Review: "Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning"
- Drew Moniot
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
In Hollywood, topping a blockbuster movie with a successful sequel is difficult. Topping a blockbuster movie with a successful franchise is next to impossible. But that’s what Tom Cruise and his production company have done with the “Mission: Impossible” series and the latest, and final installment “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.”
Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have collaborated on the final four “Mission: Impossible” movies, managing to somehow raise the bar with increasingly inventive action sequences and spectacular stunts.
Bringing a fan favorite franchise to its conclusion is a tall order, with the resolution of storylines and characters. As they say in showbusiness, you need a big finish. “The Final Reckoning” pulls out the stops with a terrifying scenario about an all-powerful, evil AI entity intent on destroying mankind. It’s a nightmarish twist on real-life concerns about the future of rapidly evolving AI.
As always, the clock is ticking down with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his MI Team (played by Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff) frantically trying to save the world with their high-tech spy skills and advanced combat training.
It all makes for splashy, big screen thrills, best seen in an IMAX theater. The story takes Ethan Hunt to the bottom of the ocean (to recover a top-secret device from the creepy wreckage of a Russian submarine) to the top of the clouds (in a highly publicized, heart-stopping biplane stunt sequence for the ages, with Tom Cruise once again performing his own death-defying stunts).
If the Motion Picture Academy would finally create a long-awaited Oscar category for best Motion Picture Stunt Work next year, Tom Cruise would win it, hands down. The movie is a showcase of his physical fitness (at the age of 62) as well as his thrill-seeking fearlessness.
The “Mission: Impossible” saga began in 1966 with the popular spy drama that featured self-destructing tape recorders and tear-away rubber face disguises. It was campy fun in the Swinging Sixties marked by the global obsession with spy thrillers launched by the release of Ian Fleming’s “Dr. No” in 1962.
The James Bond franchise was the gold standard of big screen, big budget spy thrillers for decades spawning 27 blockbuster films (including the 25 “official” movies produced by Eon Productions). Inevitably, other studios wanted a piece of the action.
Tom Cruise saw his opportunity in the form of an updated, upgraded spinoff of the “Mission: Impossible” TV show. It would raise the bar with its globe-hopping locations, pulse pounding action and dazzling stunts, performed by Tom Cruise himself.
It was a huge success. Six sequels followed, each one raising the bar with increasingly dangerous action sequences and hair-raising stunts. Cruise raced and jumped motorcycles, crashed helicopters, dangled from the world’s tallest building and was strapped to the side of a giant cargo plane, in flight.
Despite careful planning, there were risks and injuries along the way such as the time he broke his ankle while doing a daring wire stunt, jumping between two tall buildings in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” (2018).
Cruise is dedicated to his craft. He seems to want to leave behind a legacy of uncompromising commitment akin to the movies of Buster Keaton and Jackie Chan. He takes it to another level putting it all up on the big screen for audiences to enjoy. When he was in Pittsburgh shooting “Jack Reacher” back in 2012 local crew marveled at Cruise’s tireless energy. His genuine excitement was an inspiration to everyone on set.
Cruise brings passion to his projects. “The Final Reckoning” comes on the heels of his wildly successful “Top Gun” sequel (“Top Gun: Maverick”,” 2022). His onscreen presence is formidable. Unlike Daniel Craig who whined and complained about his ever-diminishing role as an aging James Bond, culminating in his insistence that 007 should die at the end of his last Bond film, “No Time to Die” (2021), Cruise continues to crank up the intensity and toughness of his characters in film after film.
A quick comparison of the franchises is telling. To date, the seven “Mission: Impossible” movies have earned a staggering $4.14 billion worldwide over the past 29 years, not counting the sizeable revenue that “The Final Reckoning” will generate. By contrast, the 25 Eon Productions James Bond films have taken over six decades to earn $7 billion globally. To some degree, Ethan Hunt is proving to be 007’s most formidable adversary.
There’s an old showbusiness adage that “you always want to leave ‘em wanting more.” “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” does that. Though we’ve been told that this is the final film in the series, the ending certainly allows the story to continue. To quote the title of one of the unauthorized James Bond movies, “Never Say Never.”
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is rated PG-13.
===============================================
On a personal note:
My production crew (KD Productions) from KDKA-TV was hired by Entertainment Tonight to tape behind-the-scenes footage and interviews for the movie “All the Right Moves,” which was being shot in Johnstown in 1982. This was the night of the big high school football game that takes place in the movie. Tom was warm and friendly, and walked over to take some snapshots with me and my crew. Couldn’t have been nicer!
Commentaires