MI:8 – Final Reckoning is a Mission Misfire

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

★ ★

Not even Tom Cruise, recently dubbed the last great action movie star, can save this film from itself. The previous mission, Dead Reckoning, masterfully set us up with what promised to be a win-at-all-costs, battle of wits showdown with a self-aware artificial intelligence called The Entity. In Final Reckoning, the showdown amounts to little more than a switcheroo, like Indiana Jones swapping a bag of sand for a golden idol in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In Raiders, it leads to a white-knuckle tunnel escape. Here, it’s cheap and all too convenient.

The film is supposed to be the second part of a stark warning about what can happen with unchecked AI. The Entity can create realistic videos and disinformation so convincingly that world governments have no clue what is real. As such, it presents a world on the brink of nuclear war – a scenario that feels much more real today than it did at Dead Reckoning’s release just two years ago.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt
© 2025 Paramount Pictures

I expected the usual death-defying stunts, only this time wrapped in a no-win scenario – something akin to the thermonuclear war simulation from WarGames (1983). The only way to win is not to play. Since we’re already mid-game when Final Reckoning begins, it seems there may be no way to win.

At nearly three hours, it’s the franchise’s longest – and, ironically, its dullest. Fans hoping for 169 minutes of non-stop action will be gravely disappointed. And bored.

This is supposedly Cruise’s final outing as Ethan Hunt, so a little nostalgia is to be expected. But this nostalgia is baked so deep into the first hour of the film, even the backstory wants to get home by Christmas. The beginning focuses on trying to tie every film in the series to the moments that kick this film off. Some attempts to tie things together make sense, some reek of desperation.

Ving Rhames as Luther
© 2025 Paramount Pictures

The plot is too simple for a story that wants to feel complex. Ethan and his team must try to track down Gabriel (Esai Morales), the villain from the last film, to stop The Entity. Ethan has a key, known as the cruciform. If he can pair it with The Entity’s original source code, he can kill it. The source code is in Gabriel’s hands. Also, killing The Entity would completely wipe out all of cyberspace, which would plunge the world into war.

Huh?

Keeping The Entity alive will put it in control of the world where it will start a global war. Killing it will…start a global war. But Ethan and his team, composed of Grace (Hayley Atwell), Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) will work together to try to do just that.

Extensive, heavy, nostalgic exposition aside, we’re still promised a showdown with The Entity. A showdown that never happens. Ethan and his team will confront The Entity without it knowing what they’re doing because what they’re doing is completely opposite of what The Entity anticipates they will do. At least, that’s their best educated guess.

Angela Bassett as President Erika Sloane
© 2025 Paramount Pictures

The film’s climax is a letdown. Even the film’s biggest stunt – two vintage bi-planes poised for cinematic glory – feels like a metaphor for the movie itself: intricate, ambitious, and never quite airborne.

The last hour of this film, if you’re still paying attention at this point, will have you asking, again and again: “But how?!!?” Followed by, “But why?!!?”

If this really is Cruise’s final mission, it’s a shame he couldn’t go out with the clarity, conviction or courage that once made this franchise soar. Like Sir Sean Connery learned in James Bond, Never Say Never Again. There’s always room for a good spy to come out of retirement.

Still, for all its flaws, there’s some good entertainment to be found within this film. Even if it’s just Tom Cruise running across a courtyard at breakneck speed.