Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Year: 2025
Rating: PG-13
Length: 169 minutes / 2.82 hours
When a film franchise like Mission: Impossible reaches its conclusion, you hope the finale is a fitting send-off. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) splits this duty with its predecessor, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023) and does a fairly good job of maxing out the action and “impossible” sequences the franchise is known for. If anything, it’s nice to know that there’s a definitive end to these movies instead of letting them continue in perpetuity. Now I just have to wonder what the next “big stunt” movie franchise will be to replace this one.
Considering the modern hype surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potential to end the world in a variety of ways, choosing to make the AI the final villain for the franchise was a smart move. What better way to show how impossible a mission is than to have the opponent be better at basically every single thing involved with spy craft? I also think the submarine sequence was one of the tensest and best set pieces the franchise has ever created, so it’s a good thing they don’t have to top it for any follow-on movies.
About the only thing wrong with this movie is that it’s not very deep. It’s fun, there’s plenty of action, and Tom Cruise gets his cardio in. But at the end of the day, you know the world will be saved because of the efforts of these individuals. Other franchise finishers like No Time to Die (2021) and John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) also had to contend with killing off characters for the finality of it all—something which felt restrained in this movie. It’s sad there won’t be any more Mission: Impossible movies in this form, but we’ll see if Hollywood’s need to reboot franchises will hit this one in a few years.
A fitting end to a great stunt-filled franchise, I give Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning 4.0 stars out of 5.
