In Writer and Director Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise returns as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt on perhaps his last impossible mission to save the world from human extinction by the omnipotent AI (artificial intelligence) Entity.
At the end of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, Ethan secured the cruciform key that unlocks the Entity’s source code. The Entity’s original housing resides in the sunken Russian nuclear submarine at the bottom of the Bering Sea, Dead Reckoning. Ethan’s mortal enemy Gabriel, played with calm menace by Esai Morales, is the mysterious Entity’s keeper. 35 years ago, Evil Gabriel killed the woman Ethan loved. In Dead Reckoning, Gabriel escaped before Ethan could exact his revenge. However, he escaped without the key. Ethan had it.
Since then, the Entity digital parasite infected the global internet creating its own Doomsday cult bent on the destruction of humanity to establish its New Order. US President Erika Sloane, played by smart strong Angela Bassett, the former CIA Director and Ethan’s boss, said, “Come home, Ethan… and bring us that key.”
Ethan arises on the grid. He ominously tells Erika, “I need you to trust me. One last time.” Ethan plans to unlock the Entity source code so that he can infect the Entity with the digital anti-virus invented by his best friend Luther, played by rock solid Ving Rhames. Thus, they can capture the Entity and save the world, again. Otherwise, Ethan’s plan gets sketchy. US Submarine Captain Bledsoe, played by brave chill Tramel Tillman asks, “What exactly is your plan?”
Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen’s screenplay gets sketchy, too. If not too nonlinear to comprehend. At times, M:I – The Final Reckoning seems like the profound excuse for mind-blowing cinematic set pieces. Famously, Ethan hangs on a biplane 10 feet above the ground to fight Gabriel in the climatic narrative arc. Ethan risks his life and the bends at the bottom of the Bering Sea to retrieve that Entity source code. Despite its cinematic mastery, that underwater sequence lasts about 10 minutes too long. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is about 30 minutes too long. The movie is 2 hours and 48 minutes of non-stop action.
Ethan assembles his IMF Team: tech wizard Benji (Simon Pegg), pick pocket thief Grace (Hayley Atwell), and master mind Luther (Ving Rhames). Former CIA rival Degas, played by handsome strong Greg Tarzan Davis, joins the team. Together they rescue Gabriel’s former assassin Paris, played by powerful and beautiful Pom Klementieff, who knows where Gabriel is. Paris is beholding to Ethan for sparing her life in Dead Reckoning. Gabriel had stabbed her believing she would betray him. Paris joins the team so that she can kill Gabriel. Simple.
The President basically gives Ethan the use of a US Aircraft Carrier to locate the Entity source code. The rest of the team arrives in the Artic outpost to find former CIA Analyst William Donloe, played by weary wise Rolf Saxon, and his Inuit wife Tapeesa, played by comically sharp Lucy Tulugarjuk.
Christopher McQuarrie brilliantly completes the 30 year narrative circle. William was the guy who let Ethan break into Langley in Mission: Impossible (1996). In his tragic fail, William was banished to the Arctic outpost where he met his wife Tapeesa. He made his peace. Ironically, he has a life he loves.
However, back then William warned the CIA about the Entity AI threat. No one listened to him. As convoluted as The Final Reckoning gets, Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen eloquently bring home that we are all the sum of our choices. William is happy in his life. Will Ethan be happy in his with the choices he must make? That compelling narrative can almost forgive Ethan jumping off the Navy helicopter into the frozen Bering Sea, only to be rescued by Captain Bledsoe’s underwater divers. Obviously, all part of Ethan’s plan.
Even with the amazing aerial biplane chase and the breathtaking underwater submarine rescue, I was kind of disappointed in the fight scenes. Over the years, Tom Cruise proved to be a good martial artist, at least in the movies. The climatic knife fight scene aboard the submarine was dramatic and inept, if not stupid. In the beginning of the movie, there’s a breakaway joke as Ethan brutally beats up villains off camera to save Grace.
Fortunately or by design, Pom Klementieff’s Paris assumes the martial arts heavy lifting. Pom has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Her Paris beats the shit out of bad guys with spinning kicks and jujitsu locks. She’s Badass. Curiously this time around, Esai Morales’s Gabriel is the menacing coward rather than measured anarchist. Christopher McQuarrie mistakenly dilutes Ethan and Gabriel’s climactic narrative arc to essentially a punchline. They deserved better. The audience deserved better, too.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ultimately resonated because of Ving Rhames and Tom Cruise as Luther and Ethan, their unconditional love and belief in each other. Apparently Luther is dying in the hospital, while working tirelessly on the Entity anti-virus. In their poignant narrative arc, Ethan wanted to tell Luther something. Luther smiled, “I know.” In my favorite Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Ethan cared about the one life as much as the millions. The one was Luther. That all makes Ethan a hero, a good man. Luther always knew that.
The Final Reckoning could have used more of that message than spectacular visual eye candy. Ving Rhames and Tom Cruise are powerful as brothers Luther and Ethan. They have authentic gravitas and compassion. Their story is in their eyes. They give Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning its soul.
Luther sublimely tells Ethan, “Nothing is written… We all share the same fate — the same future. The sum of our infinite choices. One such future is built on kindness, trust, and mutual understanding, should we choose to accept it. Driving without question towards a light we cannot see. Not just for those we hold close, but for those we’ll never meet. I hope you know I’ll always love you, brother.”
Valuing the one as much as the millions is the saving grace of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. They save the world for the ones they hold close and for the ones they never meet. I sincerely hope this is not the last of Ethan Hunt. The world still needs him. The world still needs Tom Cruise to make movies. Perhaps, nothing is written.
