Cruise remains committed as ever as Hollywood’s death-defying action star par excellence, but this is such a slog and bogged down by the need to justify the knotty, plotty ideas of the earlier movie.
Review #2,991
Dir. Christopher McQuarrie
2025 | USA | Action, Thriller | 169min | 2.39:1 | English
PG13 (passed clean) for sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief language
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny
Plot: Ethan Hunt and team continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity — which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe — with the world’s governments and a mysterious ghost from Hunt’s past on their trail.
Awards: –
Distributor: United International Pictures
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Saving the World; Artificial Intelligence; Race Against Time
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex (in a ‘so what?’ way)
Pace: Normal (but too long)
Audience Type: Mainstream
Viewed: Shaw Waterway Point IMAX
Spoilers: No
Tom Cruise remains as committed as ever in his early sixties, performing his own death-defying stunts with the kind of enthusiasm and seeming nonchalance that has set him apart from his acting peers for a long time.
However, this purported final entry of the ‘Mission: Impossible’franchise (who knows Cruise might return in a cameo if a reboot is on the cards in some near-future) feels like a muted send-off for Ethan Hunt, who once again must defy the greatest of all odds, the thinnest of margins, and the slightest of milliseconds, to save the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation.
It’s unbelievable, to be honest, and there are so many moments in this (and the earlier movies) that defy logic—it’s a matter then of how much you are willing to suspend your disbelief.
The earlier movies seem primed to get us to be more forgiving because they are tighter and a little more fun; The Final Reckoning, however, is such a slog, taking itself way too seriously, and needing so much exposition that its direct predecessor, Dead Reckoning (2023), which was already jammed packed with information, now feels like a breeze.
As the vague A.I. villain continues to permeate the cloud, while the human bad guys possess little in the way of imposing presence, it then falls on the calculated life-and-death stakes to make it all tick like clockwork.
“I need you to trust me. One last time.”
A show-stopping aerial climax, and a suspenseful midway sequence involving a deep dive into the depths of the icy-cold ocean to a sunken submarine do make us temporarily forget about the artificial intricacies of its plotting, until once again, the lack of logic finds a way to interrupt.
These two ‘Reckoning’ movies need a rewrite—perhaps even a rethinking of their driving impetus. Heck, they should have been standalone, self-contained movies.
It is abundantly clear that the latter film is bogged down by the need to justify the former’s knotty, plotty ideas, hence, there is a sense that The Final Reckoning isn’t free to be itself, to chart its own path, to determine the beast that it wants to be.
Both suffer a similar fate as Daniel Craig’s final two ‘Bond’ movies—the clunky Spectre (2015) and overdrawn No Time to Die (2021). These four pictures combined best represent the flawed modus operandi of Hollywood action franchise filmmaking of the last decade.
Case in point: I couldn’t care for any of the villains and their end-of-the-world shenanigans, or the tonnes of supporting characters that add baggage rather than value, or the way-too-convenient contrivances that diminish the weight of consequential action, and more. But then again, most regular audiences won’t care, and they are right.
Grade: C
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 