Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning is Familiar Classic Hollywood Fun
Your Mission, if you choose to accept it, is to look over all the previously used conventions of the seven Mission Impossible films and enjoy this one for what it is. Walking out of Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning, there's a certain adrenaline rush you'll feel from its relentless pace, to its wall-to-wall action, and constantly revolving plotline. Once that adrenaline has worn off, you might begin to notice just how overly similar MI8 is to all the other films.
That's not entirely a bad thing, as the Mission Impossible films are a blast. But they do sort of bleed together where you can guess what's going to happen, far before something has occurred, leaving the viewer with an overly familiar sense of Déjà vu. We know there'll be a ticking clock. In this film, there are many. We know that Ethan will get out alive, although being close to the brink of death, and we all know that the good guys will win in the end. Even with all those familiar qualities, the Final Reckoning is a hoot.
Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning might be two hours and forty-nine minutes, but it is relentlessly paced. Even with that breakneck speed, the movie can feel like its length. One particular scene that comes to mind is when Ethan is submerged in water while wearing a deep-sea diving suit. The sequence is thrilling at first, but as time goes on within the ten-minute sequence, it's difficult to keep track of where Ethan is or if he even completed his objective. It's disorienting, making the tension cut itself short. That is, until the last few minutes of the sequence, which makes up for its tediousness with a thrilling end. Even with those thrills, they come up short when the formula of the Mission Impossible films is so predictable.
The MI series has been around for twenty-nine years. After its original directors swap, Tom Cruise decided to stick with Christopher McQuarrie for good. The two make an amazing team, as their films are cliché but exciting. Seeing that clock countdown as the film intercuts to Tom Cruise doing his next daredevil act is death-defying fun. I know the outcome, but the movie keeps the tension so tight that a little part of me thinks, "Maybe they won't make it." The film's title is The Final Reckoning, which suggests the possibility that a few of our heroes, including the lead role, could die.
Even if Ethan lives or dies in this film, I doubt it would be the "Final" Mission Impossible. If it's making money, it doesn't matter if Ethan dies. Tom Cruise could produce more MI films while casting either a man or a woman to be the next thing to Ethan Hunt. If Ethan's alive at the end of the film, then Tom Cruise will keep doing death-defying stunts for our pleasure until his physician tells him to stop. If he hasn't already.
Christopher McQuarrie makes it very clear throughout the picture that this is the last one. The film frequently cuts to flashbacks from the previous movies, giving a visual cue that the buck stops at the end of this picture. It feels a bit like fan service, but I don't mind it. It provides a sort of bookend to everything. One thing that's a little cringeworthy is when some returning characters who weren't integral to the previous flicks arrive on screen. They're just there to please the fans, except for Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), who did play an integral role. Kittridge is a former deputy director of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF). He's a character who was an intimidating threat in MI1 is now a punchline in the last two films. From Dead Reckoning Part One, Kittridge is constantly outsmarted by Ethan, leaving him embarrassed. In movie 1, Ethan sabotaged Kittridge during a very intense meeting when Kittridge was threatening him. But outsmarting Kittridge over and over again is just silly.
For all its extreme stakes, something is missing in this film, and that's a solid antagonist. There are two antagonists in this film. One is a MacGuffin known as The Entity, an AI that has become sentient and aims to destroy the world. In other words, Skynet minus the Terminators. The other is Gabriel (Esai Morales), a man who aims to control The Entity so he can possess unlimited power. He's also the man who ruined Ethan's life, forcing him to join the IMF. How Gabriel was established in Dead Reckoning was sloppy. He's also not very scary. Gabriel lacks the intensity Phillip Seymour Hoffman had in Mission Impossible III. Gabriel is just a smug, punchable face you want to see die.
The Final Reckoning is a movie more about the global threat than the characters. There are constant exposition dumps, which make the story rather dull. The plot doesn't quite grab the viewers like the first and third films did. For a final film, wouldn't it be more about Ethan coming to terms with his internal struggles to bring an emotional finality to his character? Maybe that internalization gets resolved externally when Ethan completes his final mission. There's one particular emotional scene that worked well. Without spoiling it, this scene may give you a lump in your throat, depending on how connected you are to the Mission Impossible films.
Despite its shallowness, The Final Reckoning is a joy to experience. One can't help but get wrapped up in the flurry of impressive hand-to-hand combat and stunts performed by Tom Cruise. Despite his controversy, Tom Cruise is a one-of-a-kind entertainer. The man can act, maybe not as a character actor like Gary Oldman or Daniel Day-Lewis, but as a performance actor. Tom isn't going to be unrecognizable, but he does a very good job creating a character. Watch Born on the Fourth of July, Magnolia, and Interview with the Vampire as examples. Tom could go back to serious roles, but he very well knows that unless it's a guaranteed Oscar-nominee, it won't give him the consistent limelight that performing stunts will do.
In interviews, Tom Cruise said he aspires to be an entertainer like Buster Keaton. Both men put their lives on the line for the audience's entertainment. No matter what you think of him, his dedication, knowledge, and skill with producing and performing in multiple blockbusters to this day are commendable. There's a real heart that's put into these Mission Impossible films that I'll miss. Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning is a grand time that's a little too tied up in its franchise's conventions, yet maybe that's the point. Just stop thinking and enjoy the ride.
