MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING: A Fitting Coda

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING (4K UHD)

2025 / 169 min

Paramount

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Entity😸

After time leaves it in the rearview mirror, the Mission: Impossible films might be looked back on as one of the greatest action franchises in history. Individually, none of them are cultural milestones. But collectively, you’d be hard pressed to name another series as remarkably consistent, with only one film (the lamentable MI:2) dropping the ball. 

And until the The Final Reckoning - supposedly the final chapter - each film has been better than the last, not only for finding new and inventive ways to put Tom Cruise in harm’s way for the sake of an action sequence, but developing stories and characters (including antagonists) engaging enough to hold our interest whenever Cruise isn’t risking his life.

The Final Reckoning doesn’t reach the heights of its predecessor, Dead Reckoning Part One, mostly because it struggles to work as a stand-alone film (a common problem for most two-parters). Sure, you can pick up the gist of the plot even if you haven’t seen the last one, but the enormity of what’s at stake is somewhat diminished. 

For the record, a rogue AI simply known as ‘The Entity’ has infiltrated all of cyberspace with an ability to manipulate every aspect of technology. No one knows its origins, or if there’s even a central location, but two halves of a key exist that can potentially control it. As the film opens, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) has that key and is bent on destroying the Entity before it assumes control of every nuclear arsenal in the world to obliterate humanity (it’s not quite made clear what it stands to gain by killing everyone, though one character does ask that question). 

Tom flies coach.

The key provides access to the Entity’s source code, which is located in a sunken Russian sub at the bottom of the ocean, so not only is Hunt tasked with retrieving it, he has to contend with Gabriel (Esai Morales), who did the Entity’s bidding in the first film, but now wants to control it himself. Meanwhile, the CIA, led by director Kittridge (Henry Czerny), and most of the U.S. military fear that destroying the Entity will also destroy the entire internet. They urge President Erika Stone (Angela Bassett) to launch a first strike against the other eight nuclear superpowers before they lose control of their own arsenal. So yeah, the fate of the world is once again at stake, with every option appearing to be a lose-lose scenario.

As a continuation of Dead Reckoning, the film works pretty well, as does the usual quota of jaw-dropping action sequences. The climactic biplane duel (with Tom himself hanging onto the wings for dear life) is a definite highlight, while Hunt’s decent into the bowels of the Russian submarine is suitably claustrophobic, even as it eventually stretches plausibility to the breaking point. On the other hand, the film frequently dips into MCU territory by including characters and subplots that, if you haven’t seen other Mission: Impossible films, won’t mean a whole lot. There’s a ton of fan service here, some of it nicely woven into the narrative, some superfluously inserted (such as a major character who's revealed to be the disgruntled son of Jim Phelps). 

But even with all that baggage, The Final Reckoning is pretty damned entertaining, not just as a conclusion to Dead Reckoning, but as a satisfying coda to the entire franchise. Perhaps a bit too long this time around, the film takes awhile to get rolling, but once it does, the expected visual thrills and moments of race-the-clock tension are here in abundance. At its center, of course, is Tom Cruise, who’s just now beginning to show his age a bit, though his commitment to the character and the movie remains as strong as ever.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

BEHIND THE SCENES - A five-chapter look at the making of the film, with an emphasis on the action sequences.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director Christopher McQuarrie and actor Tom Cruise.

EDITORIAL CONTENT - There’s a montage of deleted scenes, as well as alternate takes of the biplane flying sequences. All of them included optional commentary.

4 PROMO SPOTS - Featuring behind-the-scenes footage.

4 PHOTO GALLERIES - Plenty of behind-the-scenes photos featuring Tom Cruise (includes a text biography), Christopher McQuarrie, supporting cast & crew.