Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Written by Nicole Cabrera
There are very few people in the journey of life that can walk the walk, and talk the talk — in other words, follow through and commit to what they say their goals are. Life happens to the best of us, regardless of our societal position. The same can be said for the very tumultuous world of art and film: projects are created, abandoned, funded and unfunded. Some are born from the heart and fail and others are global blockbusters in surprise twists; That’s all to say, in the long history of Hollywood, very few creators have walked the walk with as much devotion as Tom Cruise.
Tom Cruise has been a staple of Hollywood for well over four decades — for all the many changes in his life, there has been some consistency in the last decade or so and that has been his partner in crime Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie, famous in his own respect for his Oscar winning writing in The Usual Suspects, was prepared to leave the movie business for good after his unsuccessful film, the gritty The Way of the Gun. Fate, however, would bring these two creatives together — and led us to where we are today. After script consulting on Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol, McQuarrie would step into the director seat to helm the remaining films in the Mission Franchise and give the prominent and influential series its swan song in Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.
Mission Impossible has been a franchise that has defined the spy genre alongside peers like James Bond for almost 30 years, up until McQuarrie — affectionately known as “McQ” — Cruise and co-star Ving Rhames have been the franchise’s only consistent cast. Teams have popped in and out seeing a wide range of actors (Simon Pegg, Jeremey Renner and Rebecca Ferguson to name a few); But in the turbulent world of espionage, nothing is a given. The franchise has not been without its difficulties — especially being affected by COVID -19, the writer’s strike, delays and re-shoots…till now — the end of an era and the end of the road for Ethan Hunt and the IMF has arrived.
The Final Reckoning sees the IMF return to a world in chaos — the Entity has spread far and wide and now is a global threat to countries and their nuclear sanction system. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) returns one last time, as the fearless team leader and his team hold a cruciform key crucial to stopping the invasive AI, but he is reluctant to hand it over to the government, or to anyone else for fear of power falling into the wrong hands. Despite McQuarrie having created this script years ago, his grim outlook on the world seems frighteningly on point for the current world climate. Everyone is on pins and needles with the belief that the world can fall into warfare we can't return from and the blame falls both on man’s and technology’s shoulders.
We find our heroes at a crossroads — the US government urges Ethan to turn in the key as they try to bring down the Entity and Gabriel (Esai Morales) but there is danger everywhere. As a result, Ethan’s team has grown and changed, adding new members: Paris played by Pom Klementieff and Top Gun Maverick alum, Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas and the return of Hayley Atwell as Grace, the cunning pickpocket, are welcome additions who work well together and create a rag-tag team. In the pursuit of Gabriel, the former wrangler of the the Entity-he has found them first — and in typical Mission fashion: holds Grace as collateral. He makes Ethan a propstion: tying back to MI: III; where,an item known as the “rabbit’s foot” which was an undisclosed government sought-after object (that was never elaborated on in the original movie) gets a second life here. Gabriel established it is core module that lies at the bottom of the ocean in a sunken submersible and that it would give him the ability to take over the Entity’s source code.
However, it is not to be; the Entity has abandoned Gabriel and deemed Ethan as his new chosen one. When Hunt makes the decision to communicate with the Entity on its own playing field, it shows him the endless possibilities of the way the journey can end for him and his team, as well as the fate of the world: a horrible nuclear apocalypse. Ethan realizes the Entity needs access to a secure digital bunker in South Africa that holds all the world's valuable information in it, in order to survive should the world be destroyed. The team makes the difficult decision to split up, they are off to track down the coordinates of the sunken submersible Sevastopol but not before Ethan is rushing off to rescue lifelong IMF teammate Luther Stigles (Ving Rhames). Rhames, while not in the film for a long time, leaves a powerful but bittersweet impact — not only for his bond to Ethan but the franchise. It was moving to see how much care and affection he had for Ethan after all these years and his unwavering belief in the person who Ethan is. It's a touching if not quick goodbye, as Luther sacrifices himself to stop a bomb from destroying London, despite Ethan’s pleas and habitual desire to save his team from all harm — they know the drill though, as IMF members they live and die in the shadows.
