Though it may not reach the adrenaline-fueled highs of the franchise, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning sends Ethan into the sunset with style.
Ending a franchise is hard. While I'm fully aware that Paramount will someday attempt to make a Mission Impossible movie without the same kind of madman as their lead, this is the end of the line for this franchise. Especially in a franchise where the threats have been at nuclear annihilation since Ghost Protocol where the leading man has done just about every stunt that anyone's dared to do and we've got to weave in enough emotion, action and heart to make people actually care about the outcome. This is my way of saying that knowing something will be the final "insert blank franchise here" movie will also feel underwhelming. Not because it didn't work, but because you'll always want more. I bring all of this up because I think Final Reckoning is one of the franchise's best stories, that left me wanting more.
The Setup
With the Entity (our AI brain of a villain from the last movie) now near the peak of its powers, chaos reigns worldwide. Reality has become distorted by the Entity who is now primed to annihilate humankind to birth an allegedly better world in the rubble. The only thing in its way? Ethan Hunt and his ragtag IMF team that hold the only means of stopping the Entity's plan. But will the forces that want to control the Entity or the Entity itself, stop Ethan from saving the world...one last time.
As a fan of generally every movie in the franchise, my reaction to this one surprised me. I was touched.
While the Mission movies have always had glimmers of thematic resonance or recurring ideas, it's hard to say they've been overtly emotional or character driven. Save for Ethan's "never trade lives" ethos that's become a recurring element since Fallout. Which also means it's the perfect inflection point for the film's villains to turn the screws specifically on Ethan and make him wonder whether or not all of his effort's throughout the entire series were/are correct.
That's the legacy angle this movie is taking. Is Ethan's legacy actually one of heroism? Or is it just a series of reckless stunts because he refuses to let anyone he cares about, get hurt.
What I really like is how this branches out into the larger geo-political game being played with our now Madam President Angela Bassett (I'm refusing to learn her character's name) who has to determine whether or not she'll do a full Fail Safe nuclear strike to "save the world" or put her trust in Ethan Hunt and his direction solution/intervention.
It means the movie is about conflict between cold logical choices and humanistic ones. Solid idea when humanity is literally on the brink of destroying itself.
This is still a Mission Impossible movie though right? Oh yes, yes it is, and we'll get into that. But it is also infinitely more serious than the previous outings because of the stakes and how many times members of the team, Ethan included, are on the brink of death.
It means the movie is less the "2.5 hour thrill ride" I loved in Fallout and much more like the semi-serious spy drama in the first movie. Hence why basically every character with a name including potential throwaway characters like a military commander are played by A-list talent like Hannah Waddingham and the Situation Room is basically middle aged "that guy" bingo.
Likewise we've got a lot more dark and dreary locations, more scenes than usual at night and underground, and far less of the humor interjected.
But don't you worry. There's still plenty of Mission Impossible shenanigans at play.
The plan to stop the Entity is still wildly convoluted and completely over-the-top, the team is constantly way over their heads against long odds, and Tom is gonna do his best to run, jump and latch himself onto another piece of heavy machinery again.
Admittedly most of this occurs after a somewhat slow opening act, while we layout the chess board and all of the players, but once the gears start moving, it's a lot of fun. Partially because we're going to unique locations like a submarine or the Arctic Circle and also because Ethan and company will run into another named actor or two delivering miles of charisma for 5 minutes of screen-time (shoutout to Tramell Tillman).
The back end also does a great job at validating Ethan's choices and ethos along the way. We pick up crucial allies who have ties to Ethan (either by him bringing them into the fold or impacting their life in some way) and his influence is felt elsewhere as the U.S. government determines their course of action all the while we play against this idea of human connection and ingenuity facing up against what I'll broadly call techno-nihilism.
This is also where the set pieces kick into high gear with the winning formula of extended bouts of hand to hand combat, heist like scenarios and honestly maybe some of the wildest stunt fueled insanity to date from Cruise and company.
I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling anything, but if this is the last big series of stunts Cruise puts to screen, it's solid.
Where does this land in the series? That's hard to say. For an end to the series I think this is a best case scenario. We harken back to a series of Ethan's choices, validate his worldview and also prove once again that the only one who can save the world properly is Ethan Hunt. As the line in the movie goes "I need you to trust me one last time."
What's often missing from the proceedings is the "fun factor" or knowing nods to Ethan's willingness to do insane things that's defined the series since Ghost Protocol. There's quite a few action beats in this movie that are played entirely straight, which feels really strange in a series that typically likes cutting through that tension with a joke, which means we often have to pop in that humor in unexpected places or pair it up with drama.
Then again, if you undercut the seriousness of the situation at lot of these action beats lose their drama and we might be making a mochery out of nuclear annihilation.
As I alluded to earlier, this was always going to be a hard needle to thread and I think McQuarrie and company did a good job. We've got plenty of surprises. A nice recount of where the franchise has been while wrapping things up on a more sincere emotional note.
The Verdict: A Fitting Send Off
Though it may not reach the adrenaline-fueled highs of the franchise, The Final Reckoning sends Ethan into the sunset with style. 8/10
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