Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning

That, at least, is what Ethan Hunt says in a crucial Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning scene. That subtitle is significant, as anyone who remembers the original name of its 2023 predecessor can attest: Dead Reckoning Part One. When the seventh Mission: Impossible movie underperformed by “only” earning $571 million at the box office due to the misfortune of being released a week before Barbie and Oppenheimer, the decision was made to free the concluding chapter of its tainted moniker. Now the biggest movie star in the world needs us to believe that his farewell to a character he’s been playing for three decades is worth not only the price of admission but a reported budget of $300-400 million.

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There’s a lot of narrative ground to cover, resulting in a breakneck pace that leaves virtually no breathing room over the 169-minute runtime. If you didn’t see Dead Reckoning or simply can’t remember it, all you really need to know is that an omniscient artificial intelligence known as the Entity has gone rogue and now intends to fire all the world’s nuclear bombs at once in order to rid Earth of mankind. This is a lot of movie, both in terms of how long it is and how much is crammed into it; you might even call it action packed.

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That’s only really a problem in the extended prologue, which is replete with flashbacks, exposition, and near-constant reminders that the world will end should Ethan fail to complete his mission — which, per the title, is likely. Each step is more difficult than the last, with the list of obstacles in our heroes’ way including but not limited to distrustful bureaucrats, ticking time bombs, the Russians, decompression sickness, and an ongoing debate over free will.

Ethan, his team, and their enemies are increasingly aware of the fact that they’re doing exactly what the Entity wants them to do and that the only way to beat it is by acting in a way it wouldn’t expect, unless, of course, it’s thought of that and actually wants them to do what they normally wouldn’t. The entire premise of the Entity is that we're predictable creatures whose actions inevitably lean toward self-destruction. “It is written,” we hear more than once, but is it really?

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Why, not if Ethan Hunt has anything to say about it. Cruise is, as ever, the star of the show, but any number of scenes are stolen by the supporting cast: Pom Klementieff as the foe-turned-ally who waxes philosophical in French, Severance’s Tramell Tillman as a submarine captain who matches Ethan’s all-or-nothing energy, and Angela Bassett as the most levelheaded movie president in ages. Teamwork makes the dream work, whether it’s making a movie or saving the world.

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Where Cruise goes from here isn’t a mystery — he’s starring in Birdman and The Revenant director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s next film, which has yet to receive a title — but it is intriguing. It’s been eight years since he made a movie that didn’t have Mission: Impossible or Top Gun in the title and more than a decade and a half since he’s made one that was in any way a smallish-scale character study. That’s unfortunate, as some of his best work has been in movies like Jerry Maguire and Magnolia, so aging out of mega-franchises like this one could be a blessing in disguise.

This is a lot of movie, both in terms of how long it is and how much is crammed into it.

Like prior Mission: Impossible entries Rogue Nation, Fallout, and Dead Reckoning before it, The Final Reckoning was directed by Christopher McQuarrie, whose collaborations with Cruise also include writing and directing Jack Reacher in addition to either writing or producing Valkyrie, Edge of Tomorrow, and the phenomenally successful Top Gun: Maverick. The two are clearly simpatico, continually finding new and inventive ways for Ethan to come across as not only the most gifted secret agent the world has ever seen but also a flesh-and-blood human — not an easy task, given how much of the series is devoted to increasingly dangerous stunts that Cruise famously performs himself.

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In raising the stakes as high as they can go, however, the movie forgets that bigger isn’t necessarily better. The Final Reckoning is certainly the most epic entry in this now 30-year-old franchise, but that doesn’t mean it’s the most enjoyable. The constant sense of foreboding and monologues about how Everything Has Led to This can be too much at times, especially for anyone who just wants to see Cruise hang off an airplane. Even that comes close to missing the mark at times, as watching some of his death-defying feats this time around can be more exhausting than exhilarating.

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More isn’t always more, but the film’s maximalist approach does ultimately prove effective in the end. For while The Final Reckoning may not exactly land the plane safely, it does eject in time to deploy a parachute and reach terra firma in one piece. For all the reminders that the world is about to end and that we may or may not be in charge of our own fate, though, the most memorable repeated line — and the one that best encapsulates the Mission: Impossible ethos — is also the most humble: “We’ll figure it out.”