Your mission, should you choose to accept it, ...is to read this review of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning to the end. Ok, who could resist that beginning, as cheesy as it is? It's been almost 30 years since Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick) first graced theater screens as IMF agent Ethan Hunt and time and time again, audiences have watched as he has accepted deadly missions to save humanity as he and his team live among the shadows. We have seen the actor, ever the adrenaline junkie, push the boundaries of stunt work with each sequel in this franchise and this month the long awaited eighth and final (maybe?) film makes its way to theaters.
As we learned in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, there was a new foe, and a truly threatening one at that. In the world of technology, an Artificial Intelligence known simply as "the Entity" was weaving its way through the binary code of every computer worldwide in a quest for global dominance. Aided by Gabriel (Esai Morales; NYPD Blue), The Entity was set to do just that while fending off those who would try to shut it down using the cruciform key. As Ethan and his team soon discovered, the only way to hide from The Entity, as they tried to stop it, was to go offline and off the grid.
As Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning begins, the IMF team has done just that with Gabriel hot on Ethan's trail. Meanwhile, the Entity has gained control of four of the top 8 countries' nuclear weapons with the intent of wiping out most, if not all, of humanity. The only hope Ethan, Benji (Simon Pegg; Shaun of the Dead), Luther (Ving Rhames; Pulp Fiction) and Grace (Hayley Atwell; Captain America: The First Avenger) have of stopping The Entity lies hundreds of feet under an ice cap in the North Sea and with only three days until the end of the world, time is definitely not on their side, neither is almost everyone else. It will take all of Ethan's power and skill to try and stop the inevitable.
There are reasons Tom Cruise is such a huge box office draw, and this final installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise demonstrates why many times over. At 62, Cruise is still a good-looking man in excellent shape. He easily looks almost ten years younger than his age, and when he flashes those bright, white teeth at you (even from a movie screen), many a heart swoons. He is also not human. There is no way he can possibly be, with the physical exertion he displays, many times, with it looking almost effortless. While it still seems his most thrilling stunt was the motorcycle jump in movie number 7, his underwater stunt and his airplane maneuvers in the movie are still incredibly impressive.
Unfortunately, the script is a little bit of a mess and can be somewhat confusing, but it doesn't completely distract from the goal of the movie, which is to entertain audiences. Of course, the action sequences are extremely well done, and the scenery is also a treat as a backdrop to the action and drama going on around it. However, the over two and a half hour running time is too long, and the pacing falls off at times. There is also the VERY obvious attempt to continue the franchise without Ethan Hunt/Tom Cruise, but enough is enough, and the powers that be at the movie studio should think more than twice about making another Mission: Impossible movie lest they anger the masses to try and make a few more dollars.
At the end of the day, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning falls somewhere in the middle of the pack of the eight films. Is it as good as number 7? No. Is number 7 as good as 5 or 6? Again, no, but with a nod to the past, almost 30 years, and a sufficient ending, number 8 isn't too bad, overall.
Grade B-
