Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning Movie Review

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” has the edge-of-your-seat Stunts and Action sequences that are unparalleled. But the overly long setup, the endless callbacks to prior movies and talky explanations bog it all down. Sometimes it becomes closer to “Mission: Inoperable – The Final Exposition”.

 

Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise) is a man, a man on a Mission. But for him, this is the norm. It is the only thing that he knows how to do. For the past thirty years, Hunt has led the team in the IMF — the ‘Impossible Missions Force’.

 

But a few months ago, he and team have an unfinished Mission that has given the world a new grave danger. It was the rise of a rogue AI — called ‘The Entity’. It was aided by a man named Gabriel (played by Esai Morales). But Gabriel failed in his ‘Mission’, and he now works on his own, no longer working with the AI.

 

Hunt has been hiding for months. But a message from the U.S. President, Erika Sloane (played by Angela Bassett), has called him back into service. ‘The Entity’ has taken over many of the control systems of the worlds Nuclear-Armed Nations. They have been infiltrated by the nasty AI.

 

If all of these countries lose control of the Nukes – it will be lights out, forever. Ethan has need of his Team once again. That is so they can save the world, again. He first finds his oldest friend, Luther Stickell (played by Ving Rhames).

 

Luther is deathly ill, and he does not have much time. But he has a special techno-babble thing he has created for Ethan to trap and contain the rogue AI. This falls into the wrong hands, of course. So, now Ethan finds more past Team members. He will need Benji Dunn (played by Simon Pegg), who is also a computer whiz like Luther.

 

He will get back with Grace (played by Hayley Atwell), who — from the prior ‘Dead Reckoning’ movie — was shown to be a master pickpocket and all-around friend. To round it out, there is Degas (played by Greg Tarzan Davis).

 

Degas used to be an agent with the CIA who worked with a partner named Jasper Briggs (played by Shea Whigham). These two agents reported to the CIA chief Eugene Kittridge (played by Henry Czerny — and he is a movie presence that goes way, way back).

 

Degas now aligns with Ethan Hunt and the Team, and they all have the first Mission. They need to find that loose cannon named Gabriel. He stole the ‘Anti-AI Control Thingy’ from Luther. But they get him, they first will need Paris.

 

No, not Paris the city. They need to break Paris (played by Pom Klementieff) out from prison. She was an assassin (from the prior ‘Dead Reckoning’ movie) who was working for Gabriel. She would know how to find him. Also, who knows when they might need an experienced assassin?

 

Gabriel wants to use the ‘Anti-AI Control Thingy’ to take over ‘The Entity’ — the uncontrolled AI that has the World Destruction Time Clock ticking down. It’s a lucky thing that President Sloane has given Ethan Hunt the ‘Cruciform Key’. This will unlock the source code for ‘The Entity’.

 

But rather than wait around for the long-winded explanation and back-story, Ethan and the Team have better things to do. These involve finding Gabriel, who might be some place in South Africa in a super-secret World-Wide Data-Backup Center.

 

These better things include Ethan tagging a ride on a U.S. aircraft carrier that will deliver him to a U.S. Nuclear Submarine. He needs to find the sunken remains of a Russian Sub, lost many years ago (at least one movie ago). This sub holds the resting place of the only remaining source code that created ‘The Entity’.

 

The rest of the IMF Team head over to a tiny island off the coast of Alaska. They hope to find records of a sonic event years ago when the Russian sub sank. They run into a person who runs the small government facility. There is another big throw-back and shout-out to the original Mission: Impossible movie.

 

A man named William Donloe (played by Rolf Saxon) was booted out of Langley around thirty years ago. This was because of a stunt by Ethan Hunt around thirty years ago. He is now here with his Intuit wife.

 

But between fights and brawls on the tiny island and in the U.S. Sub — there are bigger fish that Ethan and Team need to fry. There is the Deep-Water Dive to the Russian Sub by Ethan. He will need to perform an underwater Ballet of sorts.

 

He must dodge, duck.dip, dive, and dodge the Nuclear Missiles in the sunken Russian Sub as it rolls around. He must find the hidden hard drive and use the Cruciform Key’ to get it. He must get back to the surface without all that unnecessary life-saving gear. Ethan has part of the equation, but the Team still needs to locate Gabriel to end ‘The Entity’.

 

So, it is now time to head to South Africa to find that super-secret World-Wide Data-Backup Center. Gabriel has plans to use the stolen ‘Anti-AI Control Thingy’ and connect it to the hard drive that Ethan brought up from the Russian Sub. Nothing like a simple and easy story line structure that just hums along, right?

 

Now, the only thing that might stand in the way of Gabriel getting away with World Domination is an IMF Agent named Ethan Hunt. This brings about an amazing stunt-filled dogfight between the two of them up in the air. Up in a couple of Biplanes — from the Days of Yore.

 

So why does Gabriel try to escape using Biplanes? Maybe the Biplanes are used because the ‘Mission’ series has seemingly used every other Mode of Transportation for an ending fight location. The logistics are incredibly difficult and the stunts are spine-tingling.

 

Within this movie, the amount of creative juices for creating the Biggest and Best and Most Spectacular Stunt Work has no equal. This does make it end on an extremely high note — that is for sure. There is no way to top that, right? Unless Ethan decides to come out of retirement to save the day again – somewhere down the road. You know — so they can save the world, again.

 

 

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” feels like a big, last-minute sloppy kiss from a film franchise that is built on adrenaline and techno-babble. The plot and the pacing get overshadowed by the pulse-pounding stunt work and huge immersive set pieces. Close to thirty years of “Mission: Impossible” movies are referenced and prior plot points are reexamined.

 

Tom Cruise and Director Christopher McQuarrie have taken a movie franchise known for the over-the-top Stunts and turned it up to 11. But they felt the need to surround the meaty Action and Stunt work with some overly extended sequences of dialog and explanations.  This detracts from the basics of the story and it adds up to a very hefty run time.

 

All the filming is excellent and the editing of the Action scenes is terrific. All the acting is quite good, and many prior characters from older movies are brought back for a scene or two. The idea that this is the ‘Final’ movie in the series is brought to a fine point. Unless the Box Office results are also Over-the-Top, perhaps this will be the Teams “Final Mission”. But then again…

 

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” gets an A+ for the Action and the Stunts. But with the additional extra Exposition bogging it all down – maybe it will need to do a make-up exam.