‘Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning’ as a reckoning for the best American boomer action star
At the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, Tom Cruise jumped from the top of the stadium to rappel down into the field of Olympians. These sportspeople are a third of his age, and yet they went wild.
One of the ladies lunged at Cruise to give him a hug and took a selfie. Cruise took a look at the camera to tousle his hair into Hollywood superstar ruggedness. He took the Olympic flag, and in a series of vignettes and action movie editing with motorcycles and bulky planes, Cruise ends up at the Hollywood sign to start the road to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
That should have been the end of the Mission Impossible franchise. But no. Cruise has another salvo, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025, directed by Christopher McQuarrie), that is clunky, tedious, and overwrought. You need not pay attention anymore to the story, because Lord knows it is hard to keep up with all these convenient exposition scenes. Just sit back and enjoy the action.
Sadly, Cruise relies on this franchise for his longevity and productivity because he is a fantastic actor who bravely took on roles that are diametrically opposed to his charm. But action films are what made Cruise into a superstar in his own sky.
There are several montages from the past Mission Impossible films, and goodness, Cruise was at his height of action rigor and gorgeousness in M:1 (1996, directed by Brian De Palma). Then, as the franchise rode on, there were several deaths, more particularly of women linked to Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt. That is basically the entire franchise’s reason for existing: Ethan Hunt is in a case, some megalomaniac kidnaps a woman, dangles the woman to do his bidding, which is to order Hunt to get a world-ending gadget, Hunt goes rogue against his American bosses, and the action goes on.
The action sequences are stupendous, if not gluttonous. Only a Tom Cruise movie would have him trapped in a destroyed submarine under freezing waters and have that submarine roll itself near an underwater cliff while Cruise retrieves something as he traverses a cabin filled with Russian nuclear warheads. They say this is Cruise’s last hurrah with Mission Impossible. I hope not.
Judging from the absolute insanity of loops he must go through, I wish there would be an Ethan Hunt storyline wherein he has to time travel into post–World War II to stop the emergence of Godzilla. If you think I am crazy, you should watch Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning because it is absolutely a rehash of all the stunts Cruise did in this franchise.
I must admit I laughed at how a villain died, because after all the whizzbang action sequences, that one was a death so idiotic it should belong to the Final Destination franchise. Too bad, because Final Destination: Bloodlines is an immensely better film than this. Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning does entertain, but it frustrates and baffles more.
