When Tom Cruise asks you to trust him one last time, it’s hard to say no. And with life mimicking art, and vice versa, the hope is that everyone will flock to the theaters for Ethan Hunt’s last mission. But as the presumed final entry of a film franchise spanning almost 30 years, The Final Reckoning doesn’t carry the weight of finality one might expect. It’s also far from the best Mission: Impossible film of recent years, but still manages to serve as a thoroughly entertaining blockbuster deserving of the full theatrical experience. Director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie continues to prove himself as a grand and efficient commercial filmmaker.
Continuing from the events of the retitled seventh film, Dead Reckoning, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is still in pursuit of the Entity (an artificial intelligence system), racing against Gabriel (Esai Morales), the elusive antagonist who seeks control of the system himself. Working once again with Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), and Grace (Hayley Atwell), Hunt finds his team in deeper waters as shutting down the Entity proves more and more complicated. As with all other Mission: Impossible films, the stakes of the aforementioned mission become more heightened, if not seemingly impossible, as the story progresses. The cast also features Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Shea Whigham, Henry Czerny, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Angela Bassett.
Tom Cruise, The Last Action Hero
While Cruise has never been known for his mastery of any formal combat techniques, he has certainly cemented himself as a bonafide action star. One with apparently no regard for his own safety when it comes to performing stunt work. And with each successive Mission: Impossible film, the stunts have only gotten more dangerous and complex. With The Final Reckoning, it’s therefore surprising that the stunts are not nearly as plentiful and only appear toward the film’s climactic third act. The set piece involving Cruise maneuvering outside of flying biplane is expectedly impressive, and it’s quite unfortunate that the new Oscar for stunt work won’t be in play this upcoming awards season.
The relative lack of dangerous set pieces might not just be a result of Cruise’s advancing age, but also hint at the prowess of Hunt as a character, which Cruise has built up over the years. By virtue of just being onscreen, Cruise becomes an institution of action cinema, even without lifting a finger. Few traditional action stars can do that, but he somehow pulls it off. Even seeing him run through a few corridors and open fields is enough to re-align our expectations that Ethan Hunt can do anything, even if he really isn’t doing that much at all. It will likely be some time before we see another character and performer carry such kinetic and monumental weight, and in all likelihood, it might be something we don’t ever see again.
The Underutilization Of Nostalgia
In a bit of a surprising choice, The Final Reckoning is structured in a way that really frontloads itself with the nostalgia card in play. Right at the outset, we get a montage of clips spanning the entire franchise, with McQuarrie being quite heavy-handed in proclaiming the film as a final punctuation to an almost three-decade journey. Yet this signposting of a purely nostalgic expedition is pretty much sidelined in favor of the current story at hand. Through and through, the narrative is still more concerned with the Entity storyline rather than being an ode to the franchise itself.
There’s the occasional fan service, particularly when it comes to Hunt’s interactions with Luther (Rhames) and a surprising throwback to a character not seen for a number of films. But in general, these throwbacks are simply scattered throughout the film and can hardly be found in the foreground. In some ways, this might be a commendable creative choice by McQuarrie et al., who have chosen to stick with the current mission, rather than looking back on the missions of time past. Yet as a blockbuster film that is meant to send off such a beloved franchise, it almost feels inappropriate to not capitalize on its deserved nostalgia. One might therefore expect the franchise’s core fanbase to be somewhat disappointed by the film’s lack of fan service.
Conclusion
It’s somewhat unfortunate that The Final Reckoning pales in comparison to some of its preceding films, and its string of expository scenes in its second act really takes away from the kinetic narration we’ve come to expect from a Mission: Impossible film. Having said that, it’s still a hard-driven force of a Hollywood blockbuster and still stands as a shining example of refined tentpole commercial filmmaking at its very best. For a supposedly franchise-closing film, it doesn’t quite have the gust of finality many will be hoping for, but perhaps this was intentional as well. If Cruise is leaving the door open for us to trust him one (additional) last time, we should be all for it.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning hits theaters in the U.S. on May 23.
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