Summary

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is packed with intense action sequences, but lacks the espionage that made earlier entries fun.
Mission: Impossible films are known for their fun heist-style sequences, such as the Kremlin scene in Ghost Protocol.
The Final Reckoning leaned too far into the action, splitting the team up and losing the spy elements seen in previous entries.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is one of the franchise's most action-packed entries, but it also forgets the one thing that made earlier installments more fun. The latest Mission: Impossible film sees director Christopher McQuarrie back for his fourth franchise outing, bringing the nearly 30-year series to an end. Tom Cruise leads the cast as Ethan Hunt, performing the death-defying stunts the Mission: Impossible movies have become notorious for, as each installment ramps up the stakes.

The Final Reckoning is the longest Mission: Impossible film, clocking in at 2 hours and 49 minutes. It's brimming with massive action set pieces and globe-hopping antics that pull viewers into the action, unlike anything else hitting theaters. However, with everything in Cruise's latest super-spy sequel, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning lost the spark of what made earlier entries more fun to watch, making for a send-off that partially forgot its roots in one key area.

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The Two Movies You Must Watch Before Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Are Not the Ones You Think

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has deep ties to earlier franchise installments, but it may not be the ones you would think.

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By Timothy McClelland

The Final Reckoning Offers Some Of The Mission: Impossible Franchise's Best Action

mission impossible final reckoning tom cruise plane — Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise hanging from plane

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning undoubtedly features some of the most intense action moments ever filmed. Cruise continues to push the envelope of what can be accomplished in camera with practical stunts, with the film's plot running Ethan Hunt through a gauntlet of extreme circumstances. An extended underwater sequence proves to be one of The Final Reckoning's most unique elements, pitting Ethan against a distinct setting in the harshest circumstances.

However, the film's finale, which was heavily featured in promotional material leading up to the release, features a plane chase with Cruise "wing walking" and dangling thousands of feet in the air. With moments that any other production would have captured via green screen and VFX work, The Final Reckoning offers shots that look truly astonishing when emblazoned across a theater screen. The sequence proves to be one of Cruise's most remarkable achievements in stunt performance, giving the Mission: Impossible franchise one final monumental stunt to end on.

The Final Reckoning Lacks The Espionage That Made Earlier Mission: Impossible Films More Fun

Mission: Impossible began as a spy franchise, focusing on espionage over action. The first Mission: Impossible was a slower-paced film, leaning into tense moments, like the initial job going sideways and the infamous black box vault heist that saw Cruise dangling from the ceiling. The franchise would continue to amp up the action, like scaling the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol, or hanging from a helicopter in Fallout. Still, each movie would rely on tense heists and spycraft to push the plot forward.

Even in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's Burj Khalifa stunt, there was cutting between the teams as they worked together to steal needed information, making the action thrilling and tense, with an entire team of spies working together. Ghost Protocol also featured a Kremlin sequence that required masks and a unique projected wall gag, and even later entries, like Rogue Nation, saw Cruise holding his breath for six minutes in an underwater sequence that also relied on Benji getting through security elsewhere.

These sequences were thrilling, action-packed, and tension-filled, even resulting in the occasional humor, like when Ethan was revived after his Rogue Nation breath hold and Benji questioned his ability to drive. While Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning continued to up the ante with action, it was very straightforward once the stakes were set, with the film losing the tense heist-style moments that made earlier movies more fun.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Traded Fun Tension For Action Thrills

mission impossible final reckoning tom cruise water — Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise in submarine

While the Mission: Impossible franchise has always balanced the thrills of spy work with big action moments, The Final Reckoning split the team up and leaned into the action, which hindered the fun elements fans loved about the series. Ethan's trek to the submarine is a stellar sequence, but he is very much on his own and unable to communicate with his team. Likewise, his team is on their own quest, making each part of the mission feel important but disconnected until everyone comes together in the finale. Because of the split, much of the movie's runtime cuts between the characters, but loses the spark and tense moments of them working side by side.

The team splits up again during the finale, focusing mainly on the plane chase. While their stakes are intrinsically linked throughout the third act, much of it leaves Ethan out of communication with his team again, proving to leave him on his own, foregoing much of the fun banter between characters, with tension often built around communication woes. There's also an inordinate number of characters, making some feel extraneous to the events at hand.

Much like the Fast & Furious franchise, which began with simple heists and street racing before focusing on thwarting global terrorism plots, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning lost touch with its roots. While the franchise-ending feature delivers a thrilling action film, some fans may be disappointed to see Cruise's Ethan Hunt go out with an adventure that doesn't quite live up to past entries. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning surely won't disappoint anyone looking for the thrills of an action spectacle, but espionage fans may be left wanting.

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