Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning Review
- Matt Hill
- May 28, 2025
- 2 min read
Runtime: 2h 49m Genre: Action/Thriller Release Date: 23rd May 2025
PLOT: The Entity, a God-like AI, threatens to wipe out the human race, but is this threat one mission too far for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF crew?
Thoughts
"I'm starting to think these missions are fairly possible." That's the running joke we all know and love about Tom Cruise's ongoing Mission: Impossible series.
Despite being on the eighth film in the series, adrenaline junkie Cruise continues to raise the stakes, bringing bigger action and more adrenaline to our cinema screens with each outing.
The Final Reckoning serves as Part 2 to the previous (and excellent) Dead Reckoning, but also acts as a closing chapter to the long-running action series. Picking up months after the end of Dead Reckoning, the ante has been upped with the Entity now threatening nuclear decimation and the ticking clock set just days away from the end of humanity.
As you'd expect, the film is packed to the brim with action spectacle, and for a film clocking in just shy of 2 hours and 50 minutes, it rarely takes its foot off the accelerator. Ramping the adrenaline while taking time to keep tensions high and the clock ticking down to the last second.
The established team return to the action alongside Hunt (Cruise) with Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Luther (Ving Rhames), and the addition of the last movie's assassin, Paris (Pom Klementieff), joining forces to help thwart their greatest threat yet. The group dynamic still works well, and Pegg helps add some laughs to the show, but this is still primarily the Ethan Hunt show and (fittingly) swansong. Featuring plenty of previous movie montages and flashbacks (Though perhaps a little more than is needed), as it tries to tie together the previous entries, with Mission: Impossible 3 being connected to the plot more than you may expect. Other connections are also made, but lack the payoff they were intended to have. It's not a choice that harms the film in any way, but it also doesn't add much to it either, outside of being a nod to missions past.
Alongside Cruise, the real stars of the show are the stunts, and just as you'd expect, Final Reckoning delivers the goods by the spade full with two rather amazing set pieces involving a submarine and a bi-plane sky battle that will have you jaw-dropped, on the edge of your seat as the chaos unfolds.
In a Nutshell
Although the complete package may not be as thrilling as Dead Reckoning, The Final Reckoning still delivers one hell of a conclusion to a long-standing action series. Backed by astounding set pieces, a strong narrative and adrenaline-pumping action to keep you satisfied throughout the long run time. If this truly is the series send-off, then it's one great way to bow out.
4/5
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