16 May REVIEW – ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ is an unapologetically ambitious, sprawling, and high-octane send-off

There’s something inherently satisfying about a franchise actually earning the right to go big. After almost three decades, countless stunts, and more masks than most spy thrillers know what to do with, Mission: Impossible has reached its climax. And Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, directed once again by Christopher McQuarrie, is the kind of film that only works because of everything that came before it.

Is it a little overstuffed? Absolutely. Does it occasionally buckle under the weight of its own ambition? Without a doubt. But is it hugely thrilling, emotionally resonant, and anchored by a relentlessly committed Tom Cruise? That’s a resounding yes. While not every choice works, and some plot contortions threaten to overwhelm the story’s emotional beats, this eighth and reportedly last instalment delivers a sprawling, high-octane send-off that not only reinforces what has made the franchise endure but dares to reflect on the cost of always running toward the next mission.

Picking up shortly after the events of Dead Reckoning, the world is in disarray. The Entity, an advanced rogue AI, has become more than just a threat; it’s an all-encompassing force infecting digital infrastructure, destabilising governments, and manipulating the truth in real time. With entire nuclear arsenals slipping through human hands, the United States finds itself days away from catastrophe. President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) sees only one possible solution: bring Ethan Hunt (Cruise) back into the fold and retrieve the mysterious two-part key that might be the only hope of stopping the AI. But Ethan, still loyal to his core principles, refuses to give the United States (or any government, for that matter) the chance to control it. What was once about stopping the Entity has now become a deeper question of whether anyone should possess that kind of power.

With Gabriel (Esai Morales), the Entity’s former human enabler, now acting independently, Ethan faces enemies on all sides. He’s forced to turn himself in, but in typical IMF fashion, that’s just the beginning. He proposes a wildly dangerous plan to Sloane: retrieve the Sevastopol, a sunken Russian submarine that holds the AI’s original source code. It’s a long shot, one that involves not only surviving multiple globe-spanning missions but staying ahead of both the AI’s predictive capabilities and a desperate world clawing for control. With Luther (Ving Rhames) guiding from the shadows, Benji (Simon Pegg) managing the chaos with equal parts fear and brilliance, and Grace (Hayley Atwell) stepping further into the fold, the crew embarks on what is truly their final mission. It’s a race not just against time, but against an unknowable enemy that always seems to be one step ahead.

The action, unsurprisingly, is phenomenal. McQuarrie and Cruise have long since perfected the art of practical stunts and wide-lens clarity, and The Final Reckoning may feature their most intricate work yet. From a breathtaking biplane stunt to a staggeringly tense underwater operation, the film excels in escalating its set pieces with both spectacle and stakes. There’s an anxiety to each sequence that isn’t just about survival, it’s about meaning. You feel the weariness in Ethan’s movements, the desperation in the team’s coordination. Unlike earlier entries where the action often served as punctuation to a mission, here it’s deeply embedded in the characters’ arcs. When Ethan leaps into danger, it’s not just thrilling but also rather haunting.

That haunted quality is one of the film’s strongest surprises. For all its scale and movement, The Final Reckoning is strikingly contemplative. Cruise plays Ethan with a visible weariness, a man who has sacrificed everything and is now facing the truth of what he’s become. There’s a sequence midway through, involving a conversation between Ethan and Grace, that peels back layers of the IMF’s murky moral code. Atwell continues to be a welcome addition, bringing a grounded intelligence and emotional complexity to a character who could have easily remained a plot device. Pegg has rarely been better, blending comic relief with genuine fear and urgency. Rhames, though largely confined to comms duty, delivers several gut-punching key moments with gravitas that remind you why Luther has been Ethan’s backbone for so long.

Not everything works. As with Dead Reckoning, the exhaustive exposition can be clunky, and the script occasionally leans too hard into vague cyber-threat technobabble. The pacing, particularly in the first act, struggles under the weight of table-setting. Characters speak in riddles, acronyms, and slogans, and while the stakes are high, they’re also sometimes buried beneath a dense web of intel briefings and strategic jargon. There’s also the lingering problem of Gabriel. While Morales is a physically imposing presence, the character remains underdeveloped and slightly goofy. His  “world domination” motivations, even now, feel half-sketched, and the film’s attempts to deepen his connection to Ethan land more as obligatory backstory than meaningful conflict.

