Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
Starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell and Esai Moralles
M
4.5/5
The direct sequel to Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning from 2023, The Final Reckoning is an outstanding thriller and a great finale for the three-decade Mission Impossible series.
Elite agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) must reunite with his team to prevent the Entity, a runaway AI, from triggering nuclear armageddon.
Like Dead Reckoning, The Final Reckoning is nearly three hours long but feels quick and compelling, maintaining an apocalyptic tightening suspense.
Cruise gives a grounded, vulnerable (but still badass) performance as Ethan, Hayley Atwell stuns once again as the heroic pickpocket Grace, and Esai Morales returns as the incredibly charismatic villain Gabriel.
With much of the character development having taken place in the previous film, The Final Reckoning can concentrate on amazing action and a clever plot blending high-tech gadgetry with low-tech cunning.
The action is thrilling and inventive as ever: a second-act scuffle brilliantly cuts between two fights according to similar moves, and the climactic chase may be the coolest action scene involving bi-planes in cinema history. The submarine scene, with the rotating vertigo of Inception and the falling perils of the cliff scene in The Lost World, is the film’s nervewracking centrepiece. The Final Reckoning also features plenty of satisfying callbacks tying together the rest of the franchise.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is a superbly-crafted, enthralling action movie, and I hope it does far better at the box-office than its predecessor.
