“Final Reckoning” will be the final film in the series and it will release on May 22, 2025. Paramount says that it will follow the story of Ethan Hunt till the end. But the word “final” is just a word; it doesn’t alter the plot. The first hour of the film is largely an overview of the previous seven movies using voice-overs, old news clips and thoughts about Hunt. Even the scene in the train front almost puts the audience to sleep. Christopher McQuarrie’s camera drops into the frigid water of the Arctic and then focuses on the sky. The film does not explain why people still go to the cinema and watch movies like this.

Story and pacing

After the confusing events of Part One in Dead Reckoning, Hunt has been subsisting on very little. In the final book, “The Entity”, a dangerous AI breaks free. It stole Russian missile submarine. The CIA director, Erika Sloane, revived it as an employee.

The story is simple. Hunt and his crew battle against a human-like machine called Gabriel. They are trying to find the ways to stop a nuclear disaster. As far as style goes, it has the feel of a typical summer thriller. It runs for 169 minutes and is full of action, scenes, deception and more action.

The numerous mission briefings during the first hour may be tedious. The movement is extremely quick particularly when the submarine shot taking place on the screen occupies the whole screen and when it appears larger.

Character work

To this day Tom Cruise does not make Ethan Hunt an unbeatable superhero but an obsessional professional, whose super-power is the insatiable will. Ving Rhames is back to play Luther and Simon Pegg is back to play Benji with practised chemistry; the headset-bantering dialogue between these two actors is a refreshing throwback to the light hearted approach of the franchise. Grace (Hayley Atwell) becomes a reluctant thief recruited into the IMF, while Paris (Pom Klementieff) nearly steals the film with her feral, wordless performance. However, the band does not visit it often enough to introduce the light-hearted sound of Fallout and Rogue Nation.

Action design

McQuarrie captures two showcases which are amongst the best in the series. First is underwater intrusion in which Hunt swims through a flooded torpedo bay and avoids a column of superheated steam which is ascending. Second, there is a mad battle that erupts out of the rear of a C-130 transport into a free-fall battle with bodies flying everywhere as Cruise tries to cross the fuselage to turn a manual stabilizer wheel. The filmmakers seamlessly merge digital effects with real stunts, making the action visceral especially in IMAX, where every drop of water and scrap of metal feels tangible. The loyalty of the stunt team is self explanatory and the percussion-sensitive sound designed by Lorne Balfe is on par with each breath of air or company crash.

Themes and tone

McQuarrie and co-writer Erik Jendresen use algorithms to target Hunt in a world where synthetic warfare increasingly becomes reality. There is no face or voice of a code ghost who hacks satellite information and social media feeds. Hunt retaliates with his bare nails on blackboard, sleight-of- hand, two-way radio, a wrench and a submarine door. The story shows human instinct colliding with machine prediction when speechwriting fails. The film drops Cruise’s self-deprecating humor, replacing playful disbelief with stark seriousness.

Visual style

The cold, metallic rooms interior shots are interchangeably contrasted with a sunny landscape shot by Fraser Taggart and the IMAX format could have been utilized. It is like breathing in tightly stuffed lungs adjusting the aspect ratio of the Arctic scene, a clever trick, which makes the movie appear happier although the movie is full of foggy, cold atmosphere created by digital effects. It is edited by Eddie Hamilton and Leslie Jones and it constructs tension in the footage but it does not entirely correct the heavy bloated structure. All of a sudden the clock begins its ticking and the image turns into a windmill.

How to watch Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Initial streaming will be done on Paramount +. Thereafter, it can be purchased or rented on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube Movies, and they also allow you to download it in 4K to watch it offline. At this moment, Netflix is not the owner of the rights. It is not called Peacock or Hulu either; it would display that only in case of new licensing agreements. The film is not available on free websites any more.

Pros

• IMAX provides different heart attack sizes of the shots made under and over the surface.
• The motif of outdated machismo as compared to the rule of artificial intelligence is not positive.
• Every beat is amplified with sound design and the score by Lorne Balfe.
• Real-life stunts demonstrate filmmaking art that is hard to find in the computer generation.

Cons

• First hour overloaded with recap and myth-building.
• The humour was toned down and made the franchise less cheeky.

Final verdict

The Final Reckoning is an attempt by Mission: Impossible to make its final reckoning and at times does not meet its goal, beginning with a meditative greatest-hits reel that stifles initial energy. However, when the movie ceases reminding us how epic it is and merely unleashes Cruise and an army of finely-tuned stunt performers, what ensues is a thrilling movie that reaffirms the reason why movie theaters continue to receive ticketing revenue through practical effects. The story can be a shaky one, but the scene composition is flying. Should this indeed be the last ride of Hunt, he leaves riding the side of a plane, and challenges the gravity to take a second attempt at him.