continue to dance about in Cruise’s wild spy-fiction playground. The franchise is no stranger to having random character actors pop up for one or two scenes, and it never fails to provide a little hit of classic ensemble film nostalgia, like “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,” “Caddyshack” or “Airplane.”

However, the number of characters from previous films does lead into the film’s biggest issue: the first act specifically is loaded with flashbacks and callbacks to previous films and previous footage to the point where it becomes overbearing. It could simply be a studio note or the nature of this being the “final” film, but it’s surprising to see McQuarrie and co-writer Erik Jendresen (“Killing Lincoln,” “Band of Brothers”) resort to this for a series which has previously had films just as interconnected as this, but resisted delving this deep into saying “remember this” and pointing fingers. The film’s opening 15-or-so minutes, everything before the opening titles, feels particularly rough and over-expository, and while the 30 minutes afterwards slowly shake it off, for a film that’s almost three hours, having its first act be largely an exposition dump is an unfortunate move.

Cruise is just as electrifying as he’s ever been, and his entire ensemble is fantastic, slotting right into their roles in the tale with precision. A surprise highlight is Saxon as Donloe, who appears in what could have been a brief cameo that ends up resonating through the rest of the film as a nice, succinct example of the central themes bleeding through the whole franchise (more on that in a bit). Every character is dialed up to just the right degree that their actions are sufficiently exaggerated for this end of the world scenario, without teetering into cheesy “made for TV movie” territory.

The stunts, as expected, are absolutely thrillingly put together. Each moment comes together as a ballet of production techniques to craft some of the most exciting sequences you’ll see in any movie this year. The submarine sequence that is at the center of the film’s middle chunk is just jaw droppingly impressive and as tense as anything in the franchise before. There’s a very direct sense of isolation before the third act begins its thunderous rise to the climactic finish, and it's an interesting dichotomy that further enhances both aspects of the film. The musical score by composers Max Aruj (“The Ice Road,” “Lansky”) and Alfie Godfrey (“A Town Called Malice,” “Marching Powder”) backs this up, turning in a score that’s far more somber than before, matching the film’s mixture of isolation and action.

Despite its contemporaries, the “MI” series has always been based more around its individual characters than the action, and this installment is no exception. Rather, its a far more emotionally cathartic mission than any of the previous ones. Those previously mentioned flashbacks are one example of the wistful nature of this tale, drawing directly back into each previous installment in interesting and surprising ways. Like with Donloe, it’s a way to tie everything together in ways that will satisfy those who enjoy piecing the whole puzzle together, as well as those who go for the emotional gut-punches. Cruise and his team have always made this a series about the individual humans who do this work, not the work itself, and “Final Reckoning” is a mission statement entirely for that ideal.

If this truly is “The Final Reckoning,” then Tom Cruise and his production and secret agent team have turned in a truly thrilling new tale that easily sits alongside the best of the franchise, even if it doesn’t eclipse them. Once things really get going, you’ll be hard pressed to remember the stiffer opening segments as things just keep crescendoing over and over with the same technical skill you can expect from this series. Think of it like this: Tom Cruise likes running. The hardest part of running is getting started. But once you do, it’s almost impossible to stop and the momentum and feeling is exhilarating. 4.5/5