The Final Reckoning is a solid entry in the Mission Impossible franchise: a worthwhile send off to Ethan Hunt’s missions of old.
Unfortunately, in all of the chaos, Gabriel has stolen something crucial, a Poison Pill malware — to destroy the Entity when the time is right — setting the team back. Ethan, sacrifices himself to the US government in order to be able to reach president Erika Sloane ( Angela Bassett) who is in a tight spot about whether to work with the Entity as it slowly overtakes the world’s nuclear power leaving them vulnerable and on their own. With mounting pressure, Ethan is able to convince Erika to let him try — with the initiative he has four days to stop the Entity or the US government will take definitive actions.
Here, our story splits — Benji (Simon Pegg, who is true joy in this franchise) as team leader takes his group to St.Matthew Island in the Bering Strait in order to help Ethan pinpoint the exact location of the lost submersible. Benji and co, are given time to shine and insert a bit of humour into what has been a more serious installment; but also bring in one of the most surprising delights to the film. A true blast from the past: William Donloe (Rolf Saxon) CIA analyst from way back in the first movie, who was shipped off to the arctic twenty-five years ago for the wayward actions of a young agent Hunt. The nostalgia Donloe’s character brings is tasteful and his presence is a surprising joy as he and his wife Tapseesa (Lucy Tulujargik) become part of the IMF team by default when enemies try thwart their plans. The truth is the coordinates for the subermisable is nowhere to be found, because Donloe has memorized them for safe keeping and he’s able to broadcast them out to Ethan.
Ethan meanwhile, is aboard the USS George H.W Bush Aircraft Carrier preparing to dive to the Sevastopol wreck-working with Captain Bledsoe (the wonderful Tremell Tillman) and the dangerous and arduous process of the deep dive. McQuarrie and Cruise show the strength of their partnership in the underwater scenes, not only was McQuarrie also filming underwater alongside his star — but their devotion to bringing realism to the film allows them to create scenes that were equal parts visually stunning as they were anxiety inducing. The camerawork begs to be seen in theatre on the biggest screen possible — one standout scene was Ethan’s frantic swim to the surface, which is absolutely breathtaking.
The scenes of Hunt within the sunken wreck, were truly those that we go to the movies for. As it occurred, I could see my friend’s heart rate skyrocket on her Applewatch beside me and I too felt sweaty and uncomfortable; watching our protagonist swim amongst missiles and squeeze through a torpedo tube after obtaining the module and trying to escape the ship before it careens off a ledge. Cruise shows himself to be in pique physical fitness to an insane degree throughout this film even whether it's unarmed submarine fights or his simple fluidity under water it’s impressive. Ethan’s arduous swim back to surface nearly kills him — where he is promptly resestated by Grace. Reuniting with his team the plan becomes clear — their goal is to trap the Entity on a physical drive using the Poison Pill Luther had created which would isolate it from the outside world; Ethan believes Gabriel to be there already, as he is aiming to take control of the Entity using the module Ethan has obtained.
From here the action ramps up — as the situation comes to ahead in South Africa- everyone is after the Entity for different reasons: Ethan’s team to stop it,Gabriel to re-obtain it and control the world at large and even Kittridge is there to seize the power in the name of the US government. In a Mexican standoff style there are many balls in the air at once, and on top of everything- one of Gabriel’s bombs set up to take down everyone. The bomb is activated and a firefight breaks out, with Ethan going after Gabriel who still has the Poison Pill, his team are left to defuse the bomb and trap the Entity at the right moment.
In sea or air Cruise truly seems to be in his element as this kicks off a jaw-dropping aerial dogfight in biplanes. Watching Ethan cling to the wing like a stubborn cat up a tree is a impressive sight to see; as Cruise tumbles, flips and cascades through the air from wing to the side of the plane and back again — he makes it looks effortless and surprisingly fun while the reality is that it took endless hours and weeks of production. Ethan manages to launch himself and land on Gabriel’s plane in active pursuit.Gabriel is a more so like mustache- twirling comical villain role then in Dead Reckoning as he attempts to make his escape from the biplane as Ethan closes in on him but comically— didn’t account for plane itself and meets a prompt and grisly end.
