by Heath Lynch, Contributing Writer
Thanks almost exclusively to the vision and ambition of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, ever since 2011’s Ghost Protocol the Mission: Impossible franchise has risen like the phoenix to become one of the greatest action franchises of all time. Delivering increasingly bigger stories, more intriguing characters, and deeply intensely, pulse-pounding action spectacle with each and every film. At some point it was inevitable that the series wouldn’t be able to keep getting better and better. However, when it came time for things to finally falter I didn’t expect the Mission: Impossible franchise to fall off a cliff as hard as it does with The Final Reckoning.
Let’s put our cards on the table, shall we? This newest adventure, marketed as the pinnacle of this franchise, and the final entry starring one Tom Cruise, is an absolutely pretentious exercise in praising action movie Jesus and shoving memberberries so far down your throat that you choke. While there are certainly excellent moments of tension and action spectacle, they do not come remotely close to making up for over two hours of total exposition in an almost three-hour movie, a baffling excuse of a narrative, character’s explanations and motivations that are nonexistent, and more loose threads than Weezer can pull off a sweater. Unironically, I’d rather watch Mission: Impossible II. At least that has campy vibes which can be entertaining in the right light. This is just a three-hour-long, insulting slog.
Man, it’s painful to even say all that. But sometimes the truth hurts.
The fact of the matter is this: We come to these films to see a riveting espionage storyline, and watch Cruise almost kill himself with wild stunt work that grips the senses. We want the spider web narrative, the betrayals, and the sacrifices. We want the intensity of watching people’s lives on the line, the adrenaline, and the goosebumps. Sadly, The Final Reckoning doesn’t deliver. There are the only two action set pieces in this entire film, amounting for a total of (if we’re being generous) about 40 minutes of screen time. Well, in a nearly three-hour film that’s barely above 20% of the runtime. So what are we doing with the rest of the movie? Are we delivering intense spy thrills and exciting character work? No. We’re talking. We are watching people relentlessly talk and deliver exposition. Sometimes people are huddled around diagrams or conference tables, if the movie really feels like spicing things up, but it’s all talking nonetheless. Things get really exciting when a character is done talking so that another character can start talking about the same thing you just heard the other character go on a diatribe about. It’s dialogue for the sake of dialogue, it’s pervasive throughout this flick, and it’s nauseating.
And, sadly, that’s… the whole film. A couple rip-roaring action beats that will dazzle your sensibilities, and an overwhelming amount of exposition and repetitive (read: boring) dialogue that will numb you into submission.
It would be one thing if all this poorly written dialogue was in service of greater character development to make us more invested in the journey, or if the actual plot was more interesting and didn’t seemingly develop plot holes at any given turn. But, The Final Reckoning lacks all of the nuance and introspection that characters experienced in the earlier McQuarrie films like Rogue Nation and Fallout. It’s absent a narrative plot that doesn’t feel contrived. Worse, it’s turned Ethan Hunt into someone we don’t recognize. Instead of being a smart secret agent who has a knack for subterfuge and an affinity for running, he’s now transcended to being the messiah. The entire film is structured around praising him. Every character in this entire world is now convinced that there’s not a single person in the world capable of doing anything… except for Ethan. If I had to watch one more character, especially one that the previous films established as being incredibly intelligent, stare dumbfoundingly at Ethan and ask, “What’s the play?” because they’re incapable of taking a step without the Savior of Action granting them permission to do so, I’d scream. Even the heads of state of world governments fall helpless to the whims of Mr. Hunt.
I’m not sure entirely sure if this is McQuarrie trying to lavish praise on Cruise for his decades of action prowess in the culmination of the biggest franchise entry of his career… or if it’s Cruise fellating himself for his accomplishments over decades of action prowess in the culmination of the biggest franchise entry of his career… but either way it’s incredibly off-putting (that’s putting it nicely) and it’s pervasive throughout the entire runtime of this film.
