Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning ★★★★

Released: 21 May 2025

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Angela Bassett, Ving Rhames, Hannah Waddingham, Esau Morales, Pom Klementieff

The art of action is meant to provoke excitement, adrenaline and the literal holding onto the edge of our seats. The Mission Impossible franchise embodies exactly this, crafting its legacy in the genre over the last three decades. Christopher McQuarrie’s The Final Reckoning, the eighth and potentially last instalment in the franchise, is full of exhilarating and anxiety inducing moments.

Tom Cruise’s final offering as Ethan Hunt is as transformative as it is emotional. Following on from Dead Reckoning, Hunt and the team are working towards finishing their hardest mission to date: destroying The Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence that has the ability to end the world by triggering a global nuclear system. Hunt is currently in possession of a digital key that can shut the AI down, with the help of his fellow agent and cyber mastermind Luther (Ving Rhames), who has developed a Poison Pill that is designed to trick and stop the entity from completing its life changing task.

To save the world, Hunt must go rogue himself by locating a Russian submarine resting on the Ocean bed of the Bering Sea, which holds the source code. The team consisting of: Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Theo (Greg Tarzan David) are tasked with supporting Hunt along the way – after all, Ethan will give it his all to protect the people he loves. Gabriel (Esau Morales) the villain from Ethan’s past, is still seeking control of the entity and to take Hunt down. The line ‘trust me, one last time’ sticks out amongst the entirety of its narrative – Ethan is the only person equipped to save the world, but it comes with personal costs.

At a runtime of 2 hours 51 minutes, this is one of the longer instalments in the Mission Impossible franchise. For many, lengthy runtimes of films over the last few years have generated discussions. Why does a film need to be that long? Will the film feel overstretched? For the most part, in defence of The Final Reckoning, you don’t feel the heaviness of its time frame, but instead we are allowed time to appreciate the effort that has been taken to create something that makes an audience hold their breath during scenes. It’s never boring. Of course, there are scenes such as Hunt’s deep dive into the sea that are impressive to witness, but could have been shaved down to tighten up its narrative flaws. Max Aruj and Alfie Godrey’s score helps to fix some of its issues by elevating the entirety of the film, enabling scenes that are a little dragged out to be forgiven. The horror-esque edge the music has will really have audiences anxiously anticipating outcomes, offering arguably one of the best scores of 2025 so far.

Fans of franchises typically uphold a certain high standard to sequels and instalments. With the anticipation that this will be the last hurrah for this franchise, the standards have been set at an all-time high. This film is a celebration for its fans and what could be deemed more important than box office ratings is how this film cements its contribution to cinema over the last thirty years. Within the film’s first act, we see numerous montages from previous instalments, proving exactly how far the film series has progressed through the modern era of filmmaking and technology. Cruise, as a big advocate for the cinema experience, has spared no expense in taxing himself doing some of the most vividly outrageous stunts to be witnessed on the big screen. Can it feel a bit silly at times? Sure. But it’s hard to argue that these specific films over the course of time have created such excitement for audiences, and will in no doubt be inspirations for upcoming action films. As someone who is profoundly terrified of both heights and the ocean, I can only say fair play Tom.

Is Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning really the swan song in this franchise? I’m reluctant to say yes. Just like any film, it has its flaws but what Cruise and McQuarrie have accomplished is one hell of an action film. One that Cruise especially should be proud of. I guess our mission if we chose to accept it is to wait eagerly to see what Cruise cooks up next.