Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) Dir: Christopher McQuarrie
- Ridley Coote
- 58 minutes ago
- 3 min read
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Although it has been a staple of Hollywood for almost thirty years, it was only really in the last two that I began to work my way through the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise. Some of them have been great, some have been, well, 'Mission: Impossible 2', but most of them have been extremely fun in their own way. It was now time for me to watch the final film in the franchise, once more directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who had directed most of the more modern films.I had been distinctly underwhelmed by 'Dead Reckoning', but I was confident that I would comfortably enjoy this one more.
From a visual perspective, this film was really quite odd. On one hand, there was some really irritating direction, specifically in regards to the shot selection; it made parts of the film look very ugly. However, other parts of the film were absolutely brilliant - the submarine sequence was particularly breathtaking, visually. I can't deny that the stunts were very impressive, but I can't help but feel like some of the previous film's were even more so.
The story felt a lot more complete than the previous film, and I think my general levels of enjoyment were higher, but it was not perfect. I was left disappointed by the fairly insignificant ending. It felt like it could've been the end of basically any of the other films. It didn't feel like a definitive goodbye to one of Hollywood's most popular spy franchises ever. Regardless, I definitely enjoyed this film a fair bit, and found myself suitably entertained.
This film had a huge cast, ranging from the major returning faces, to smaller, almost cameo-sized, appearances. Tom Cruise starred, in his final appearance as 'Ethan Hunt', and put in another big shift, running around and putting his body to the limit in all sorts of absurdly physical ways. I wouldn't say this was his best showing, certainly not from a purely acting perspective, but it was still a decent display from him. As far as the supporting cast members, the trio of Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, and Pom Klementieff, all excelled in their respective roles, with all three comfortably turning in their franchise-best performances, particularly Pegg, whose character had some really nice moments to end on.
Esai Morales gave a more compelling performance than he had done in 'Dead Reckoning', in part because his character became a lot more interesting, but he still wasn't all that I'd hoped. It solidified Philip Seymour Hoffman as the greatest villain of the franchise. There were far too many other names to talk about in-depth, but I still wanted to namedrop some of the talented actors involved in the film; Henry Czerny, Ving Rhames, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Angela Bassett, and Shea Whigham.
Overall, I thought this was almost a great film, but was dragged down by a few little issues, which reduced it to simply a good film instead. Sometimes it felt like the franchise would never end, and Tom Cruise would be hurling himself off of ridiculous heights and out of high-speed vehicles until he couldn't walk anymore, but, finally, it has ended, and, for the most part, it was a pretty good send-off. After the disappointment of 'Dead Reckoning', I'm glad this second part finished Ethan Hunt's mission in a more satisfying way.
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