The Mission Impossible franchise has had its ups and downs over the it’s thirty  year existence.  The first one was a good start , but the second one was a misfire, and the third one got things back on track. The franchise has gone uphill ever since. The last handful of them have been directed by Christopher Macquarrie with Tom Cruise, putting in a lot of input and effort himself. Specifically, with all the death-defying stunts he’s performed in the films. That has become the signature of the series. Almost to the detriment of the plot. I think you can chalk this one up to similar circumstances. I think people would throw the plot out the window to keep getting these jaw-dropping action set pieces, though. I’m not entirely there, but I understand those that are.

Mission Impossible: The FinalReckoning picks up where Dead Reckoning left off, you notice I left out Part 1? That’s because Paramount doesn’t want you to remember that since they changed the name, not to reflect that. The President, played by Angela Bassett, gives the disavowed Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) one last IMF message that will self-destruct in five seconds. He knows his mission, but he doesn’t have many friends like her left, and so he’s captured by a couple of agents not sympathetic to his cause. Eventually, he gets his way, and his mission is off and running with a few members of his team. One of which he and Benji (Simon Pegg) have to rescue from prison.

There is a whole first section of this film that is just a connection to the previous one. I’m sure everybody remembers the four sided key that fits the computer on the sunken submarine.  The main protagonist is Gabriel (Issay Morales) doing the bidding of what’s called “The Entity”. There isn’t a whole lot of this film that isn’t already known. It’s just a matter of how all the pieces fit together in the end.  Things like a “Rabbits Foot” or a pill and “The Sevastopol” which is just a computer drive are thrown around and the audience is supposed to know what these things are because they’ve watched all the previous movies.  Even a character from the past resurfaces after thirty years, and we, the viewers, accept this because of the world that he exists in. These films exist in their own world outside reality, and the audience such as myself love them for that. 

Part of why these movies are so entertaining besides what I just said is because they sit just on the outside of the real world. They take what could be considered real-life scenarios and fit them into this fictional world of these films. Nuclear war is the ultimate real-world scenario we are worried about. Having countries with nuclear weapons is scary. Having the ability to press a button and fire said weapons is scarier. Using a hot button topic like AI to accentuate an already worrisome issue is the ultimate game for McQuarrie and Cruise.  That’s why these movies work so well and why this one works a little better than most of them do. Even though since three, they’ve all been pretty exciting to watch.

I think why people keep coming back to this franchise is not because of the story , that more times than often is pretty far-fetched even though it’s set in reality, which is the stunts. Seeing Tom Cruise jump off a cliff from a high mountain on a motorbike or hang from the side of a mountain or the tallest building in the world is exciting. Cruise has become like a must watch television show. You know it’s going to be good, and you’re already invested in watching it every week, so why not keep coming back for more?  This time around, based on the trailer, you can see there is a crazy by-plane sequence. What you see in the trailer is nothing compared to what is actually shown on IMAX screens. It’s a very exciting scene. How it ties into the rest of the film makes it all the more gut-wrenching. Also, there is an underwater sequence in a sunken submarine that is quite exhilarating to watch. These scenes are why we keep coming back to this franchise over and over again. They are the lifeblood of the franchise.

Cruise has become a punchline ever since he jumped on that couch on the Oprah show all those years ago. He doesn’t care, though. All he cares about is making movies for the audience and taking our minds off of the real world for a few hours.  If he’s running from aliens in War of the World’s or playing an American samurai in The Last Samurai or flying jets at light speeds in the Top Gun films he’s doing it for one reason, us. He wants to entertain us. For the better part of forty-five years, he’s been doing that. I’ve been watching him play a race car driver, a bartender, and even a motivational speaker during my lifetime. It never gets old for me. He’s been playing Ethan Hunt for thirty years, and he always finds new and interesting things for this character to do and say. When he says madam president “I need you to believe in me one more time” it’s like he’s speaking to us, the audience , as well. We believe in him, and he’s become like a version of Superman. He’s a more realistic version of Superman if you will. I hope he keeps making movies for us, the audience, and creates more indelible/ memorable characters for us to watch for years to come.

Besides Cruise, there has been a great supporting cast in the Mission Impossible franchise of the years. Ving Rhames as Luther,  Simon Pegg as Benji and a myriad of femme fatales played by Rebecca Ferguson, Venessa Kirby, and in the last two films specifically Haley Atwell These characters have become as indelible as Ethan Hunt has become in the franchise. The viewers have come to  look forward to seeing them in each installment.  The cast of who is called upon to be in these films is just as important as the movies themselves.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman,  Henry Cavill, Henry Czerny, John Voigt, and many others have been memorable additions to this series of films. They are part of what makes it such a great franchise.  Esai Morales is another fantastic villain as well. The villains have to be on the level of Ethan Hunt, similar to the James Bond franchise. They have to be very worthy adversaries. Most of them over the years have been.

One of the things this franchise gets a knock for is the stories the various films tell. A lot of the stuff is a bunch of mumbo jumbo. It’s hard to always differentiate the realistic things from the fake stuff. Most of the time, I can, though. Let’s be honest, though. These stories are a bit far-fetched. Yeah, they are set in a semi-realistic world, but some of this stuff is quite creative. I love the mumbo jumbo, though. It’s part of what gives this franchise its charm. You know this stuff is quite creative writing. The stories are an afterthought compared to all the crazy action sequences and Cruise putting his life on the line for his craft. There is a suspension of disbelief in these films. You just have to go with the flow of where they take you.

As a filmmaker, Christopher McQuarrie or McQ, as they call him, has been put on the back burner compared to Cruise. He very quietly writes and directs these movies with Cruise’s guidance and support. He deserves more credit, though. The last few of these movies have been amazing. The cinematography, score, sound design, and editing are all first rate. He has assembled a great team of filmmakers behind the creek as in front of it. These films wouldn’t be what they are without the trust and support Cruise and MaQ have for one another. All film is a collaborative, and these movies are no less than any others. These films will be studied for years to come for their craftsmanship.  Viewers are lucky to have them.

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is a fantastic conclusion to this run of films from Cruise, McQ, and everybody else who worked on them. It was the perfect conclusion to what has been an incredible thirty years. Cruise has put everything in these films of that time. Most of the time, it has worked splendidly.  The cast from this film, Pegg, Atwell, Rhames, Bassett, Klementieff, and so many more, have all been terrific. The story can be a bit confusing from time to time, but you just have to go along for the ride. Literally, because there is an incredible jaw-dropping by-plane sequence that was absolutely amazing. I know Cruise will continue to make great action extravaganza’s for audiences on the big screen, but this one is still worth seeing as many times as possible on the largest format screen possible. It’s blockbuster filmmaking at its finest.

4 ½

Dan Skip Allen