Warning: slight spoilers abound!
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning should have been the explosive finale to Tom Cruise’s blockbuster legacy. Unfortunately, it spends too much time on exposition and nostalgia before it gets the ball rolling.
The beauty of every Mission: Impossible movie is the fact that they don’t rely on you watching the rest of the franchise in order to enjoy it. You could start your Mission: Impossible journey with the fourth film, work your way backwards, or jump between all movies at random without ever really needing to pay attention to the plot. You’re there to see Tom Cruise do insane things with towers, airplanes, and bungee cords, and wish that you, too, had the nerve to do your own stunts.
But with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, its issue lies in the fact that it carries the burden of being the (supposedly) final movie of the franchise. This means that it spends more time on tying up loose ends, reminding audiences of the best parts of the last seven films, and explaining all the necessary plot points from the last movie (because in addition to being a finale, it’s also a sequel to Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One).
The film picks up from the wake of the seventh film, with a rogue sentient AI known only as the Entity threatening to destroy the world (yes, please suspend some of your belief here). Ethan Hunt (Cruise), along with team members Grace (Hayley Atwell), Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), and Paris (Pom Klementieff), must stop both the Entity and villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) from taking over humanity.
The Final Reckoning dedicates a good chunk of its first hour to wading through lengthy exposition sequences and flashbacks. To be fair, some of the montages are sure to stir a wave of nostalgia in die-hard Mission: Impossible fans, flashing back to a younger Tom Cruise in his early, wire-suspended glory days. But otherwise, the first act feels homework-driven and a little sluggish.
However, the film finds its stride in its second act, when Tom does what he does best: stunts. The claustrophobia of his dive into a submarine is enough to make up for the first hour. The tension builds as the 62-year-old daredevil swims through corroded tunnels, dodges dormant missiles, and dangerously removes his wetsuit and oxygen tank in order to escape. From there, Tom finds himself jumping off high towers and getting into fist fights on propeller airplanes. It’s the best type of nostalgia, as it’s a welcome nod back to some of the most mind-bending scenes of the original trilogy.
Watching him take on these stunts is more than enough to help you forget the film’s slow start and forgive its three-hour runtime. While it’s up in the air whether or not a new Mission: Impossible movie is around the corner, one thing’s for sure: Tom definitely deserves a break after this one.
