Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
When filmmakers are shooting their shot in wrapping up long-running action franchises, the most important parts are the ending, and what you are wanting to say about the characters. I’m not going to lie- there was a part of me who almost felt like Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie were going to find a way to end this eighth “Mission: Impossible” in a way that was conclusive to the story they’ve told in these last two films, but still offered themselves an out if Cruise wasn’t quite done with Ethan Hunt just yet. I won’t say whether they do that or not, but I do think that, from a narrative standpoint, they do stick the landing.
For Ethan Hunt, everything comes down to Prague in the original film, where his original team was killed in cold blood, and he had to work on his own terms. That has been the case with each successive mission, and in each one, we see that he will put his team ahead of the mission itself. Even in the elseworlds entry of the franchise that is John Woo’s “M:I-2,” Ethan is more concerned about Nyah’s safety than what that means to the mission. That’s also the film where we see that Ethan’s need to save others outside his circle is not always as clear cut.
What a stroke of genius it was to bring in Ving Rhames as computer genius Luther Stikell in the 1996 original. A natural hardass- so we’d believe him as a disavowed member of IMF- but someone who’s just smooth as Hell, he’s been a great foil to Cruise’s no-nonsense Ethan Hunt throughout this franchise. Here, the actor is rewarded for his long service to the franchise not in terms of screen time, but in Luther’s vitality to the plot. He is the lynchpin, and he makes every moment count, and his final scene with Cruise shows the respect these two have for each other.
For those who did not remember what happened in “Dead Reckoning,” Ethan and co. found themselves faced with an enemy, the likes of which they’d never really confronted before- The Entity. A parasitic artificial intelligence, it has infected cyberspace, and is throwing the world into chaos. One of its acolytes is Gabriel (Esai Morales), who is able to disappear from life due to the Entity’s manipulations. In the last film, Ethan came into possession of a key to a Russian submarine that could hold the key, as it were, to destroying The Entity. But that is not the mission the sitting president (Angela Bassett’s Erika Sloane) has for him; she wants control on The Entity. The clock is ticking, as it is getting a hold of all the nuclear weapons of the major superpowers, preparing to obliterate mankind.
Back in 1996, my mom and I went to go watch Brian DePalma’s franchise starter, and I’ll be honest- we were lost. We eventually worked through it, and began enjoying the franchise, but that first film was not the breezy, easy popcorn movie we wanted. Compared to “The Final Reckoning,” it’s practically straightforward in comparison. McQuarrie and his co-writer, Erik Jendresen, have so much exposition packed into the first part of this movie it’s startling the plot is moving forward at all. And yet, it is, and however you feel about how they get to the submarine, you’ll mostly be glad they get there. (Although if you have issues with heavy bass and low frequency sounds, as my wife does, this sequence really puts the bass in the auditorium through some shit.) We get Grace (Haley Atwell), the thief Ethan recruited in “Dead Reckoning”; Paris (Pom Klementieff), the assassin whose life Ethan spared; and of course Benji (Simon Pegg), who is a staple of this crew along with Luther. There are also a few other surprising faces you’ll see here, and they all have a part to play here.
By a lot of metrics, “The Final Reckoning” is a mixed bag as a film. As stunning as the sequences are, the submarine and bi-plane set pieces could have been edited tighter, as the suspense of them wavers. (It also doesn’t help that the bi-plane sequence, as breathtaking as it is to watch, is basically just a rehash of the helicopter climax of “Fallout,” except that that one really nailed the pacing of its “race against the clock” finale.) I do love that the big climactic set pieces of the “Reckoning” films are basically homages to silent film legends- the train sequence is Cruise’s tribute to Buster Keaton’s “The General,” while the bi-plane feels taken (in Cruise’s acrobatics) from the opening of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator”- and I applaud Cruise for continuing to go all-out on creating sequences best seen on the big screen. I will say, though- there’s a part of me that really misses the high stakes, but smaller scale, thrills of DePalma’s film and Brad Bird’s “Ghost Protocol,” in part because the human element of the stories are front and center.
That brings us back to Ethan. There’s an exchange between he and Luther where Luther tells him, “It’s not about the people you know, it’s about the billions you’ve never met,” when it comes to Ethan’s focus. I think there’s truth to that in each film, but never more so in this one. Here, Ethan has a choice that could tip the balance of power in the world, but doing so just gives someone else a chance for unchecked power. He’d rather bet on the billion he’s never met to eliminate the opportunity for The Entity. His trust in those he’s worked with is what he’s hoping on to get them through. When the film focuses on those bonds and relationships, it’s at its best, and it’s how McQuarrie and Cruise end up landing “The Final Reckoning” on its final descent, even if it got a little bumpy along the way.
