29 Years after the first Mission: Impossible film, we see the ‘final’ outing for Ethan Hunt as played by Tom Cruise. Whether this will be the final one is debatable but at 63 it's hard to say how many more films Cruise can actually do. Although I do think they will do them for as long as Tom Cruise wants to, the way that the film brings things from the past that most people have probably forgotten about suggests that this might be final. The film sees Ethan Hunt is on the proverbial hunt to find something so that the entity can get inside a computer system for long enough that something Luther has made can kill just before the US President launches missiles to effectively start the end of the world.
The Mission: Impossible films have sort of become a running joke that they are basically known for the stunts. I can't remember the last time that there was a film that didn't have Tom Cruise hanging from it. Another way that they have become a literal running joke with all the running that Tom Cruise does and in this one that includes for some reason running past the UK Parliament and Big Ben.
At 170 minutes, it is fair to say that the film is a little too long. I think that if it lost 20-25 minute then it would have been a punchier film but the fact that its suppose to follow on from Dead Reckoning whether its called Final Reckoning or should have stayed as Dead Reckoning Part 2, it's a sequel that takes too long to get back up and running.
There are two key action scenes for me. The first is on the submarine with Tom Cruise somehow defying human biology trying to find the device in a submarine that is rolling along the sea bed about to go over a cliff. That’s the great thing about the film, the logic that these films work with is so stupid that it becomes fun. To be fair to the film, it is quite well done and very tense. Bearing in mind that it's just Cruise and he is just dodging missiles and random bits of the submarine, it's a credit to McQuarrie that he manages to make it work. The second big action scene involves, of course, aeroplanes. To be fair this is probably the best action scene to feature aeroplanes. Definitely of the franchise but possibly ever. It starts off with two planes and then ends with Hunt and Gabriel somehow having a very good fight scene that is a lot better than the one in Dead Reckoning.
Tom Cruise knows how to play Ethan Hunt and after 8 films over 29 years he should really know this character inside out. It wasn't the same kind of performance from Cruise. It felt like he was saying goodbye to the role but he still gives it his all and in every scene it feels like he wants to give us the best cinema experience he can. Before the film started there was a nice little video with Cruise thanking us for coming to the screening and to basically enjoy the film which I thought was a kind thing to do. Hayley Atwell was playing an artful dodger type person in the previous film and this time it feels like she is playing it as someone who was always a supporter of Hunt. Quite a turn around but one that Atwell plays very well. Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames have been a key part of the team and have been a pretty good double act in their own right but Rhames’ Luther plays a small but still important role and his death was well done and I think it would have soured the film if it had been Benji. Pom Klementieff plays Paris in the same way that Hayley Atwell played Grace. Paris was someone who was at odds with Ethan in the last film and is now willing to die for him.
The film does a weird thing of bringing connections from the very first film with Shea Whigham’s Briggs the son of Jim Phelps played by Jon Voight and this seemed a bit out of left field because they tried to suggest that Briggs might be a threat to Ethan’s mission but then it doesn't really lead to anything except a handshake at the end. Another random connection was the return of Donloe played by Rolf Saxon. There was a throwaway line in the first one about Donloe being sent ‘sewing mailbags somewhere’ but it was slightly retooled so that he was at some outpost in the bering strait. Weirdly it let to one of the more heartfelt parts of the story and I found myself wanting Donloe and his wife to survive and the fact that Donloe does not resent Hunt for breaking into the Black Vault and sending him to the middle of nowhere was a nice way for Donloe to look at things.
As a villain, Gabriel always felt a little underwhelming. He seemed like someone who wasn't the number one villain but it was only when he was paired with the Entity that he felt like he was a menace and in both films, he had a good final fight scene with Tom Cruise and so for that he is a stronger villain than you would get in most Marvel films.
Christopher McQuarrie has now directed four of the eight Mission: Impossible films and whilst it felt Ghost Protocol was where this type of MI film started, it does feel like McQuarrie took the tone of Ghost Protocol and improved on it and is as responsible for the success of this series as Tom Cruise is. Even Jack Reacher is a decent film and McQuarrie knows how to make action scenes look exciting when most directors would struggle.
I have loved all the Mission: Impossible films with the exception of 2 and sort of 3. It might not have been the best idea to make the last two films a two parter but I think they manage to Final Reckoning feel like a stand alone film whilst making Dead Reckoning feel like it will be worth revisiting in the years to come and isn't pointless which isn't an easy thing to pull off. If this does turn out to be the final MI film then they ended on a high note. It isn't the best film in the series but it's still a pretty good outing and isn't a disappointment which is something I was worried about as I was about to enter the screening.
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