Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning Review
The last chapter and the last film of the series is here with a bang. Ethan (Tom Cruise) returns to cinema screens, and he must stop the entity before it takes over the world. With aid from his companions, he must first locate it, and they destroy it before this great AI destroys mankind itself. Of course, directed by Christopher McQuarrie and considering this is the second part to an amazing first part, one knew from the beginning that this was going to be a fantastic film. It delivered, and more.
Firstly, praises must be awarded to the screenwriter and the actors themselves. The dialogue between the characters has been honed for decades and it really shows here as the lines bounce off each other to great effect. This is especially true when it comes to the little moments of comedy that are, at points, wedged into the scenes of action. A great example to utilise here is the end of the scene in which Ethan and Grace (Hayley Atwell) are captured by Briggs (Shea Whigham) and forced into a torture chamber to be questioned by Gabriel (Esai Morales). After a more than violent tussle with the tortures in which Gabriel escapes, Grace is mortified by the sight of what Ethan has done to the two men. A quick little exchange occurs here in which a moment of comedy is crafted as Ethan attempts to convince grace that the blood and crushed skulls is not a big deal and they must carry on in their pursuit of Gabriel. This micro piece of dialogue is great since it isn’t awkward in any way and, while it does affect the flow of the film, it accomplishes it in a healthy way that adds to the film instead of making it seem wasteful or annoying.
Of course, not being wasteful or annoying is Mission Impossible’s speciality as there was not a moment in which the action in this film felt dull or uninspired. The choreographics used throughout felt exciting and moments of jeopardy within these moments weren’t forced, they were natural and made logical sense to the narrative. In my review for part one of this two part film, I mentioned that the sequence in which Ethan and Grace must escape a train descending from a bridge was a great piece use of tension. This aspect strikes again when Ethan traverses the remains of the Sevastopol to retrieve the Podkova which contains the Entity’s source code. However, this large submarine is positioned on a large, sub-aquatic cliff face.
This is where the classic Mission Impossible suspension leaps into action. While traversing the submarine, Ethan begins to open hatches to different rooms which brings with it a large amount of sea water. As the volume of water increases within the submarine, it begins to gain weight. This weight causes it to roll around the cliff. However, the tension doesn’t show until the end of the scene. When Ethan grabs the Podkova, the constant rotation of the submarine has caused the unused torpedoes to move around the room in which Ethan had to traverse to get to the desired object. When attempting to leave the Sevastopol, he finds that the torpedoes have left their chambers and have spread across the room. However, this would have not been an issue if one had not blocked the only hatch out of the room. In realising this, Ethan realises that he will have to crawl through the hole of which the torpedoes are dispatched from. He finally escapes and waits below the ice at the surface of the water to wait for Grace to grab him. This scene is enjoyable simply due to its grandeur as it Is possible to state that one may just be left amazed by the size of the setting itself and anything after is a bonus. Luckily, there is indeed a large bonus. The constant cuts between Ethan within the Sevastopol and the shots from the exterior create a great sense of size but also a great amount of dramatic irony as the submarine rotating allows the audience to know something is going to jeopardise Ethan’s safety before he himself does. The fact that Tom Cruise also does his own stunts really allows for a great amount of appreciation as the risk assessment for this scene must have looked insane.
Overall, this film really did live up to the quality of the Mission Impossible films before it. I would even go so far to say that it was an improvement over a few of them. It will be a great cinematic loss not having new instalments for this franchise as I believe that this series, alongside Top Gun, is the magnum opus of Tom Cruise’s work. This series has spanned decades, and the quality has seemed to never plateau or even take a decline at any point.
Finally, but most importantly, thank you to Reel Cinema for giving me a great experience when watching this film. I love the ID lanyards inside the wax sealed envelopes. It really added to a great experience to a great end to a great series.
