Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Movie Review

An epic, reference-packed, greatest + greater hits compilation of a finale for Cruise's 30 year Mission. It would be easy to point at your preferred "peaks" in the Mission: Impossible franchise as the benchmark for what you judge each new one by. Whether you dig Brian De Palma's distinctive opening entry, JJ Abrams' nail-biting, best villain, third instalment, the gonzo heights of Brad Bird's Burj-jumping fourth film, or the undeniably strong run from the Cruise/McQuarrie partnership that started back with 2015's Rogue Nation, possibly reached a high with the fantastic follow-up, Fallout, and then hit something of a Box Office brick wall with 2023's Dead Reckoning (FKA Part One), which was the biggest casualty of this process of successively heightened expectations.

But the reality is, they've all been pretty damn amazing slices of blockbuster entertainment in their own distinctive ways. Yes, everybody derides the second Woo-helmed entry, but it was still the highest grossing film of the year (something none of the other instalments have achieved), and, if nothing else, proved the unexpected versatility of this Crusie-led behemoth. So as we come to The Final Reckoning, it's probably best not judging it as to whether or not it's the 'best' entry in this repeatedly, sometimes successively, impossible-to-beat saga, and instead just seeing it as a fitting finale to 30 years of ferocious filmmaking and at-times insane commitment to the world of grandstanding stunts and Big Screen entertainment, tirelessly championed by its star, Tom Cruise.

Having already obtained both parts of the fabled key - the first part of the puzzle required to stop the mysterious AI "Entity" from its bid for global domination and, as is revealed, mass destruction of mankind, the race is on for Ethan Hunt and his motley crew of now-really-rogue operatives to find the rest of the pieces (one of which is deep down in the ocean) and put them all together with precise timing to abort the imminent nuclear self-destruction of the planet.

Raising the stakes the highest they have ever been, The Final Reckoning at times feels like a rather sobering counterpart to its preceding, frequently more fun and breezy, Dead Reckoning (Part 1). Intricately and densely plotted, Cruise and McQuarrie haven't just doubled down on the complexity of the problem for the sheer sake of it, they've somehow managed to - at times - rather respectfully retcon this entire saga as a build-up to this staggering finale. Yes, it feels occasionally cumbersome, like what they are attempting is as impossible as the franchise frequently celebrates being, but one only has to look at the disastrous attempts to do precisely this kind of retconning in Craig's Bond run to see that here, however clumsy it sometimes feels, they have indeed worked some serious magic to pull off the impossible.

The Final Reckoning isn't merely paying tribute to all the movies that came before it, it somehow manages to draw valuable threads from all of them together, from old players to key McGuffins, with one truly emotional reference that works on multiple levels - for not only the films' earlier characters but actually the original TV show's. As repeatedly stated, they don't always pull it off smoothly and effortlessly, but it's that same effort that is noticeable and acknowledged as part of the experience: it's not lost on the audience that somebody has actually put some thought into how this could possibly work as one mammoth whole, one big conclusion to the entire saga.

Going repeatedly full tilt into exposition, even that tactic doesn't appear too strained, allowing you to keep up with the impossibly dense plot of McGuffin upon McGuffin, and actually buy into this crazy-ass plot which, let's face it, can't hold one bit of water, but - within the confines of this particular universe - is somehow more than enough to keep you along for the ride, hoping, desperately, that they can pull off this one final, against-all-odds, mission.

Bristling with tension, and some superb smaller encounters, of course what you came here for is the BIG setpieces and they don't disappoint, taking the best moments from a succession of classics - from The Hunt for Red October to The Abyss - and still conjuring up something that eventually feels both original and pure extreme Cruise, not least when it catapults him into a skyward trajectory in a bid to top the grandstanding Fallout finale, somehow coming damn close to pulling that off.

There will certainly be plenty of people deriding the flaws in this mammoth epic, with criticisms likely ranging from it's between twenty minutes and two hours too long; it's too much of a greatest hits album; it's too reference-laden; it's stunts are too comparable to previous ones, only done bigger; and its ultimate sign-off probably isn't as satisfying as it could have been (there's no doubt that Fallout nailed much of this second-part heightened-stakes, grandstanding finale, perfect sign-off work more effortlessly, efficiently and, frankly, perfectly).

But Cruise has still done the impossible, for the eighth time, making a (supposedly) final mission which is likely never ever going to be topped, which has practical stunts and physical commitment that no other person - let alone actor - on the planet would ever even consider, which no studio in this age of VFX (and, ironically, AI) would ever even think necessary, and which all comes together for the kind of blockbuster the likes of which we may never see again on the Big Screen. There's something truly grand about that, and, for all its flaws, this one deserves a respectful nod of resounding approval in all they've managed to pull off. Whatever 2025's Summer Blockbuster slate has to offer, the year won't get bigger - and certainly won't get grander - than Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is out in UK Cinemas and IMAX from 23rd May 2025.

As part of the Filmed for IMAX programme, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning was shot using IMAX-certified cameras.

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