Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning info:
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Writer: Bruce Geller, Erik Jendresen, Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, and Esai Morales
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. I hope everyone had a great May. As we are nearing the end of the month, school is almost out for the summer, softball season is in full swing (😊), and it also means it’s close to vacation time. Hopefully, everyone has some time to get away (or stay home) and relax, unwind, and take a break from work for a week or so. In the mindless household, all three things are true, and it’s an exciting time.
Last week, I teased that I may have an impossible task this week. As it turns out, this is truer than you know. Not only did I get to watch “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”, but I got to watch it at my favorite movie theater and with my favorite people. If anyone wants to know what my favorite theater is, I will be glad to share that information with you. Not only did I get to watch it, but this is going to be a massive movie to talk about, so even though it’s not impossible, it’s still going to be a large task ahead of me.
Director Christopher McQuarrie has quite the track record with Tom Cruise. Cruise has starred in his last five movies and just one without him in total. A 2000 movie named “The Way of the Gun”. The crazy part is that the last four movies are all Mission: Impossible movies, and four of the best to top it off. So, right out of the gate, this had success written all over it. But before I dive too deep, you have to know that there will be spoilers ahead. Major plot and character points will be discussed, so if you would rather wait to read this, then head over and check out my rankings of the previous seven M:I films here.
Ok, so “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is a cinematic wonder to behold, and I highly recommend you try to see it on the big screen. If you do, you will get a nice welcome message from Mr. Cruise himself thanking you for coming out and seeing it. Things start out pretty quiet as it seems about a month or so has passed since we last saw Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team in action. But, now that The Entity is slowly taking over the nuclear launch sites from all seven across the world, they are drawn out to try and stop both it and Gabriel (Morales) from completing their missions.
Most of Hunt’s normal team is on the job. Ving Rhames is back as Luther Stickell, the only other character to appear in every film besides Hunt. Simon Pegg is also back as Benji Dunn, reprising his role for the sixth time. Rounding out the small team is Hayley Atwell back as Grace from “Dead Reckoning”. I have to be honest, I kept thinking that Rebecca Ferguson was going to make an appearance as Ilsa, but it was not to be, unfortunately.
Other returnees are Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane, Henry Czerny as Kittridge, Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, Greg Davis as Degas, Pom Klementieff as Paris, and a delightful surprise to see Rolf Saxon reprise his role of William Donloe from the very first M: I film from way back in 1996. This, along with a slew of other newcomers, would have made this fun to watch either way, but McQuarrie and Cruise had way bigger plans for us. They brought their A game and gave us quite the ride from start to finish.
These films have always done the biggest and craziest stunts and most beautiful shots that you can imagine, so as the supposed last film in the franchise… at least with this lineup, no punches were pulled. Since Hunt already had the key (from the previous film), his mission, which he chose to accept, was to track down where the key goes. They knew it unlocked the original source code for The Entity, but he needed to locate where and then give it to his government to control. The only difference is that instead of giving control over to someone, he had the idea to destroy it, since no one should be able to control that much power.
Unfortunately, Gabriel strikes first, and Luther dies stunningly and tragically as Hunt barely gets away on time. It’s a huge blow to not only Hunt and his team, but to us audience members as well. To lose such a big part of this franchise in such a needless way was hard to watch. Luther was obviously sick with something anyway, so he made his peace with the decision.
After Gabriel steals the device that will help destroy The Entity, he is on the run. With Sloane’s help, Hunt is able to make it to an aircraft carrier, then to a submarine controlled by the United States. While on that sub, Benji, Grace, Paris, and Degas are trying to track down the coordinates for the lost sub that contains the source code. After a few run-ins with Russian government officials and adding Donloe (and his wife) to the mission, they are able to transmit the signal to Hunt on the submarine.
What follows is the first really intense scene of the movie, where Hunt is trying to make his way through the Russian sub as it’s rolling along the ocean floor. Many very dramatic moments take place here as he’s almost stuck several times, manages to find the source code with the key, and then has to take off his dive suit to squeeze through a torpedo tube to get out. It’s enough to make you hold your breath throughout the entire process.
Once his team pulls him out of the ocean and he has time to decompress and heal up, “The Final Reckoning” enters its last stage. As time ticks down to all nuclear sites losing control, the entire IMF team (plus a few extras) make their way to an old underground bunker designed to survive an attack for years. They plan to trap The Entity in there by giving Gabriel what he wants. Nothing turns out as planned. Benji is shot and very badly wounded, there is another giant bomb that needs to be defused, and Gabriel gets away with the poison that will take down The Entity and make it hide in the bunker. That last thing led to the other really intense scene.
The bi-plane chase through the mountainside was teased pretty heavily in the trailers and promo shots, but none of them could live up to actually seeing it play out on the big screen. It was very nerve-racking to watch Hunt try to climb up the plane while it was flying very fast through the air. Eventually, he gets control of it, only to have Gabriel use his plane to try and take him out. Then he jumps to the other plane and has to do it all over again. But in typical Mission: Impossible fashion, he takes out the bad guy, gets the poison, and inserts it into the drive at the last second.
Back in the bunker, as Paris keeps Benji alive (thank goodness for that, I don’t think I could have handled losing both Luther and Benji at once), Grace works her magic and traps The Entity in the drive that Luther created, just as Donloe, his wife, and Degas defuse the bomb. It’s all very thrilling, and we can all now breathe a sigh of relief.
Honestly, if you are looking for a great time for about three hours with lots of action, over-the-top stunts, some comedy, and a little sadness, then this will be perfect for you. If “The Final Reckoning” is your first Mission: Impossible movie, first of all, welcome. Secondly, other than character back stories, you should be able to watch this without having watched the first seven. Personally, I went back and re-watched them all to re-acquaint myself, and it does make this one mean more if you do, but it will still be enjoyable either way.
My final thoughts on “The Final Reckoning” are this. Don’t listen to any bad reviews or criticisms that say this story isn’t very exciting. They clearly weren’t watching the same movie as I just did if that’s the case. This movie is very well made, and my only gripe about it is that the ending didn’t leave it as final as I thought it would be. If this is supposed to be the last one, they certainly left it open for more of something in the future. I can easily give this a 9 out of 10! I’m on a good run of solid movies over the last month or so.
Alright, that’s it for this week’s double-sized review. I knew I was going to have a lot to say about this, and it just kept pouring out as I typed. Have you seen “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Do you think it’s the best one of the franchise? I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I did this week and I will see you next week with another mindless movie review of some sort.
Alright. Popcorn: check. Seatbelt: check. All systems go. Time to go right into the danger zone! Oops, wrong franchise, never mind. Anyway, wow. There have certainly been installments of this franchise where the story was weak, but not this one. It really had that end of the world, hold on for dear life feel, and then you get to the stunts. Tom Cruise may have a bit of a death wish, but he certainly knows how to deliver on action and stunts, and each movie in this series manages to top the last. Even the making-of videos of the wing-walking insanity are enough to leave you gasping for breath (as he certainly was). Gotta love all the call-backs to the other movies, and finally answering some questions that had just been hanging there for a while. Yes, it was heartbreaking to lose Luther that way, but it did leave you asking whether other characters, especially Ethan, would make it through to the end. As the last installment of the series (if it is indeed the last), it definitely leaves you feeling satisfied with the ride you’ve had getting here. Even though Skynet did become self aware, Ethan managed to stop if from launching Judgment Day. So…does that mean that he prevented the Terminators and the Matrix? That’s it for me on this one. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Great reply about a great movie. It still might be the best one of the year so far. Yes, they have gotten better and better, and I still don’t know how they’ve done it.