As we approach what could very well be the last two films in the franchise, it is time for Ethan Hunt to face a reckoning. Spoiler alerts for both Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
With a supersized swan song for Ethan Hunt (allegedly), it would make sense that this supersized production would be littered with problems. The production of the Reckoning films would make the long development of M: I 3 look like a cakewalk. In January 2019, it was announced that McQuarrie would return to write and direct two sequels to Fallout that were to be shot back-to-back. The initial release dates were announced as July 2021 and August 2022. Throughout 2019 and the start of 2020, the cast was strategically announced through McQuarrie’s Instagram page. The first actor to announce her return was Rebecca Ferguson, followed by Simon Pegg. In September 2019, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Shea Whigham were announced as new additions to the cast. In January 2020, it was revealed that Nicholas Hoult would be playing the main villain. McQuarrie cast Hoult after being impressed with his screen test for Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick, a film he co-wrote and produced. Most importantly, Henry Czerny was announced to reprise his role as Eugene Kittridge, marking his first return to the franchise since the first installment in 1996.
Filming was set to begin in Venice in February 2020 but was halted due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While filming was delayed, more developments with the film were occurring. Vanessa Kirby announced that she was returning for both films, while Hoult dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. He was replaced by Esai Morales. According to McQuarrie, this necessitated a rewrite. Because of the age difference between the two actors and the fact that Morales is closer in age to Cruise, it would open a window into Hunt’s backstory. Angela Bassett announced her participation, but due to travel restrictions, she did not end up appearing in the seventh film. In March 2021, McQuarrie revealed that Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Cary Elwes had joined the cast. Of those listed, only Davis and Elwes appear in Dead Reckoning.
Filming finally began in September 2020, and it was the first film in the series to be shot digitally. One of the first sequences shot was the parachute onto the train (more on that later). In December 2020, while filming in London, a recording of Cruise shouting at two crew members for violating COVID protocols went viral. The media likened him to his Tropic Thunder character, Les Grossman, but many in the industry applauded him, due to the serious nature and the risk of production shutting down. In February 2021, Paramount abandoned plans to shoot the sequels back-to-back, allowing filmmakers time to finish Dead Reckoning. The first teaser was released in May 2022, over a year away from release, to accompany the long-delayed release of Top Gun: Maverick.
Like the previous installment, Dead Reckoning has set pieces that stand above the rest. The first sequence is when Cruise drives a motorcycle off a cliff and transitions into a base jump. Cruise completed the stunt several times and had to wear gear that tracked his precise location. This would allow for the ideal camera placement. The crew dubbed it “the most dangerous stunt.” A cool behind-the-scenes video was posted, showing the filming of the sequence. The next notable sequence involved the use of a full-scale train in England. Ethan and his adversary Gabriel fight on top of the moving train, an homage to the first film and Ethan’s fight with Phelps. The scene was impeccably choreographed, and it ended with a boxcar detaching right above a cliff. The final scene is a 20-minute-long chase scene involving Ethan and Grace (Atwell), maneuvering a small Fiat 500 through the streets of Rome, all while being handcuffed together.
When the film was finally released in July 2023, it was officially titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Due to the increasing scope of the film and COVID-related delays, the budget ballooned up to almost $300 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. Despite making back its budget, Paramount considered the film to be a box office disappointment. It was the lowest-grossing film in the franchise since M: I 3 in 2006. Many sources attribute the lackluster box office to two factors: the first being that the film only had IMAX theaters booked for one week before Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer took over the screens (Nolan had them booked way in advance). The second factor was the phenomenon of Barbenehimer a week later. Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie both opened on the same day and set box office records. Barbie grossed over $1 billion and Oppenheimer $976 million. Despite the less-than-stellar box office, the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The film holds a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and when it was nominated at the 96th Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, it became the first film in the franchise to earn an Oscar nomination. When the film was released on streaming, Paramount retroactively dropped “Part One” from the title, simplifying it to Dead Reckoning.
Topping Fallout was a hard task, and it may not have succeeded, but Dead Reckoning came very close. I enjoyed the addition of Hayley Atwell as the skilled thief Grace, as well as the team of Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis as the agents pursuing Hunt. Esai Morales was also a formidable foe for Ethan, though the overarching villain is the sentient AI known as “The Entity.” I appreciated how McQuarrie clearly starts to bring Ethan’s story full circle by reintroducing Kittridge after a 25-year absence. As his first IMF Secretary, he’s a pivotal character in Ethan’s past, which is something that is hinted at but not fully explained. The idea that joining the IMF was the result of a choice casts the whole idea of the IMF in a different light for me. I’m still processing the idea that Hunt could have been a criminal in his past. Additionally, a woman from Hunt’s past named Marie, seen only in flashbacks, is ripe for exploration in The Final Reckoning. I should say that I’m writing this blog prior to actually seeing The Final Reckoning. I’ll go through and update my rankings accordingly, but everything mentioned is my viewpoint prior to seeing the final film. That may be important for context.
