Movie Review: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

In the nearly three decades since the release of Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible in 1996, there have been a total of eight releases in the series. The series has boasted contributions from directors such as the aforementioned De Palma, John Woo, J. J. Abrams, Brad Bird, and – for the last four entries in the series – Christopher McQuarrie. Now, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, brings what may very well be IMF agent Ethan Hunt’s final mission.

Following the events of 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team must find and destroy the Artificial Intelligence known as the Entity before it gains control of the world’s governments and their nuclear arsenals, ushering in the end of days.

Taking on the responsibility of stopping the Entity, Hunt and his IMF team – which includes stalwarts Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), as well as newcomers (since the previous film anyway) Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Paris (Pom Klementieff) – are essentially operating off the books and against their own government for the most part as their intention is to destroy the Entity while every other party seeks to control it in some way.

Director Christopher McQuarrie, who has been at the helm of (as well as had a hand in penning) each impossible mission since 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, brings more of the non-stop action the series has become synonymous with this time around. This adventure, like the previous entry in the series – Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – was co-written by McQuarrie alongside Erik Jendresen and that consistency makes for a solid and engaging narrative from beginning to end.

What is genuinely enjoyable about the entire endeavor is how cleverly The Final Reckoning ties into all of the previous entries in the series, thereby giving the overall narrative arc a heftier weight than it might not have had if the films had not been interconnected in such a way. It is a wonderful little add on that makes repeated viewings of previous films a must.

Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” Photo by Paramount Pictures and Skydance/Paramount Pictures and Skydance – © 2025 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Once again, Tom Cruise delivers as Ethan Hunt. There is little doubt that he remains one of the most engaging film stars of the last forty years and the enduring popularity of this series is a testament to that. Cruise’s fellow IMF mates – Rhames and Pegg – both rise to the occasion as well to deliver series, and character, defining performances here. As the newest members of the IMF team, Atwell and Klementieff, manage to hold their own next to Cruise and even occasionally outshine him as well. Additional characters, such as Angela Bassett’s President and Hannah Waddingham’s Admiral Neely, swoop into the scenes they are given and immediately take charge of the film yet still yield to Cruise’s presence allowing the film’s momentum to never falter.

Despite clocking in at nearly three hours in length, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is far from anything resembling a bore. There is not a single down moment in the entire film and that is no small feat given the scope of the story arc and the tying together of seven previous films to that same storyline. Aiding this considerably is Fraser Taggart’s cinematography as well as the kinetic and purposeful editing of Eddie Hamilton.

Although it has been almost thirty years in the making, the culmination of Ethan Hunt’s impossible missions has produced what may be considered the finest entry in the series with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The only downside is that, like 2021’s No Time To Die, the finality of the film feels as though it might be rather impossible to imagine Ethan Hunt embarking on another mission.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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