Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)

Quick thoughts:

1. Grade – B
2. It’s a lot. 
3. There are two tremendous set pieces that are worth the price of admission. Cruise put an incredible amount of work into creating them and they need to be seen in theaters.
4. Shea Whigam’s hair…..
5. Katy O’Brian and Tramell Tillman steal their scenes.
6. Treadmill Cruise is now a thing (Oblivion, Top Gun: Maverick, Final Reckoning).
7. Seriously, the two huge set pieces are worth the price of admission.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a lot. Which is a good and bad thing. The good news is that there are two beautiful set pieces that are spectacular in scope, ambition, and technical ability. The bad news is that there are way too many characters and the self-seriousness of the 169-minute film drags it down deeper than the sunken submarine housing the MacGuffin (there’s always a MacGuffin in M:I films). Like every other action franchise in existence, the Mission: Impossible franchise has gotten grander in scope so it’s no surprise that the eighth entry is so gigantic. 

Two years ago, I researched and wrote a Mission: Impossible franchise episode for the Fandom show By the Numbers. For the assignment, I analyzed the seven films and learned a lot about them and I wanted to share them with you. 

1. People stand around and talk about the logistics of an impossible mission. Then, they accomplish the impossible mission. This is nice because audiences can enjoy the mission without being bombarded with too much expository dialogue. 
2. Tom Cruise loves problems on top of problems. Nothing is easy.
3. Each film introduces new characters. Some characters stick around (Luther, Benji), but expect new faces.
4. The MacGuffins get mentioned many times (Where’s the Rabbit Foot?…etc…)
5. The first three films had the personality of their directors (DePalma, Woo, Abrams). However, since Ghost Protocol, they’ve had the same vibe (which isn’t a bad thing). 
6. Ethan always goes rogue. The only time he doesn’t is in M:I2.
7. Ethan is saved by a cool lady in six of the eight films.
8. The scope has gotten out of hand. Ethan has always traveled around the globe for his adventures, but The Final Reckoning really goes for it.
9. Characters always remind Ethan that the mission is impossible.
10. Ethan gets the job done
11. Villains are almost always the weakest aspect (except for M:I3 and Fallout)

Quick Note – I’ve also figured out how far Cruise has sprinted since 1981 (here’s a ranking of all his running scenes). On top of his running, Fandom paid me to figure out Cruise’s average height across his films. The assignment was a bit insane, but it allowed me to watch his movies again. I’ve spent a lot of time watching Tom Cruise movies since 2018. 

It’s because of these assignments that I was prepared for the bloated theatrics of The Final Reckoning. The Mission: Impossible franchise has a limited playbook (like all other franchises), but it excels at running its plays at an optimal and admirable level. The film revolves around Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) attempting to literally save the world from the AI antagonist dubbed “The Entity.” The all-powerful villain plans on taking control of the world’s nuclear arsenal and using it to blow up the world. To prevent the world from ending, Hunt needs to find a Russian nuclear submarine somewhere on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, so he can grab the Entity’s source code and use it against the sentient malware. Since the Mission: Impossible franchise loves problems on top of problems, Hunt has to deal with his nemesis Gabriel (Esai Morales), while staying ahead of agent Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham and his giant hair) – who wants Ethan in jail. To defeat the Entity, Hunt and his makeshift team made up of Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Degas (Greg Tarzan David), have to travel around the world and accomplish impossible tasks that require perfect timing and terrible odds.

I expected the theatrics but I wasn’t prepared for the amount of dialogue used to explain how impossible all the tasks are. The weight of the expository dialogue drags down the experience and makes the first hour feel like a slog. That being said, the experience is still thoroughly enjoyable and the second half features two incredible set pieces built around a sunken submarine and an airplane chase that features at least 43 jaw-dropping moments. The almost $300 million budget can be seen on screen and the new characters played by Hannah Waddingham, Katy O’Brian, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Nick Offerman, Tramell Tillman (his line delivery is wonderful), and Holt McCallany (same) all pop on screen. Toss in returning characters played by Angela Bassett, Janet McTeer, Charles Parnell and Mark Gatiss – and you have a lot of movie. 

I don’t want to spoil anything, just know that despite all the bloat you should watch this film on the biggest screen possible. The Mission: Impossible movies have always built their stories around action scenes, and the two featured in The Final Reckoning are bananas. Cinematographer Fraser Taggart (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning) has a long history of filming second-unit action scenes for movies such as Edge of Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Kingsman: The Secret Service – so he knows how to capture action in thrilling ways. The production design from Gary Freeman (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Everest, Tomb Raider) is fantastic and the highlight of his work is the massive submerged submarine that must’ve needed a tremendous amount of gimbals to work. During production, the gigantic submarine (which cost 23 million Euros to make) got wedged into its 8.5 million litres tank. This delayed the production for several weeks, as the crew attempted to figure out how to make the giant scene work. I love how big Cruise goes to make his movies enjoyable. 

Director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise have worked closely together since 2008’s Valkyrie (McQuarrie wrote the film), and they’ve become wildly successful collaborators. However, their successful partnership has seemingly created unchecked creative control which could explain why the M:I Reckoning films are jam-packed with so many ideas and characters. They’ve earned the right to guide the franchise wherever they want, but it would’ve been nice if someone told them to tighten the film up a bit. 

Final Thoughts – Watch it on the biggest screen possible.