The other thing I appreciated was how this film feels like the first part of a larger narrative, but there is enough closure that it can stand alone. It’s not like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, where the first part is all narrative and ends on a cliffhanger. I left the theater feeling satisfied, but hungry for more. I commend Cruise and McQuarrie for that. I do have mixed feelings about the name change, however. I like the titles Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning, but part of me feels like if you commit to Dead Reckoning Part One, you also need to commit to Dead Reckoning Part Two, at least for consistency purposes. But I suppose, if that’s my biggest issue with the film, then it’s a well-made film. I could not be more excited to watch The Final Reckoning and see how everything is resolved, especially if it is Cruise’s last outing as Ethan Hunt.
My Rating: #2 out of 8
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
As mentioned above, production on what was called Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Parts One and Two was meant to be shot back to back. However, due to frustrations with figuring out set pieces like the underwater sequences and the fact that Tom Cruise had to leave to promote Top Gun: Maverick, the plan was squashed. Initially planned to be released the next summer in June 2024, the film was pushed for the final time, to May 2025, due to industry-wide strikes. The film entered post-production in November 2024, and the budget had ballooned to over $400 million. The film would need to earn at least $1 billion worldwide to turn a profit, and as of today, it has grossed just shy of $600 million.
The film currently holds an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, a decline from Dead Reckoning’s 96%. The consensus is that, while the film has some truly impressive sequences, the plot was convoluted and overlong. I have to agree. I’m writing this about 24 hours after I saw the film in the theater. What separates this film from the rest of the series is my viewpoint. I’ve had more than one view on every other film in the franchise, but this one. My thoughts on The Final Reckoning are representative of the first and only viewing I’ve had.
I will say it’s far from the worst film in the franchise, but not the best either. I left the theater with more questions than answers. Again, I want to emphasize major spoiler alerts. You’ve been warned. There are small things that don’t get explained, such as why Luther is hooked up to oxygen and tended to by a nurse while he’s working on the “poison pill.” That was never explained, and a bunch of Redditors confirmed it. This film does bring the franchise full circle, which is a double-edged sword. There are some retcons (for lack of a better term) that I like and some I don’t like. I liked the re-introduction of William Donloe, the CIA agent in charge of the NOC list, when Ethan breaks into the black vault to steal the list in the first film. In this film, he has been banished to the extremely cold St. Matthew Island, where he has married a local woman, Tapeesa. I especially enjoyed how he and Tapeesa play a huge part in aiding Ethan’s team during the final showdown. Though Donloe tells Ethan he is happy right where he is, you can’t help but feel like his character has redeemed himself.
Another retcon involves JJ Abrams’ M: I III. The film’s MacGuffin, The Rabbit’s Foot, is never explained throughout that film. Christopher McQuarrie and his co-writer, Erik Jendersen, take advantage of this by turning The Rabbit’s Foot into the Podkova, which gives control of the Entity’s source code. I’m ambivalent towards this reveal. I don’t hate it, but I don’t think it’s too clever. The one retcon that I couldn’t stand was the reveal that Briggs (Shea Wigham) is really Jim Phelps Jr. The younger Phelps believes that Ethan framed his father as a traitor in the first film, therefore, he holds a special hatred towards Ethan. That’s one of the major retcons I couldn’t get behind.
I’ve already started with the retcons that bothered me, so let’s just start by going through all of the things I had issues with. In general, the biggest annoyance to me was the lack of a payoff between many things hinted at in Dead Reckoning. I watched several interviews with McQuarrie where he explained that the audience’s reaction to Dead Reckoning impacted the editing of The Final Reckoning. He said that a few subplots and backstories were dropped because ultimately, they were unnecessary to the story they were trying to tell. I can understand that, but as an audience member, I felt a bit cheated. First and foremost, there was the relationship between Ethan and Gabriel and between Ethan and Marie. I wanted to know more about Ethan and Gabriel’s history, how Ethan loved Marie, how Gabriel killed her, and how Ethan got “the choice” to join the IMF. Because of a lack of exploration, I feel like Gabriel was less threatening than he was in the predecessor and felt just like a stock bad guy. “The choice” was an intriguing, creative decision the filmmakers introduced in Dead Reckoning, but they totally abandoned it, which bugs the hell out of me.
