The final film in the Mission: Impossible franchise works its end-of-days scenario with intense doom-laden efficiency, director Christopher McQuarrie and star Tom Cruise upping the action-thriller stakes to almost break-neck vigour, while also proving the perfect swansong to Cruise the action star.
Mission: Impossible - Final Reckoning is about as tight and efficient an action-thriller as they come. Despite its almost three-hour runtime, not a second is wasted on establishing just how serious the stakes are in this end-game scenario where ramifications both global and personal hang in the balance. A succinct lack of charm, however, also results in Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning being the least entertaining of the McQuarrie directed entries; a case of an out of balance intensity-to-fun ratio that the previous Mission: Impossible films had perfected.
Set several months after the events of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, this eighth instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise again follows rogue IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his crew (Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff and Greg Tarzan Davis) as they attempt to shut-down AI super-virus “The Entity” that has thrust the world into a nuclear standoff between the superpowers. Lurking in the shadows is Ethan’s arch-nemesis Gabriel (Esai Morales) who is always ready to pounce.
True to form, Ethan’s mission to “save the world!” takes him to all matter of extremes, from a heist in the deepest depths of the ocean to a duel between propeller planes in the sky. McQuarrie’s staging and execution of these action sequences (and others) is a display of grade-A action-suspense filmmaking, the kind of heart stopping, mouth-a-gape, high-stakes action-adventure scenarios that delivers upon that cliched promise of “blockbuster thrills” and then some.
Cruise’s proficiency as the ultimate Hollywood action man is once again on full display here, risking life-and-limb to deliver an entertaining spectacle. Yet with such a daredevil performance Cruise has sacrificed charm for pure intensity, and with that comes the question of whether now is the time for multiple Oscar nominee Cruise to plant his feet on solid ground and re-establish his (unsung) career as a dramatic actor.
Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning is indeed a fine action movie, yet it is also one that has reached its culmination not only as a franchise, but Cruise’s standing as an action hero.
