Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning delivers just the arm-rest-grabbing thrills and action to satisfy even the most extreme adrenaline junkie. I do not say this lightly. It’s a super intense film that elicits audible gasps from the audience and makes you squirm in your seat! Director Christopher McQuarrie has created a crowd pleaser, and in interviews, he’s said this might not be the last one! He certainly leaves the door open in the film.
You already know the plot because it’s always the same. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is given an impossible job, which he always chooses to accept. Some powerful villain or force (sometimes both) is trying to either destroy or take over the world, and Ethan must save it.
The hero’s journey is always a lonely and perilous one, but Ethan has his team to help him.
For this film, they are Hayley Atwell as Grace, Ving Rhames as Luthur, Simon Pegg as Benji, and Pom Klementieff as Paris. A new team member joins them this time – Degas, played by Greg Tarzan Davis. Even with all their skills, they are daunted by what must be done. The word impossible takes on a new meaning and provides the audience with the stunts they came to see.
The story picks up where the last film left off, with the Russian submarine at the bottom of the Bering Sea and Ethan in possession of a very important key that gives access to the non-human AI villain known as the Entity. He’s off the grid because, as usual, numerous people want him dead or at least imprisoned. While he’s been incommunicado, the Entity has taken over the world’s intelligence networks with the intent to get rid of humans. It can’t complete the task because an important piece of equipment is at the bottom of the sea in the sunken Russian submarine. Added to that is the fact that all the powerful nations of the world are on the verge of nuclear war. Either way, it looks bad for the world.
Of course, President Sloane calls on Ethan to fix it. It would be laughable, but the actors are so skillful that you can definitely suspend your disbelief and get caught up in the chaos and danger that face Ethan and his team. The rest of the film takes us on a wild journey of incredible scenarios with a tangible line of suspense as to whether the inevitable can be prevented. But rest assured that nothing is inevitable in Ethan Hunt’s world.
The astonishing number of scenes involving extraordinary stunts means that a few must stand out. The sequence when Ethan and the villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) battle with each other in a couple of biplanes is such a stand-out. You’ve probably seen part of it in the trailer, but it’s much more extended in the film. Both actors did their own stunts – hard to believe when you see them- but the actual pilots of the out-of-control planes wore green-screen material so they could be digitally removed to make it look like nobody was in the cockpit. Still, it is a spectacular sequence.
Another almost unbearable scene features Ethan far underwater, entering the sunken, destroyed Russian submarine to find the missing piece of the Entity. The dark, cold, water-filled chambers he navigates to locate it are certainly not for the claustrophobic! Again, this sequence is a testament to Mr. Cruise’s adept ability to make implausible situations look plausible.
Tom Cruise has been playing Ethan Hunt since the first Mission: Impossible film in 1996. He was 36 then; now he’s 63. Yes, he’s aged, but he has managed to keep his body in excellent shape so that all he does looks believable. Will he do it again? Who knows – but it has to be very difficult for him. As I said earlier, the door to another film is definitely left open.
The success of an action film such as Mission: Impossible depends on a talented and convincing cast, and this film has that…down to the smallest part. It also ties together all the events from the past films to connect the lines down to the conclusion.
There were a couple of things that bugged me in the narrative, but to reveal them would spoil everything, so I won’t. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions when you see it. It’s still a remarkable film, and you’ll definitely enjoy it. – JoAnne Hyde
GRADE: A-