Another thing that bothered me was the betrayal of Ethan’s character in two major ways. Ethan is somebody who doesn’t kill people gratuitously. He has morals and avoids killing people if he can help it. During the sequence just before the opening credits, Ethan saves Grace by killing all of Gabriel’s henchmen. Worse, is the way it’s shot. It’s like a violent Bugs Bunny cartoon. You can hear the carnage, but the shot focuses on Grace’s disgusted reaction. She’s never seen Ethan kill before, and one of the henchmen ends up with a cleaver in his back. The other betrayal of Ethan’s character comes at the end, when, after almost three hours of saying that they need to destroy the Entity and it is too much power for one person, he is coaxed into keeping it. I understand the goal is to undo the damage done by the Entity, but it still feels like a major contradiction and character flaw.
Other than the lengthy runtime, those were the main things I disliked. I should probably tell you the things I liked about it. Though I would have loved to see Luther survive, I do think his death and sacrifice were well written. It was an honorable end for Ethan’s best friend. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about the franchise is how alliances shift. I liked how Paris (formerly a hitman for Gabriel) and Degas (formerly a CIA Agent assigned to track down Ethan) join the IMF team on the mission. Much of the film has Ethan separated from the IMF team, and I love how Benji becomes the de facto team leader in his absence, something Ethan assures him he can do. After five movies with Benji on the sidelines, it is nice to see him take the lead.
Speaking of shifting alliances, I enjoyed seeing Angela Bassett back as now President Sloane. I hated her character in Fallout (a compliment to Bassett’s acting abilities) because she showed nothing but contempt for Ethan, but now, despite her still being rough around the edges, she trusts him to do the right thing, much to the chagrin of her cabinet. Her cabinet is also well cast with returning cast members Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, as well as Henry Czerny as CIA Director Kittridge. Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, and the always reliable character actor Holt McCallany hold their own against Bassett as Sloane’s Secretary of State, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of Defense, respectively. Other great cast additions include Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham in a small part as Admiral Neely and Severance’s Tramell Tillman as Captain Bledsoe, the commanding Officer of the USS Ohio, who must take Hunt to an undisclosed location.
Now we can talk about scope and stunts. This film literally brings the audience into the depths of the sea and into the clouds for the two biggest stunt pieces. The first stunt piece shows Ethan being released from the USS Ohio into the Bering Sea. He finds the remains of Sevastopol and enters. The sequence was filmed in a rotating water tank. The production team constructed a colossal water tank capable of holding approximately 8.5 million liters of water. This tank was engineered to rotate 360 degrees, simulating the disorienting environment of a sinking submarine. The set was submerged in this tank, creating a realistic underwater setting for the scene. Additionally, Cruise performed the stunt wearing a diving suit that, when waterlogged, weighed over 125 pounds. The weight and bulk of the suit added to the physical demands of the scene, requiring significant strength and endurance. To add to that, to maintain the authenticity of the scene and keep his face visible on camera, Cruise opted not to use a traditional scuba mask. Instead, he relied on techniques learned during flight training to manage carbon dioxide buildup, allowing him to perform the scene while breathing his own exhaled air. Impressively, to get the most out of each day of filming, the cast and crew developed specialized communication methods. They created a form of shorthand to convey directions and cues without removing their masks, ensuring efficient coordination during the limited time they could spend submerged each day.
The other big set piece of the film is the one where Ethan holds onto the bottom of a biplane, crawls up, and then jumps onto the wing of another during a chase scene. Cruise performed a wing-walking maneuver on a 1940s-era biplane flying at speeds exceeding 120 mph over South Africa’s Drakensberg mountain range. He clung to the tension wires between the wings, experiencing near-zero gravity conditions. Impressively, wing-walkers had previously deemed such a stunt nearly impossible due to the risks involved. In a particularly perilous moment, Cruise transitioned from one biplane to another mid-flight. This required precise timing and immense physical strength, especially given the high altitude and wind resistance. During one take, Cruise became so exhausted that he struggled to lift himself from the wing, leading to concerns about his consciousness. Cruise underwent extensive training to prepare for this stunt. He studied wing-walking techniques and built up the necessary physical endurance. Simply put, the man is a machine.
