Review: 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning' doesn't quite stick the landing

Paramount Pictures, 2025.

It would be impossible to overstate Tom Cruise's impact on Hollywood. A bona fide mega-star, one of the finest actors of his generation and a certifiable mad-man when it comes to the Mission: Impossible movies.

With "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning," we are now eight movies deep into this unlikely franchise...and it feels more like a long-winded farewell rather than going out with a bang. It was of course based on the popular TV series that aired in the late 1960s-early 1970s, but Tom Cruise and his undeniable drive, charisma and vision is what initially propelled the first film in the franchise into a box office smash...propelling the rest of the films to push the boundaries of what an action movie is capable of.

The first seven films have grossed over 4 billion dollars at the box office, and we arrive at "The Final Reckoning" with the loftiest of expectations both financially and creatively. Can it possibly live up to the previous chapters? Will Tom Cruise - like he did with "Top Gun: Maverick" back in 2022 - rejuvenate the movie business and instill a boost of much-needed confidence into a once-again struggling industry?

"Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" is a difficult movie to assign a letter grade to. It's by no means a bad movie, although it may be the weakest entry in the series. Its third act is exhilarating and on par with anything the franchise has given us to date, but those first two hours are a slog. 

I can deal with "implausible"...let's face it...implausibility has been baked into the formula of this series from the very beginning. But the choppy, overcomplicated first two hours feels like a missed opportunity.

Grade: C+

Much of "The Final Reckoning" is spent having characters talk through what needs to happen next...call it "Mission: Exposition." Ethan Hunt (Cruise) begins to contemplate the consequences of his actions over the past 30 years, as he tries - presumably one last time - to save the world from a threat that most don't even know exists.

With many of his close friends and loved ones gone, a few still remain, like Luther (Ving Rhames), who is the only other character besides Hunt to have appeared in all eight films. Benji (Simon Pegg) is one of the few allies Hunt has left, as is Grace (Hayley Atwell), his most recent love-interest who first appeared in "Dead Reckoning - Part One." Together, they are trying to stop the rogue Artificial Intelligence known as "The Entity" and the latest villain, Gabriel (Esai Morales) against all odds.

Even though time is catching up to Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise remains timeless. His face is a bit more weathered, his hair a bit longer, but his on-screen intensity is still there. It's common knowledge at this point that Cruise does all of his own stunts in these movies, and now at age 62, he in some ways has never looked better. And some of the stuff he does on film is breath-taking to say the least.  "Insane" may be a better description.

But after eight movies, the emotional payoffs are just not there like they should be, or like the film wants them to be. Everything has come down to this, but it takes nearly two hours for the film to describe to us what has happened, and what needs to be done next. Not only are the characters telling us at all times what has happened or what needs to happen, Christopher McQuarrie (who has helmed these movies since "Rogue Nation" in 2015) also includes several flashbacks, to spoon-feed us and to jog our memories. Someone should have stepped in to simplify the storyline, to get us to the action faster...I think there were ways to do that and still pack in some emotion.

Early action scenes are sparse and forgettable, but midway through we get an epic underwater sequence, where Hunt must dive to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve something from a sunken Russian submarine. The cinematography during this sequence was jaw-dropping. But the nature of the scene - one guy in scuba gear with almost no sound whatsoever - didn't seem to fit in the sort of action-sequences this franchise has given us over the past several films. Of course the most iconic action scene perhaps of the ENTIRE series happens in the first film, where Hunt must drop down from the ceiling while remaining dead silent in order to hack a CIA computer. That scene at least, was edited tightly for tension and maximum dramatic effect. The underwater sub sequence - while cool - goes on way too long. As does most every scene in this disjointed film.

The film though, does ramp up. The final hour ALMOST makes up for first two.  And then it just sort of ends. For all of the build up that this was to be the "last," we don't really get any sort of emotional closure with any of the characters.

There has been no better action movie series than the Mission: Impossible movies. Tom Cruise is a star in his own category. And despite its many flaws, tonal issues and dreadful pacing, there is still a lot that will satisfy audiences.

I'm somewhere in the middle on this one. I honestly didn't hate it, I just was underwhelmed...we've been conditioned that these movies are pushing harder and digging deeper than your standard action films usually do, and "The Final Reckoning" didn't seem to maximize our time. It doesn't stick the landing, but as a whole there's no question that we would take the leap again and again, if given the chance.

But for a franchise built on running out of time, it's ironic that it comes down to this one forgetting how precious ours is.

Grade: C+

Genre: Action, Adventure.
Run Time: 2 hours 49 minutes.
Rated PG-13.

Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Esai Morales, Henry Czerny, Pom Klementieff, Nick Offerman, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Angela Bassett, Rolf Saxon.

Co-Written and Directed by Christopher McQuarrie ("Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One," "Mission: Impossible - Fallout," "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation," "Jack Reacher," "The Way of the Gun").

"Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" is in theaters on Friday, May 16th, 2025.