Every single act and choice taken in the past 30 years has been leading up to the latest Ethan Hunt mission in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

What is there to be said about a Mission: Impossible movie that hasn’t already been said? We’re now on the eighth installment in 30 years. Is the enough gas in the tank to keep going? That’s the question. With the way the film ends, there might be room for more. It’s just really hard to say. But if this is truly the end of the line, what a thrilling ride it’s been. Of course, there have been the ups and downs, especially during the first three films. Things started changing for the best when Brad Bird and Christopher McQuarrie stepped behind the camera and the franchise hasn’t looked back.

It’s McQuarrie that may just be the secret to working the magic. Obviously, Bird delivered the goods but Cruise and McQuarrie have been paired together for a while. You know what they say? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! By this point, they’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. They’ve also managed to stretch the limits with some of the biggest can-you-believe-it stunts that have ever hit the screen. When you think the franchise cannot possibly top themselves, they do it all over again!

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning takes place two months after the events of Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning. Where its immediate predecessor had been the best Mission: Impossible film yet, it’s safe to say that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now the best one to date. We can argue all day about which stunts are the best–the entire franchise is reason enough for the Academy to offer an Oscar for stunt design. What happens here is tame by Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks standards. They’d probably be impressed though.

At some point, I suppose I should talk about why we’re here, other than the stunts. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team are still facing off against a malevolent AI known as The Entity. The Entity has been breaking into the world’s biggest nuclear arsenals, seeking to eliminate the entire world. Will Hunt and company be enough to stop them?

The Sevastopol may just be the only thing that can stop The Entity and its sitting at the bottom of the Bering Sea. But without knowing the exact coordinates, finding the Russian submarine is easier said than done. The clock is ticking.

I wasn’t paying any attention to the casting announcements in recent years so it caught me by surprise when I saw William Donloe (Rolf Saxson) playing a crucial character in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. I mean, here’s a guy who was probably just a minor character in the history of the franchise and McQuarrie found a way to bring him back. It’s one heck of a way to tie things back to the beginning. There are other ways, too, but then we’re getting into serious spoiler territory and I won’t go there.

I won’t lie in that the run time is rather lengthy, running close to 3 hours in length. Where some films make you feel every minute of a film’s run time, this one didn’t. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning earned its run time! Put it this way: I did not look at my watch once. Looking at my watch is never a good sign so that says something about the action and editing. This speaks to just how much the film commanded my attention.

It isn’t an understatement to describe Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning as a love letter to the entire franchise. Simply put, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is another epic achievement in filmmaking.

DIRECTOR: Christopher McQuarrie
SCREENWRITERS: Christopher McQuarrie & Erik Jendresen
CAST: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman and Angela Bassett, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, with Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk

Paramount Pictures will release Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in theaters on May 23, 2025. Grade: 5/5

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