As I reach the end of my post, I can’t help but feel reflective on the film and the series as a whole. Yes, I was a little disappointed in this film, but overall, it was still enjoyable. My thought is that when your franchise keeps getting better and better with each installment, that bubble is bound to burst. I think the film just became so preoccupied with being “The Final Reckoning” that it tried to tie up thirty years’ worth of loose ends while cramming in new stunts and story pieces. I mean, the first five minutes of the film are essentially a clip show, one you would find in the finale (or penultimate) episode of a TV series. While Angela Bassett’s President Sloane recaps the entire saga, clips from the seven previous entries are shown on screen. Again, it’s far from the worst film, but not the best either. I do think it’s quite impressive that starting with Ghost Protocol, through Dead Reckoning, arguably topped itself in terms of both scope and story. Perhaps with more views, my opinion will change.
Here are a few quick stats about the franchise. My favorite film is Fallout. Solomon Lane is my favorite primary villain, though Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian in M: I III remains the most terrifying and well-acted. Henry Cavill as August Walker in Fallout is my favorite character to appear in only one film. Alec Baldwin as Hunley has one of my favorite mini-arcs in the series, going from Ethan’s foe in Rogue Nation to ally and supporter in Fallout. Outside of Ethan Hunt, Ilsa Faust is my favorite character of the franchise. Finally, I wish we had some closure on William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) from Ghost Protocol and Fallout, as well as Jane (Paula Patton) in Ghost Protocol. Those are my final thoughts on the franchise as a whole.
Before I forget, here is a behind-the-scenes video showing the filming of the different stunts in the film.
Will The Final Reckoning be the final film in the series? I’m not sure. While there was a level of closure, I feel like the film left the door open for more films. That being said, I have three scenarios.
Scenario 1: This is truly the final film. With the way the industry is moving and the fact that this film’s budget reached almost half a billion dollars, I have a feeling Paramount will be okay putting the series to bed. This would also allow Tom Cruise to work on other projects. He has been teasing Top Gun 3 and a long-awaited sequel to Days of Thunder (both Paramount movies), and if they can keep the quality of Maverick, I would see those in a heartbeat. Cruise did sign a (nonexclusive) deal with Warner Bros. in January 2024. The first film in that deal sees Cruise team up with director Alejandro G. Iñárritu for an original film (Digger). This could be a return to form for Cruise, who in the late 80s and all through the 90s appeared in films from acclaimed directors. Such auteurs include: Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard, Cameron Crowe, Stanley Kubrick, and Paul Thomas Anderson. Though Top Gun: Maverick and Fallout might be tied for my favorite Cruise film, I believe that Magnolia is Cruise’s best performance from a sheer acting perspective. It still irks me that he didn’t win the Oscar for that film. He’s spent the last twenty years making franchises and blockbuster films, but I think some people forget that he is a genuinely good actor. In addition to an Oscar nomination for Magnolia, he has Best Actor nominations for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire. That’s scenario number one. Funnily enough, in the time that I wrote this article and I published it, Skydance won a bidding war for Warner Bros, so Cruise could be working for the Ellisons again. Also, rumor has it that Cruise is circling a villain role in Joseph Kosinski’s upcoming Miami Vice reboot starring opposite Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler. He was both fun and intense as a hitman, Vincent, in Michael Mann’s Collateral, so I think it would be exciting to see him return to that type of role.
Scenario 2: The franchise takes an extended hiatus so Cruise can do the other projects he wants to do. I remember when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was released, Cruise commented that he wished he could make Mission films into his 70s like Harrison Ford. I could see Cruise coming back for a couple more Mission films with an older Ethan Hunt. It would be interesting to see how he reacts to the changing world, whatever it would look like in another 15 years or so. However, I think that all depends on Cruise’s physical abilities. I get the feeling that if he can’t do his own stunts, he wouldn’t do the movie.
Scenario 3: Much like how SPOILER in Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, the major reveal is that the team is The New Avengers, a new team could emerge. It could possibly be led by Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas. His character is smart, resourceful, has a strong moral compass, and, like Cruise, is good-looking. Plus, he’s young enough that he could carry a franchise for a number of years. Other team members could be Grace, Paris, a couple of new recruits, and Benji as the elder statesman. I have a feeling that if this were to be the case, Skydance, the collaborating production company and now owner of Paramount, would demand a smaller budget.
Only time will tell if one of these predictions comes true, but that’s the end of the line for my post. Thank you to all of you who supported my series. I hope you continue to enjoy and share my posts.
My Rating: #3 out of 8