‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ Movie Review: A Frustrating Finale Drowning in Rogue AI Exposition
Photo from Paramount Pictures
From Jeff Nelson
There aren’t many action franchises as pulse-pounding as Mission: Impossible. Tom Cruise’s must-be-seen-to-be-believed stunt work stands out most alongside a likable Impossible Mission Force (IMF) field team. If we’re to believe the title Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, then this is the team’s farewell tour. The jaw-dropping action spectacle is there, but so is a hindering ocean of exposition that hardly feels right for a final chapter.
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) disappeared for two months after Dead Reckoning Part One. President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) reaches out to the rogue agent one final time to save the world, which is on the brink of utter devastation at the hands of the all-powerful AI program called The Entity. All life on Earth is at stake, and only one team can stop it.
Twenty-nine years of impossible missions led to this. The Entity plans to use humankind’s nuclear weapons against the planet, and it’s winning. A political game of “Chicken” unfolds between the world’s powers, creating speed bumps for Ethan and his team. In the last installment, he successfully snatched an essential key from Gabriel (Esai Morales), but the lock it belongs to resides in a lost submarine deep under the sea. Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff), and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) must combine their strengths to pull off the unthinkable. They must retrieve the source code from the depths, evade Gabriel’s plan to control The Entity, and trap the rogue AI before Earth’s complete annihilation.
The Final Reckoning gets nostalgic with a franchise montage highlighting its greatest hits. The endearing love letter to previous installments isn’t an isolated gesture. Director Christopher McQuarrie relies on nostalgia for emotional impact and false clarity, unnecessarily embedding constant flashbacks through an exposition dump of a narrative. Dead Reckoning Part One spent too much time explaining itself, and its follow-up doubles down on it. Too much time is spent blabbering in jargon-infused circles that don’t deepen character dynamics or narrative arcs. Ethan and his team often feel like they’re running in place.
A faceless antagonist is a risky move that doesn’t pay off in this potential franchise closer. The Entity is a looming threat that rarely acts. Gabriel is the personified antagonist, a poor final boss of a villain. Morales is regretfully miscast, but he’s also unfortunately written as a one-note character with murky motivations that never become clear. It’s hard to believe he’s a threat to Ethan beyond his existence as an invasive plot device.
McQuarrie and Cruise eventually deliver the top-tier action in spades. A claustrophobic ocean dive into a crumbling submarine is the pinnacle of suspense. Each flooded room is filled with nail-biting peril, where you just might catch yourself holding your breath. Other set pieces involving plane and car chases are equally magnetic, although McQuarrie makes the odd decision to pan from hand-to-hand combat for comedic effect.
The Final Reckoning is just short of three hours, including an hour of punishing exposition. It’s surprisingly the least action-packed installment of the bunch, but it’s a great time at the movies when it’s firing on all cylinders. The potential end of a film franchise running nearly 30 years should feel more emotionally rewarding than this. However, McQuarrie and Cruise know exactly what gets the adrenaline pumping. We’ll have to wait and see if Mission: Impossible 9 happens, and if it will turn this series back toward the light.
Rating: 2.5/5
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits theaters on May 23rd, 2025.
