Tom Cruise has chased down evil-doers around the world in seven “Mission: Impossible” films so far as special agent Ethan Hunt – and fans still can’t seem to get enough.
He has broken into the CIA headquarters, raced through Paris on a motorbike, hung from a flying plane and scaled the exterior of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper. Are there any stunts he hasn’t performed yet?
Now, some 30 years on, Ethan Hunt is calling it a day, with “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” the grand finale to his career and eighth instalment of the series.
Simon Pegg has “mixed emotions,” he told dpa. He has been part of the series for 20 years, and here plays Ethan Hunt’s teammate Benji for the sixth time. “I’m very satisfied. I feel like this is a wonderfully complete conclusion to a journey which started 10 years before I even joined the franchise.” But its “sad as well,” he says.
Direct sequel to ‘Dead Reckoning’
The latest film, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, picks up right where “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning,” left off. That film hit theatres in 2023 and saw Ethan Hunt grappling with a non-human opponent as an AI known as the Entity seeks global control.
The mysterious Gabriel (Esai Morales), who murdered Hunt’s lover in the past, is helping the AI. Hunt and his team, which includes hacker Luther (Ving Rhames) and master thief Grace (Haley Atwell), are trying to get hold of a mysterious key to reach the source code that could stop the Entity.
The story continues at an unrelenting pace in “The Final Reckoning,” with the source code located in a sunken Russian submarine called Sebastopol. No one knows where it is, but Hunt must find it while being chased himself.
Alongside Gabriel, several world powers also want the key. Hunt’s boss Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) does not want to destroy the AI, but to control it – as do the Russians. The situation threatens to escalate when the entity gains control of nuclear weapons.
Overwhelming spy epic
That is a lot of information for the audience who ideally will also recall at least the previous film, if not all of them, in some detail as this finale references older films, especially parts 1 and 3.
We are aided by flashbacks, however. William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), seen in the first film, is magnificent. But some earlier plot elements are reinterpreted unnecessarily, in a technique known in the industry as retconning.
Even more than in all the past films, Ethan Hunt is a hero who accomplishes superhuman feats in what is presumably his last mission. It is pretty exaggerated, but always entertaining. “The Final Reckoning” has fewer fast-paced action scenes, but no less spectacle.
Tensions run high in the submarine wreck. And the plane duel, filmed as usual in real life rather than using computer-generated imagery, is a visual feast for action fans.
Although it runs for almost three hours, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” never drags on. It is darker, more dramatic and more emotional than the other films.
But humour in all the right places lightens the mood – look forward to the moment when Hunt takes out his opponents with a meat tenderizer, with the twist that we don’t see the violence, only Grace, her face contorted with disgust and horror.
Cruise, meanwhile, was recognized for outstanding contributions to the Navy and Marine Corps last year, a top civilian honour, for “decades of naval advocacy,” the US military said last year.
Top cast, even in minor roles
Some great actors starred in the “Mission: Impossible” series from Vanessa Redgrave to Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeremy Renner and Henry Cavill. The cast in the finale is no less impressive, with Angela Bassett playing Erika Sloane, her career having really taken off since she played the CIA director in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018).”
We again enjoy the dynamics within the team, with former contract killer Paris (Pom Klementieff) and agent Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), originally on Hunt’s trail for different reasons, now fighting alongside him for the IMF (Impossible Mission Force).
Klementieff, who proved her comic talent in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” clearly relishes playing one of the most colourful characters in the series.
And no matter who you ask, everyone raves about leader Tom Cruise. He’s so one of a kind that is just makes you better anyway in so many ways,” Klementieff told dpa.
“He is the most dedicated and consistently hard-working person I’ve ever met,” says Atwell. “He dedicates his life to entertain the audiences and learning from everything that he’s done before and to better himself the next time. It’s contagious and it’s inspiring.”
Grand finale for the saga
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” plays like a farewell film right from its opening moments, with epic music and flashbacks celebrating some of the best moments of the series that began back in 1996.
It feels like a culmination of everything that has happened in the previous films, Atwell says, aptly. “There’s a real sense of closure.”
That makes “The Final Reckoning” a great, at times overwhelming finale that unfolds its full effect in conjunction with the other seven films. If you have never seen a “Mission: Impossible” film before, you may well feel somewhat overwhelmed.
However, the suspense and thrilling action scenes work either way and make “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” a thrilling cinematic experience even for newcomers. Ideally, watch this on the biggest screen possible, an Imax if possible.
For the eighth and supposedly last time, Tom Cruise is once again saving the world while dangerously dangling off high-up things as Ethan Hunt in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”. The film is a worthy crowning finale to the popular spy saga. Paramount/dpa
