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Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett Director/writer: Christopher McQuarrie • Sam Hawksmoor A roller coaster thrill in an epic end to the Mission movies (maybe ...)

The sequel to Dead Reckoning has finally arrived and what a ride it is. A monument to Tom Cruise’s ego it is but unlike so many ‘hero’ movies, Tom delivers with gusto and not a little bravery.

Thirty years on since the Mission movies were developed from the TV series of the same name, they have never wavered from delivering spectacle, each time topping the last set of impossible stunts. This is theoretically the last Impossible movie, but I suspect the services of the IMF will be surely needed again soon enough.

The Final Reckoning has some amazing stunt sequences as Ethan Hunt tries to save the world from the Entity – a sentient AI bent on destroying humanity (which is funny as we have an insentient occupant of the White House right now trying to do the same thing).

The plot is a well-embedded sci-fi trope but that is the point of these movies. It is meant to give us a thrill with a huge emphasis on ‘impossible’. Tom Cruise is the last true movie hero, the man who does his own stunts and full kudos to him. Could any of us do these things at his age? No chance. He is truly fit and not afraid to show himself as vulnerable either.
           
The Entity is sentient but Hunt’s team can see a flaw and seek to exploit with a poison virus that requires the original source code. Getting that code is the plot.  Ethan and the team have to locate the coordinates for the sunken Russian sub and send Ethan down to the depths to find it. The team, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, et all are sent to a remote frozen island possibly in the North Pacific to get the code. The Russians are waiting for them. Get out of that if you will. Hayley Atwell, the platonic love interest and expert pickpocket, must somehow travel to a remote pickup point using sledge and huskies. (More of that later)
           
Meanwhile Ethan has to persuade the President of the USA (Angela Basset) that he is the only one who can do it and just needs an aircraft carrier to get there…

The scenes when he finally gets to the sub and inside are where all the money went and are pretty tense and spectacular. And cold, very cold. But does the team save the world?  Does Tom catch the bad guy and how the hell do you get into the cockpit of a World War One flying machine in the air anyway...

You’ll have to watch the movie to find out but here’s the thing, the day after I saw the movie I woke up worried about the fate of those abandoned huskies on a remote island – who was left to feed them now?  I think the RSPCA should be informed.

Go see, be prepared to be impressed. It is a total roller coaster.
© Sam Hawksmoor 5.22.25
author of 'Whatever Happened to Genie Magee' and other stories

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