‘Mission: Impossible — Final Reckoning’ is Tom Cruise’s answer to AI
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team return for one final impossible mission.
Prior to the first “Mission: Impossible,” Tom Cruise shuttled between different film genres, including legal thriller (“The Firm), sports drama (“Days of Thunder”), and horror (“Interview with the Vampire”). While these films were commercial and critical successes, they were still far from the blockbuster promise he had offered a decade earlier with “Top Gun.” The testosterone-laced action drama catapulted Cruise to stardom. To prove he is more than a handsome face, he shot-chased his first blockbuster with acclaimed performances opposite icons Paul Newman (“The Color of Money”) and Dustin Hoffman (“Rain Man). However, it wasn’t until he chose to accept the role of Ethan Hunt that he slipped into his most enduring role yet, the preeminent action superstar.
Through three decades, marked by personal and professional highs and lows, “Mission: Impossible” remains constant in Cruise’s life and lore. Not even a literal pandemic could stop his quest to create intricate action set pieces and perform incredible stunts. For this reason, one can forgive the almost indulgent runtime, the incessant callbacks, and the interminable send-offs in “Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning.”
In the last three films, “Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation,” “Mission: Impossible—Fallout,” and “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning,” Cruise partnered up with director Christopher McQuarrie. To date, he has worked on ten projects with the actor, as director, writer, or producer. Or, all three roles, in some cases. For better or worse, the duo whipped “Mission: Impossible” into a potent and relentless blockbuster franchise. That a film adaptation of a Cold War television artifact thrived in the superhero era is a testament to their skill and dedication. Unless proven otherwise, I still think Cruise likes McQuarrie because he lets him do all those insane stunts. He found a collaborator who supported his death wish—er, creative choices.
Tom Cruise hangs on a plane in the film’s climactic action set piece. Image from Paramount Pictures International
The action set pieces and stunts in “Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning” do not disappoint. In particular, the entire sequence inside the Sevastopol submarine wreck where Hunt has to retrieve a module required to save the world from catastrophe. Picture this: he had to make an impossible dive, steer clear of missiles, find the module, escape a fractured continental shelf, and survive decompression sickness. Sprinkled in between these elaborate set pieces are solid hand-to-hand combat scenes. One of the funniest involves a naked Ethan Hunt pulverizing a red-pilled submarine crew into submission while he screams, “You spend too much time on the internet!”
Up against the unstoppable villain, Entity—an omnipresent, omniscient artificial intelligence—there is a sense of valediction that surrounds the film. The musical score sounds mournful as Hunt and his team return to complete one final mission. One of the hallmarks of the franchise is the cast of characters that makes up Hunt’s team. Each mission requires team effort and that differentiates Hunt from the exploits of other fictional spies like James Bond and Jason Bourne. In the final installment, all characters had memorable scenes, including a heartfelt farewell to one of its most beloved members.
There is a conscious effort to honor the past, as “Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning” resurrected previous cast members, not just for requisite cameos, but substantial roles. There is nothing better than the moment a particular character from the first film steps out. Despite the passage of time, the Brian De Palma-helmed “Mission: Impossible” is still one of the finest in the franchise. The entire sequence where Hunt breaks into the black vault to retrieve a classified diskette remains a topnotch nailbiter. But the film crumbles when it ties itself up too much to its past (i.e. Hunt’s previous missions led to the catastrophic consequences of his present) because it feels strained and superfluous. Riddled with flashbacks, the action stops and accommodates expositions to keep the audience refreshed and informed that it starts to feel like a lecture.
To be fair, it seems the lesson Cruise wants us to learn is artificial intelligence is terrible. One of his earliest skirmishes with the tech is a series of viral eerie deepfake videos of his likeness posted on various social media platforms. He also joined a labor mediation at the height of the actors’ strike to push for the protection of human-created work. Despite his elder statesman status, he seldom speaks about his politics. But he could not be clearer when he stamped the final boss mark onto a tech that could replace humans, in a film called “The Final Reckoning” no less. His stand on artificial intelligence is unmistakable: he despises it.
“Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning” is a bittersweet hot mess. Despite a cluttered script that sometimes handicaps the film, it delivers its promise of a superb action experience. It’s the melancholic final act of an action franchise that rocked the hardest for three decades. Cruise need not jump off a cliff on a motorbike, take a blind fall off a chopper, or climb Dead Horse Point for fun. But he did. He chose to up the ante each time he accepts a mission, because I assume, he believes that is what action superstars are supposed to do.
