This eighth instalment in the long running series sees Tom Cruise return as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, once again racing against time to save the world.
Having been originally billed as Dead Reckoning: Part Two, Paramount studios retitled the film after part one’s disappointing box office. How much of the story was also retooled as a result is a matter for debate, but one element of the plot that remains is chief villain The Entity. A rogue AI program that has infiltrated intelligence networks worldwide, threatening nuclear armageddon.
Having a faceless computer program as your main antagonist wasn’t a good call last time and is once again a big problem here.
We’re told over and over about how dire the situation is and how high the stakes are, but the convoluted plot to stop the Entity basically boils down to Hunt and his team attempting to plug a flash drive into a big computer.
Esai Morales’s Gabriel is the closest we get to a human villain, but he lacks the charisma to elevate the film. He’s also not helped by a really clunky script. The dialogue is eye-rollingly bad at times, with Gabriel, at one point, actually cackling “Catch me if you can” as he escapes with the films macguffin.
It’s easy to get lost in films like this, built as a star vehicle for Cruise alone. Only Hayley Atwell and the excellent Shea Whigham manage to grasp hold of anything meaningful in the script, while series regulars, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are desperately underserved.
Having been a part of this franchise for 10 years, Director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie knows the material and his A list star well, but would the series have benefitted from a fresh voice this time? Quite possibly, as it seems very little has been learnt from the failings of the previous instalment.
It’s almost an hour before the film stops bartering you with exposition and minor details from decades prior and begins to settle.
The underwater set piece that follows, which sees Hunt attempt to retrieve important tech from a downed Submarine, is clearly intended to be ultra tense, but is actually dull and murky, with the resolution stretching credulity to exasperating levels.
The film is not completely without merit. An exciting biplane sequence in the final third, which sees Cruise displaying his stunt prowess once again, by actually hanging from the landing gear, is a highlight which deserved to be in a better film.
Much will depend on the box office takings, so whether this actually proves to be Mission Impossible’s Final reckoning remains to be seen, but on this evidence, we can only hope so.
This review will self destruct…
⭐️⭐️
Paul Steward
08/06/25
X @grittster
🦋 @grittster