Benji and company have their own heartache, as he is grievously wounded in the shootout and with Paris and Grace at his side-he must talk Grace through how to reboot the system and trap the Entity when the moment is right, and also talk Paris through surgery of aiding his punctured lung — Pegg, Atwell and Klementieff are excellent at blending high tension and humour. While Dega, and Dunloe try to disarm Gabriel’s bomb — a classic Mission circumstance where everything seems lost and the world hangs in a balance and simultaneously it does; as Ethan Hunt is out of time, President Sloane cabinet is urging her to use their nuclear warheads before the Entity takes the ability from them; even deciding which of their own cities they can sacrifice for the greater good. However, at the last minute she decides to simply turn off their nuclear systems and let fate take the wheel as the decision is hers and not a machine’s.
As Ethan seems doomed, he finds a spare parachute and makes a daring jump and finally brings the Poison Pill and the module together, as Grace reboots the system trapping the Entity in its own prison. As Hunt crashes back to earth — he is left with a moving message from Luther expressing how important working with him has been, and how he’s always been on the right side of their work and bringing their relationship to a touching end. The film comes to its conclusion with the world being pulled back from utter destruction, but for the IMF things are as they have always been, as they reunite briefly in London one last time — Grace hands off the trapped Entity to Ethan, the only one that can actual be trusted with it’s responsibility — they say their goodbyes as they disappear, off to fight another day, always in the shadows.
The Final Reckoning is not a movie without its flaws; this film relies heavily on repetition, on nuisance and for the first time, it feels like it benefits the viewer to have seen all the previous films in order to get a full experience of several plot points. Some portions of the film can be seen as a heavy “exposition dump” in an attempt to get to the core of the story. Yet, despite the payoff, the story at times feels long and arduous, but when it gets rolling, it truly gets moving.
Most fascinating is what comes across crystal clear from Reckoning is, McQuarrie’s and Cruise’s opinion on AI and their displeasure on mutually assured destruction (MAD). McQuarrie is not pulling any punches about who the world’s superpowers are and the danger of a nuclear crisis and the damage that can be done which is ominous and enough to fill anyone with dread. Likewise, on the other end of the spectrum, there is heavy criticism of AI. It's so easy to lean heavily on technology — it has value, it has changed our lives for the better in many ways but it is also dangerous and easy to lose ourselves to it. Our moral ground as people can become lost in falsities and misinformation in the social media — we’re all susceptible and unfortunately it has become even more prevalent since Dead Reckoning came out. While Mission Impossible can be dismissed by some as a simple action movie, its elements are rooted in our very real world for better or worse, and this film feels more so reflecting our climate back at us.
Despite everything, the Mission Impossible franchise has been a name and staple in film for almost three decades and while The Final Reckoning may not nail the landing perfectly, it can't be disputed that these films are anything short but a labour of love for Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie. It’s obvious they care, they're passionate world builders and more than anything they love what they do, they love film and that comes across in every scene, every frame. They expect the best in these films and bring the best out in their actors — their enthusiasm and passion is infectious and in an industry that is clearly struggling, where art is taken for granted and it slowly feels like it's being replaced by heartless machines it can be disheartening. Having someone champion the arts, the ability to learn and create,brings some level of faith: art is not dead, film is not dead as long as Cruise, McQuarrie and those like them have anything to say about it. They don’t call Cruise “Mr. Movies” for nothing. The Final Reckoning may be closing the door on Ethan Hunt and the IMF for now- but where there’s a will there’s a way and where there’s passion for film, we're sure to be seeing Tom Cruise jumping out of a plane in no time. The mission is far from over… if we choose to accept it.
Nicole Cabrera is a Toronto-based film enjoyer with a passion for the eighties, horror, and deep diving their favourite actors’ obscure filmography. When they’re not watching movies, they're writing, crafting, cosplaying, going to concerts, working on their podcast (Hollywood Deepdive. )and dreaming of traveling.