Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
Following on from Dead Reckoning, Ethan is called upon to assist in the recovery of the source code from the submarine Sevastapol in order to stop The Entity
Direction
McQuarrie returns for his fourth outing as director, and this was the usual style of film we have been used to with Cruise as his main star.
There are a couple of batsh!t crazy stunts (such as Cruise climbing from one flying plane to another to catch the bad guy) as well as use a parachute that is on fire!
There are some downs I found (one I found almost laughable was when the bad guy is doing a monologue and his eyes are in light, and his face is in dark a la Morticia Addams).
Cast/Characters
Returning for their eighth outing are Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames as Ethan Hunt and Luther Stickell. Back for his sixth is Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn.
Back from Dead Reckoning are Henry Czerney, Esai Morales, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff as Kittrirdge, Gabriel (who may or may not be part entity), Grace and Paris (who was left for dead by Gabriel in the last film) respectively. Also returning are Shae Whigham and Greg T Davis, who get much more to do this time around (I wil touch on Whigham’s character in a moment).
Angela Bassett is back, still the President of the United States and there are also a series of very strong supporting cast members including Nick Offerman, Holt McCallany, Janet McTier, who play high ranking US officials who play alongside her.
The fun return was Rolf Saxon who returned as Dunloe from the first film (who has been living in Alaska for the last 30 years).
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
Starting with a montage opening, that plays back many of the key events from the past seven films, it snaps into the action and narrative fun quite quickly. A little nitpicky is all the location changes early on – with no real ‘how’ they do certain things/or get to certain places. One moment I took issue with was Ethan and Benji discussing who they need to find baddie Gabriel – with the revelation it being Paris; then they are all or a sudden the guards in her prison walking her to her cell block. Make it make sense.
There is significant throw back to earlier films, even retconning some of them with certain characters. I found this to be egregious and poorly added to the screenplay – just to make this ‘final’ more “finale”. Some were done poorly like retconning The Rabbit’s Foot from #3 (which was an ‘early’ iteration of The Entity), and making Shae Whighmam’s Briggs the son of Jon Voight’s Jim Phelps from the first film.
I loved the addition of Dunloe way back from the first film, who gets screentime with Kittridge (who sent him there following his blunder), and even Hunt who begs for his forgiveness for ‘ruining his life’ – which Dunloe rejects, having been married to the love of his life for decades because of being sent to Alaska.
There are also ups and downs with the action. This does feel the most unrealistic in regards to believability in what Hunt can endure. In one near end of the film he shoots himself out of a submarine torpedo tube, and then gets caught on the submarine as it is sliding down a ravine hundreds of feet below the surface… ugh.
There are a couple of moments where there is two different action scenes taking place at the same time, and the audience is continuously splitting between the two, this was a big up – especially the final, where Ethan is trying to catch Gabriel (while they are both flying a plane), Benji is talking Paris and Grace through catching The Entity while also talking them through operating on him following being shot, and Dunloe is trying to defuse a bomb. It was full of tension and I loved it.
Some of the action probably did go on for a little too long, and some editing could of helped with the pacing.
Score/Soundtrack
There is a very strong score which plays over moments like “that” Luthor scene, when Hunt meets up with Kittridge again, and the bomb final.
As good as it was, it was too much at times, and took away from what was occurring on screen.
Overall
While this is no way a bad film, or a bad way to end the franchise (?) – but it was nowhere near the quality of previous entries of the series.
Some ups were the liberties it took in some of the narrative choices (RIP to you know who).
Whether this is the final in the “final reckoning” is anyone’s wait and see, but considering Cruise will likely be closer to 70 than 60 if another film is made, it would be wise to hang up the hat on a high.
3.5/5
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