Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning marks the eighth and allegedly final film in the Mission: Impossible franchise. This film picks up where Dead Reckoning left off, with Ethan Hunt and the IMF team racing to destroy the AI adversary known as The Entity. On their mission, they are beset by other parties seeking to control the Entity, both enemy and allied.

The Mission: Impossible series has been one of my very favourite action series for some time. The death-defying action that escalates in these movies is something that really authenticates the stakes. Over the years, Ethan and his team have grown increasingly isolated from their allies as their enemies crawl out of the darkest global underbellies. This places our protagonists in a very interesting place from the top of this film. They are extremely isolated because they are the only faction working towards the destruction of The Entity, everyone else simply wants to put it on a leash. This 'out in the cold' position IMF finds themselves within marks them as the underdogs the whole film, with only one another to fall back onto. The film does a good job of escalating the tension with a simple ticking clock across the story. Three days until The Entity nukes the world, giving our heroes barely any time to deep dive into military submarines, disarm city-levelling bombs or have a bi-plane altercation. There is a desperate edge to everything with this race against time that I loved. Another simple trick is that the hero and the villain just have it out for one another, Ethan and Gabriel tangle with one another across this which is a nice driving force.

The stunt work in these films has always been out of this world, and the final film continues to deliver on that front. Watching Cruise navigate complex underwater sets or walk along the exterior of an active aeroplane is a spectacle well worth watching. The visuals for this film are impressive, with dramatic well-lit close-ups in your more intimate scenes paired alongside grand-scale action sequences with stunning views. I really enjoyed the score for this film, it utilised the main theme nicely while also holding some really tense or poignant pieces throughout.

Hayley Atwell, who played Grace, is one of the freshest faces on the main team and she is entirely superb; Atwell plays to the stakes of a scene really well. Ving Rhames, who played Luther Stickell, is a bit underutilized in this feature but works extremely hard in his scenes; Rhames has a more earnest and melancholy edge this time around that will leave you mourning. Simon Pegg, who played Benji Dunn, gives his most grim take on the character yet; Pegg really plays a loyal and desperate soldier here who mirrors Cruise nicely. Pom Klementieff, who played Paris, really finds her place in this feature; having a more dangerous assassin in the IMF mix really added some new flavour to the team. Henry Czerny, who played Kittridge, has been nice to see back in the role he inhabited so long ago; Czerny leaves you guessing as to his character's allegiances which makes him a wild card in scenes. Holt McCallany, who played Serling, is the saving grace to the Presidential War Room scenes; McCallany has a seasoned edge and a propensity for character acting that sells him as this Intelligence Head. Tramell Tillman, who played Captain Bledsoe, was an incredible scene-stealer; Tramell really had fun with his character which made him a little unpredictable and interesting. Shea Whigham, who played Briggs, is just one of the great working character actors right now; Whigham presents a figure hounding after a deep-seated personal vendetta neatly. Rolf Saxon, who played William Donloe, is a surprisingly great returning role; Saxon's gentle genius who has been living in exile is a really intriguing addition to this film. Katy O'Brian and Paul Bullion, who played Kodiak and Shirley respectively, had this tough edge and banter that worked alongside Cruise; these scenes felt fun because it was just strong performers showing off against one another. Pasha D. Lychnikoff, who played Captain Koltsov, was a surprisingly fun minor antagonist; Lychnikoff crafted a respectful combatant with a begrudging chemistry shared with the IMF team cast members. 

However, the best performance came from Tom Cruise, who played Ethan Hunt. I find that in almost every single one of these films, this note rings true. Cruise is an actor/producer combo dedicated to this craft like few else, and across this film series, he has repeatedly put in the work. In his hands, Ethan Hunt has turned out to be a classic hero. An action hero with an unwavering moral compass who runs headfirst into danger to save the world around him. This film Cruise presents Hunt as being almost haunted by that drive, he knows the stakes through and through. This is a character entirely desperate to save everybody and willing to sacrifice himself in fifty different ways to do it. This is Cruise standing up and showing us all how much he loves Ethan Hunt one last time, and it's a true spectacle.

My issue with The Final Reckoning seems to be quite a bit of what I disliked about Dead Reckoning, showing a real unwillingness to learn. This film takes off with a bang in London, pitting Ethan and Gabriel against one another once more. We're then sadly pushed deep down into planning stages, political jargon and long stretches of exposition for the remainder of the first act. This is not a short film and it would benefit from a strong sense of pacing, but that vision just isn't present in this film. Once again, the film takes a strange turn by really doubling down on an omnipotent AI antagonist, weirdly making Mission: Impossible feel like it has taken on a sci-fi bend. The robotic antagonist is dispassionate and doesn't mesh well into this espionage world. I strongly feel this film series would have been better served with a more human antagonist to close us out. This film also continues the trend of the last one in another way, hosting a long bloated subplot revolving around American bureaucrats in a room hosting a debate. It's very dry storytelling that kills the rhythm. This last instalment loses a lot of the light-hearted charm of modern Mission: Impossible films, it just takes itself far more seriously than it really needs to. The Last Reckoning has a stern edge and the loss of levity is punctuated throughout.

A flaw the past couple of Mission: Impossible films have had is elements of the editing. It often feels like nothing is left on the cutting room floor and as many shots are pushed into a scene or sequence as possible, resulting in a slow pace and entire scenes that feel crammed.

Esai Morales, who played Gabriel, loses a lot of his menacing edge from Dead Reckoning; Morales is almost a cartoonish bad guy in this with his constant ultimatums and maniacal laughs. Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Charles Parnell and Mark Gatiss, who played Walters, General Sidney, Richards and Angstrom respectively, were quite a bland ensemble who were very unconvincing as figures of major authority; Offerman was perhaps the most disappointing as the blustering and self-sacrificing general. Hannah Waddingham, who played Admiral Neely, had a ridiculously impassive exterior; Waddingham gave this role little to no emotion whatsoever. Angela Bassett, who played Erika Sloane, wasn't especially engaging as the President for the film; Bassett helmed an ensemble that seemed to grapple with one another for who could come off the most stoic. Greg Tarzan Davis, who played Degas, is one of the worst main characters introduced into the IMF team; Davis barely brings personality to the film and feels like excess weight. Lucy Tulugarjuk, who played Tapeesa, is a bit of a curveball addition to the film with more screen time than the role demands; Tulugarjuk playing the Inuit woman who gets laughs for not understanding anyone was an odd bit of running comedy. Stephen Oyoung and Tomás Paredes, who played Pills and Hagar respectively, were the dullest aspect of the submarine storyline cast; Oyoung really grinds the audience through some average exposition delivery.

Far from the conclusion Mission: Impossible deserves but a decent tip of the hat to many years of Ethan Hunt. I would give Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning a 7/10.