Even when you look at other characters you’re left inquisitive as to what the endgame was. With Dead Reckoning, the series decided to bring in a new character in Grace (Hayley Atwell) and position her as the new central figure in Ethan’s life. Why they did this is beyond me when Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) was already the second best thing in this series, only behind Ethan, and we as an audience were already so attached to her. But Cruise and McQuarrie wanted something new, so Ferguson requested that Ilsa be written out of the story. As frustrating as this was it felt like we could get some development with Grace in The Final Reckoning that would justify that decision. Now, with hindsight, what the hell were they thinking? Grace is a one-note joke of a character whose sole trait is that she’s a good pickpocket and McQuarrie likes to not-so-subtly frame Atwell’s boobs front and center as often as he can get away with it. Every time the movie has a beat where Ethan reaches out for Grace, I only felt resentment as to how much more powerful that exact scene could’ve been had Ethan been reaching out for Ilsa instead. My disappointment is immeasurable.
It doesn’t end there either. Franchise stalwarts Luther and Benji (Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg) might as well be completely disregarded from this film. In fact, one of them is, in a very foolish and haphazard way that feels entirely forced and convoluted. Sure, we get a few minutes of time to honor them, but when it’s a contrived sacrifice that doesn’t feel natural to the plot itself, but instead it very much feels like someone writing in a grand death to add an emotional gut-punch to this era-ending movie. Hell, speaking of poor development, we even have a character reappearing in this movie who died in the last movie. But why deal with the consequences of our previous films when we can just retcon things? Hilariously, the only character who seems to get any kind of real development and attention in a way that feels sincere is a character who gives a surprise return from the original Mission: Impossible in the most absurd fashion possible. Let’s not even dive into another character who’s (unbelievably) revealed to be the relative of a previous film’s antagonist, setting up a potentially massive revenge storyline, only to never do anything with that information for the rest of the entire movie. Ugh.
So if we’re not focused on characters, and not delivering multiple attention arresting action sequences, where does all the time go? Exposition. Relentless exposition. On twists, turns, and reveals that mean next to nothing as there’s no life force behind the decisions. I don’t care how many times you flash back to an earlier movie in the vain attempt to convince me that this was planned all along — it wasn’t. It doesn’t matter what convoluted reason you come up with for Ethan’s twisted “logic” to make sense — it doesn’t. I’m not sure why you try to make it seem like these characters have knowledge of events they couldn’t possibly know about or when the A.I. Entity can do impossible things when it’s not connected to the internet – it’s not possible. At some point, the deus ex machinas become too overwhelming, and the plot holes become too large to ignore. Especially when the character work isn’t there to fall back on, it all feels meaningless.
That’s this movie in its totality. Over two hours of expositional dialogue devoted to telling a story that makes almost no sense. It’s the epitome of the Whose Line Is It Anyway? motto: Everything is made up, and the points don’t matter. It’s as if you’re watching a chess match where people can change the rules of what the chess pieces do mid-match.
All of this is egregious, but it’s worse when you consider the main villain, Gabriel (Esai Morales). We’re supposed to care because, at some point in the past, Gabriel and Ethan were at odds with one another and someone died because of it. We see this flashback many times throughout Dead Reckoning and again here in The Final Reckoning. Although they never explained that relationship in the last movie, it was assumed that was because they were saving the reveal for this film. Suffice it to say, that reveal never happens. Gabriel is a nothing character. Evil because the movies tell us he’s evil. A hollow shell of an antagonist, a husk of wasted potential. Solomon Lane and John Lark he is not. The reason this, frankly, sucks is because we completely lose the human element of this conflict. It’s no longer Ethan versus Gabriel, it becomes Ethan versus The Entity. Versus artificial intelligence.
While I appreciate the film trying to say something about our current climate, even directly screaming at the audience at one point to get off the internet and go live our lives to the fullest, there’s no greater introspection than that simple statement, and it certainly makes for an uninteresting conflict. Yes, not putting so much trust and faith in technology and artificial intelligence is a good mantra to have, but it all slips away into a meaninglessness void of when the plot becomes so labyrinthine that things that don’t even makes sense in the context of our world’s current technical possibilities, and our grand antagonist meant to be the culmination of eight films over the span of nearly 30 years can be defeated by simply unplugging a light from a socket. It’s just kind of… boring.
