The artificial intelligence known as ‘The Entity’ has slowly but surely taken over cyberspace since the events of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. Truth no longer exists and political and social stability is collapsing. Can Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team stop ‘The Entity’ before it takes control of the world’s nuclear missile arsenal? 

Ethan Hunt has possession of the cruciform key that was the subject of the previous Mission movie but now needs to conjure up a plan to find what it opens and destroy ‘The Entity’. 

His team consists of old and new faces. Luther (Ving Rhames) is the only other operative to have featured in every Mission and Benji (Simon Pegg) joined from the third Mission onward. Whilst Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff) and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) are all new faces from the previous film. Importantly the new additions represent different factions and Hunt’s belief that we are all ultimately fighting for the same cause. As a cohesive group they take on the returning villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) who has now been cut loose by ‘The Entity’ following his previous failures. 

Much of the promotional materials for ‘The Final Reckoning’ has Ethan Hunt imploring us to, “Trust me one last time”, suggesting that perhaps this might be his final mission. It is certainly one where the stakes could not be higher. With the world on the brink of all out nuclear destruction Hunt will put himself in harms way once again whilst trying to protect his team and humanity. But The Final Reckoning also tries to do something differently by joining the dots of all of the previous films back to this one and deliver the message that our lives are the sum of our choices. 

The outcome is that the film works more as a respectful homage to what has gone before than as a Mission Impossible action movie. At 169 minutes long, 6 minutes more than the previous entry it spends too much time explaining what is happening and why it is important. 

That exposition has to deal with recapping what happened in the last film given this is a direct sequel to it, explaining what has happened in the six movies prior to that for where it suits the overarching plot and repeating the IMF oath of saving those that are close to us and those that we will never meet. It is a huge weight on the movie, especially in the opening hour. When we would love to be opening with an exciting action set piece we spend a lot of time being told about the importance of everything that has gone before. 

This is not badly executed in terms of what the film makers are trying to do. It is just not what the majority of people watching a Mission Impossible movie will want or expect. There are some very good throwbacks to the original film in terms of one returning cast member and a reveal that is fun but ultimately a little bit of fan service. 

But what about the stunts and set pieces I hear you cry? Well when they happen they are superb. There are two major set pieces to gasp at. An underwater sequence that attempts to top  Rogue Nation’s swimming stunt. And a biplane chase that attempts to top Fallout’s helicopter chase. And it is the latter that will have you on the edge of your seat wondering how exactly they did it and whether Tom Cruise is either the craziest man to ever live or simply one of the greatest action stars there ever was. Both may be true. Watching Cruise clambering around a plane in flight is truly phenomenal stuff. 

The overall feeling I had leaving the cinema though was one of slight disappointment. I love this movie franchise and I loved the throwbacks to the older films and I was rapt by the two stunt set pieces. But there is a lot of exposition and set up time that ultimately do not pay off as well as they might have. 

For anyone who has read my previous Mission Impossible ranking article you will know that I have asserted that the films where Cruise has longer hair are the weakest and my heart sank a little when Hayley Atwell’s Grace remarks upon his longer hair during this film! 

This reckoning is not as impactful as the last one.

If you want to read more of my opinions on Mission: Impossible check these out:

• Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation
• Mission: Impossible Fallout
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
• Mission: Impossible – Ranked