Still, when the film finds its rhythm (and it does, frequently), it becomes a masterclass in sustained tension. One standout sequence, involving the infiltration of a NATO substation and a countdown that may or may not be rigged by the Entity, is among the franchise’s best. The camera moves with urgency, the score (once again composed with pulse-pounding intensity and grand majestic by Lorne Balfe) refuses to let you breathe, and every decision the characters make feels consequential. The Entity is not just watching; it’s playing. And that constant uncertainty lends the film an edge that makes even its quieter moments feel fraught.

McQuarrie also deserves credit for threading the needle between payoff and self-reflection. This is not inherently a victory lap. There’s a thematic weight to this instalment that goes beyond just wrapping up loose ends. From the very beginning, the IMF has been defined by loyalty, sacrifice, and the idea that some people will always choose the mission. But The Final Reckoning interrogates that belief. What if the mission never ends? What if the very act of loyalty becomes its own kind of destruction? These aren’t just throwaway questions, rather, they’re central to how the film frames Ethan’s choices. Cruise, always the physical performer, digs deeper here, letting moments of doubt and pain linger just long enough to complicate the usual stoic resolve.

Supporting performances round out the emotional landscape. Bassett brings steel and soul to Sloane, a leader trying to manage unmanageable chaos. Pom Klementieff’s Paris, now in a more central role, offers unexpected pathos and deadpan humour to match her stoic intensity, while Greg Tarzan Davis’ Degas steps up in surprising ways. It’s clear that McQuarrie wanted to expand the ensemble without diluting its core, and for the most part, that balance is achieved. There’s still a sense of camaraderie, of chosen family, and that gives the film’s final act a poignancy that hits harder than expected.

That said, one could argue the film tries to do too much. With multiple subplots, a rotating set of global locations, and a heavy dose of flashbacks and callbacks, there are stretches where the momentum falters. Certain narrative threads are introduced only to be abandoned or rushed to resolution. A subplot involving the remnants of the Doomsday cult mentioned in Dead Reckoning is alluded to but never fully explored. And while the visual storytelling remains largely crisp, a few sequences veer into overediting, losing the clean spatial coherence that has defined the franchise’s best action.

Yet despite these shortcomings, The Final Reckoning ultimately delivers where it matters most. The action satisfies, the characters evolve, and the themes resonate. It’s a blockbuster that remembers to ask questions, even as it’s hurling its lead out of planes and into submarines. And in a landscape where franchises often limp to a close or stall out in endless setups for more sequels, this one dares to find an ending. Or, at the very least, a reckoning.

In many ways, it’s the familial twist that gives the film its greatest weight. Not in the Fast & Furious meme sense, but in the deeper acknowledgment that the IMF has always been about the people more than the missions. Whether it’s Luther’s unwavering trust, Benji’s vulnerability, Grace’s reluctant bravery, or Ethan’s relentless need to protect those around him, The Final Reckoning reminds us that behind every impossible mission is someone trying to do the right thing. Even when the world’s gone mad. Even when no one else believes it’s possible.

If this truly is the final outing for Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, it’s a fitting farewell. Not perfect, not without bloat, but unapologetically ambitious. It swings for the fences and, more often than not, connects. And in doing so, it brings one of modern cinema’s most durable franchises to a close not with a whimper, but with purpose. With heat. With grace. And with the kind of daring sincerity that has always set Mission: Impossible apart from the rest.

Distributor: Paramount Pictures
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, Angela Bassett, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Producers: Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie
Screenplay: Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor
Cinematography: Fraser Taggart
Production Design: Gary Freeman
Costume Design: Jill Taylor
Editor: Eddie Hamilton
Music: Max Aruj, Alfie Godfrey
Running Time: 170 minutes
Release Date: 17th May 2025 (Australia)