This fast-paced American spy thriller returns Ethan Hunt to the cinema screen for a final reckoning. It is the eight instalment in the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE series.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING. Starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Angela Bassett. Rated M (mature themes and action violence ). 169 min.
Review by Peter W Sheehan, Jesuit Media Australia
The film is directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay written with Erik Jendresen and is the sequel to “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023)”. Several actors and actresses return to reprise their roles from previous Mission Impossible films.
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) again stars as special IMF (Impossible Mission Force) Agent, who heads a team of operatives to protect the world from evil forces. The film is reported to be one of the most expensive films ever made, coming in close to 400 million dollars. Filming takes place in attractive scenic locations across Malta, South Africa, and Norway. In the movie, Hunt and his team continue their search for a terrifying AI Force known as “The Entity” which corrupts digital information world-wide to take control of a possible World War III which it sees as coming. It uses intelligence networks across the World for evil intent.
The story-line takes up immediately after DEAD RECKONING. The evil force is still Gabriel (Esai Morales), who is an assassin tied to Ethan’s past, before the IMF, and who acts as the Entity’s chief liaison. As in other Mission Impossible films, there are a host of special agents, of differing political persuasions, trying to track Ethan Hunt and his team down for their own purposes. Angela Bassett delivers an especially compelling version of a conflicted President of the USA, who is stressed by what is happening, but decides to finally respond to preserve peace.
This is an incredible action-packed film, which builds paranoia, and is replete with amazing action stunts. The tension created by Cruise’s stunts permeate the film, and suspense in the movie stays impressively intact. One stunt, in particular, shows Cruise hanging onto the wing of a plane in flight, while it flies upside down. Not surprisingly Cruise says this is the last Mission Impossible film he is going to make and this scene, which brings the film to closure, is worth the price of admission. Almost equally impressive are the film’s underwater scenes. In this movie, thrills, excitement, daring, and paranoid intent, constitute the name of the game.
The plotline continues to revolve around dense and complex storytelling, but it is the live stunt work of Cruise and the technological background to the film that set it apart. The collaboration over many years between Christopher McQuarrie, as Director, and Tom Cruise, as Actor, cements the basic appeal of a very impressive action movie.
Peter W Sheehan is an Associate of Jesuit Media