It’s not all bad, though; I swear. As much as I’m dogging on the movie, there is greatness. There are two absolutely tremendous action set pieces that will literally leave your mouth agape. Although you have to sit through nearly an hour and a half of exposition to get there, the show-stopping moment of the film is the first moment of spectacle with the Sevastopol submarine at the bottom of the ocean floor. It all starts with a tremendous shootout at a sonar facility and culminates in a roughly 15 to 20-minute sequence of dead silence, with no dialogue whatsoever, as we captively hold our breath in anticipation and extreme fear. As an audience, we experience anxiety in a way that can only be seen to be believed. Even Titanic doesn’t get close to the horror of drowning like this movie does in these moments. Tension is palpable as you wrestle with claustrophobia and an intense sense of thalassophobia like you’ve never experienced in your life. It’s overwhelming and mesmerizing in the best way possible. In fact, I would even go so far as to say the Sevastopol sequence is one of the top three greatest action set pieces I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
It’s a shame the movie’s pacing and marketing lets it down.
An audience’s suspension of disbelief is a precious commodity. Not one to be handled lightly. But with the time remaining in the movie, and the knowledge we have as an audience due to marketing, posters, and trailers, we know that this is not the end of the movie. We still have biplane zaniness to accomplish after all. So when Ethan survives this sequence, it’s simultaneously predictable because we know there’s more to come, as well as frustrating because it completely shatters your suspension of disbelief. Ain’t no way a single soul on this planet could ever do what Ethan does here — it’s just ridiculous. It all amounts to a great action sequence that’s undercut by the movie itself.
Speaking of the biplane set piece, it’s also tremendous. There is one stunts that Cruise performs here in which I genuinely cannot believe he survived. It’s something so brazenly bold, and quite stupid, that if news had broken out while this movie was in production that Cruise had died, you wouldn’t even question it. And you get to watch it here in all of its spellbinding glory. It’s an example of the potential of this franchise when it’s firing on all cylinders. Alas, even this rings a little hollow when you remember it’s the exact same sequence you already saw at the end of Fallout. Two aerial vehicles take off with the first vehicle carrying a MacGuffin while the second carries Cruise. Yadda, yadda, yadda, Cruise eventually overtakes the first vehicle and captures said MacGuffin. I’m not sure if McQuarrie and Cruise thought no one would notice this, or if they simply didn’t care, but it does take a little bit away from the excitement when all we’re doing is switching our helicopters for biplanes to end our movie.
So even when we have these incredible action beats, and we can sit there starstruck in the theater at what’s taking place on screen, there’s still this itch on the back of your neck that’s distracting you. Forcing you to scratch it and come to terms with the fact that this is not as good as it could be. As it should be.
Even with this being the conclusion of all things, and Cruise’s legendary run, I don’t know how this movie serves the franchise at large. Sure, this is a direct sequel to Dead Reckoning, and it has a ton of references to the original Mission: Impossible, but if we’re not going to pull out all the stops for this last ride into the sunset, what are we doing? We just didn’t care to bring back Jeremy Renner even though he was being primed to take over the franchise before Cruise’s ego refused to let it go? We didn’t want to mention the Chimera virus at all; I guess we’re just committed to pretending like the second film never happened? What about Ethan’s wife? She was kind of a big deal for many movies, and a key component as to why Fallout works so damn well. I guess she’s just not important anymore? What I’m saying is it wouldn’t actually be better to necessarily do all these things, but if you’re going to make the kind of movie that delves into nostalgia and constantly references things from the past, then why are you blatantly ignoring some of the biggest moments and important characters? Yet you felt compelled to follow up with the CIA vault guy that I imagine 95% of all audiences had forgotten about? I said up top that I would rather watch Mission: Impossible II than watch The Final Reckoning, and I stand by that. At least John Woo provides some campy fun that I can laugh at while also enjoying some sick motorcycle stunts and the trademark doves. Whereas here, it’s just not entertaining.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is a massive disappointment to this great franchise. A movie that’s impossible to understand fully without already having sat through the three-hour long Dead Reckoning, as well as going back and rewatching multiple other films in the series. It’s the first time this franchise has ever felt like homework — it’s the MCU-iffication of Mission: Impossible, so to speak. I truly cannot praise the action set pieces enough, but they do not justify spending another three hours watching this movie to catch the two action beats. Wait to watch those scenes when someone rips them on to YouTube so you can just watch those scenes and move on with your life. It’s for the best.
I didn’t think I would be saying this, but this series really should’ve ended with Fallout.
Rating: Didn’t Like It
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is currently playing in theaters
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