Attending an early screening of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, stirred a wave of nostalgia. The original Mission: Impossible debuted in 1996, and realizing nearly three decades have passed feels almost unreal. The reunion of the core cast—Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, and Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust—was a highlight. Their chemistry remains the franchise’s heartbeat, with Hayley Atwell’s Grace adding sharp-witted vitality. Cruise, at 62, seizes every moment to perform stunts, often inexplicably in his underwear, showcasing his relentless commitment to physicality.
Ethan’s stunts in this chapter push far beyond plausible into the utterly asinine territory. The stunts, executed with breathtaking precision, are so extravagant they defy logic. Ethan leaps between biplanes and maneuvers around them with impossible agility while the team faces Russian operatives shooting at them, sparking a fire that escalates into chaos. One particularly absurd sequence sees Ethan surviving a deep-sea dive to a long-lost submarine hundreds of feet below the surface, avoiding a moving submarine and its massive propeller, and not imploding or succumbing to hypothermia before escaping to a portable decompression chamber where Grace revives him with improbable ease.
A subplot involving a quirky couple, played by Hannah Waddingham and Holt McCallany, is integral to the mission. Their eccentric banter and resourcefulness aid Benji and the team in providing coordinates to locate the missing submarine, ensuring Ethan can reach it. Their scenes, cleverly crafted and filled with charm, add a unique spark that enhances the film despite its chaotic pace. Their presence balances the relentless action with much-needed levity and creativity, making them a standout part of the plot.
Angela Bassett’s portrayal of the U.S. president adds gravitas to the narrative, though her tense deliberations over the rogue AI known as the Entity ultimately feel like cliched padding. While aiming for potential global annihilation seriousness, these moments instead come across as overused tropes, adding little depth to the sprawling plot. Despite Bassett’s commanding performance, the boardroom scenes feel disconnected from the rest of the film’s action-packed sequences.
These visually stunning scenes pile up to the point of absurdity that overshadows the cast’s charisma. Esai Morales’ return as the villain Gabriel is almost laughable, his menacing presence undercut by a cartoonish edge that fails to land. The plot feels overstuffed with technobabble and betrayals, straying from the grounded espionage of earlier entries. At a bloated two hours and 49 minutes, the pacing sags under relentless action, leaving little room for the character-driven moments that once anchored the series. The script, by McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen, tries to weave emotional stakes around Ethan’s loyalty but gets buried in an overblown spectacle.
The themed popcorn buckets are undeniably neat. The expandable briefcase bucket, illuminated with LED lights, is a clever nod to the franchise’s spy aesthetic. The bucket with a standard cup featuring illuminated night-vision goggles attached to the cup is equally creative, adding a fun, collectible touch. These items added an extra layer of fun to the screening, sparking envy among fellow fans.
My two 21-year-old male companions loved the film, raving about the wild stunts and breakneck pace. Their enthusiasm was palpable, but the lunacy of Ethan’s predicaments—each escape more preposterous than the last—proved impossible to overlook. The overblown stunts, from underwear-clad escapades to underwater heroics, eclipsed the cast’s charm and technical brilliance.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning delivers a dazzling, high-octane ride, but its excesses tip it into a realm of absurdity that feels more exhausting than thrilling. Despite the visual splendor and the cast’s undeniable talent, the relentless chaos makes it hard to stay invested. While the buckets were a hit, the film’s extravagant approach left much to be desired, and afterward, I felt dissatisfied and exhausted.