Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE — The Final Reckoning 🛫 

After 29 years of seemingly impossible missions, Tom Cruise is retiring his jersey as the globetrotting, blacklisted secret agent Ethan Hunt—for good…or so he says.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE — The Final Reckoning is the second and final part to the 2023 Mission Impossible film Dead Reckoning, where Ethan and his crew of rogue spies attempted to take down an artificial intelligence program known as “The Entity.”

As the nuclear powers of the world discover the immeasurable capabilities of this newfound force, conflict begins to arise between those who seek power and those who look to destroy it. Ethan Hunt’s mission, if he chooses to accept it, will be to find a way to control the now sentient AI program before the doomsday clock runs out and a new reign of terror is forced upon the entire human race.

Final Reckoning was made for the dedicated, diehard Mission Impossible fans.

Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning is exactly what you’d expect from a Mission Impossible movie: big stunt sequences, a nonsensical plot, and a charismatic cast that allow this to be more than moderately entertaining for those like myself, who are casual enjoyers of the Ethan Hunt series.

The major selling point for this last batch of Mission Impossible movies has been Tom Cruise’s relentless pursuit of taking on dangerous stunts for the sake of authenticity on film. As someone who cares more about character development and well-crafted plots, I found the overuse of exposition with all the scientific mumbo-jumbo to be eye-rollingly fatiguing, especially when all this movie is really doing is trying to find roundabout ways to get to the next major stunt without any depth to the overarching, quite honestly AI-generated, feeling of a modern-day action movie. But that’s what this franchise has become, and before the movie I chose to accept that fact, which allowed me to be entertained by the charismatic performances and the genuinely awesome action sequences in ways I can find others being understandably bored by.

There were definitely times when I’d be looking at my watch to see how much time was left in the movie then the next second I’d be on the edge of my seat, enthralled by the adrenaline-inducing action, and I’d buy back into what was going on.

Final Reckoning had one moment in particular that stood out beyond anything I’ve seen this year besides the Sinners dancing through time scene. It involved a tumbling submarine that rolled on the surface of deep-sea terrain as Ethan Hunt tried to escape, and I don’t know if the science checks out, but I was in full belief that what I was seeing on screen could and was actually happening. It was one of the most incredibly immersive underwater scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. It’s those types of moments that make not having a worthwhile villain that is at the level of Tom Cruise forgivable and the nonsense in the plot forgettable because there’s enough to be entertained by.

I felt the exact same way after the final chapter of John Wick, where you feel the three-hour runtime, but because there’s a redeeming quality to the by-any-means-necessary energy pumping through these characters’ veins you can’t help but get swept up in the chaos of it all.

Also, there is no way this is the last film.

The end to the film is a conclusive finale, but if you’re telling me that a “Mission Impossible Ten” or “X” doesn’t have an appeal to a major film studio for the marketing potential alone, you’d be lying to yourself.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE—THE FINAL RECKONING spoon-feeds audiences through the pageantry of flashbacks the beacon of hope that is Ethan Hunt. He is the best of men in the worst of times, which will work wonders for the diehard fans of the franchise and be a forgettable generic action movie for the rest. 

Enjoy!

6.95/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 2hrs51mins

Where: In Theatres May 23, 2025

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Review (2025) The Richmond Reviewer - May 15th, 2025.

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