Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) Review

“And you must be out of your mind”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It can be hard to maintain consistency when reaching the end of a tightrope, but when you get there, the payoff is completely worthwhile.


PLOT


Formerly titled ‘Dead Reckoning Part Two’, 2025’s Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is the second half of a two part story. Continuing from the events of its 2023 predecessor, rogue IMF agent Ethan Hunt is still on the run after retrieving the two piece key that’ll access the source code to the malevolent artificial intelligence, the Entity. Two months after retrieving it, he gets alerted by CIA director turned United States President Erika Sloane that the Entity has recently been continuing to seize control of global nuclear systems. Because of this, she insists Hunt to surrender the key but he refuses, still hoping he can find its former proxy, his old rival Gabriel; Gabriel has been forsaken after failing to retrieve the key back himself. Knowing he needs to find him, he and Benji Dunn recruit French assassin Paris and US Intelligence agent Theo Dagas for help. In London, he runs into new IMF agent Grace as ordered by CIA director Eugene Kittridge for her full initiation into the agency, but both get captured by Gabriel. He chooses to tell them that the Rabbit’s Foot was the Entity’s Podkova module now hidden in the Sevastopol, the original source code. Gabriel demands the key and the code in exchange for sparing Grace and intending to control the Entity before the apocalypse happen as they know it. Ethan refuses and he’s able to escape with her. As Gabriel escapes Paris as well, Hunt is able to speak to the Entity’s interface chamber much like his rival did and sees the vision of how the world will end, predicting technician Luther Stickell will die and demanding access to a digital bunker, the Doomsday Vault, in South America in order to survive. Seeing all of this, Hunt directs his team to the submarine’s coordinates before rushing to save his oldest friend, who’s been falling ill over the task of overworking himself to a make a 5D optical data drive aka ‘poison pill’ that can defeat the Entity for good. Gabriel however steals it and traps him with a time bomb. With no choice, Hunt must abort and allow his friend to sacrifice himself in order for the blast to be minimized. He then gets brought in by US Intelligence agent Jasper Briggs, who has it out for him over the death of his father Jim Phelps. Sloane sees him again and chooses to trust him in finding the Sevastopol despite Kittridge’s objections. Benji, Degas, Grace & Paris reach St Mathew Island in Bering Sea where former CIA analyst William Donloe; Ever since Hunt broke into the CIA under his watch in ‘96, Donloe has been exiled to a remote outpost where he met his Inuk wife Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk). When meeting him, he reveals to have coincidentally memorized the coordinates to the Sevastopol. He is first taken to meet the Carrier Strike’s Group 10 Commander Rear Admiral Neely of the USN via the George HW Bush who takes him to the North Pacific Ocean where he’ll be picked up by Captain Jack Bledsoe of the USS Ohio. Through the Ohio submarine is where he finds Sevastopol and doesn’t infiltrate until after defending himself from a doomsday assassin named Hagan. Grace & Tapeesa escape from Russian special forces who want the coordinates for themselves and Donloe sends Hunt the coordinates in time before diving. With an experimental diving suit, he’s able to infiltrate the Sevastopol long enough to use the key and retrieve the Podkova before it slides down the continental shift. As he escapes without the suit, he survives from decompression sickness by Grace via portable decompression chamber, who finds him with the help of the rest of the team. Now with the Podkova, the plan is to trick the Entity to enter a physical drive instead of the bunker mainframe. It is there in South America where Gabriel awaits demanding it while Kittridge arrives with Briggs wanting to control it as well. A shootout would occur and Gabriel raises the stakes with a separate nuclear device. Benji gets shot in the crossfire, which gives Gabriel a chance to steal the poison pill while Hunt chases him down with the Podkova. As Sloane avoids a preemptive strike, her chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Sidney (Nick Offerman), is fatally shot by a doomsday assassin  which gives the Entity time to take full control of the world’s nuclear arsenal. As Degas helps Donloe & Tapeesa defuse the bomb, Grace & Paris prepare the mainframe to trap the AI as instructed by a now injured Benji. Hunt catches up to Gabriel via biplane and jumps onto his to take back the poison pill, breaking his rival’s arm in the process. Gabriel tries to get the last laugh in an effort to escaped, but he gets himself killed when his head is fatally struck on the rudder. Mid air, Hunt is able to insert the Poison Pill into the Podkova and allows Grace to trap it in time before nuclear launch. Once that happens, Hunt hears a message from Luther that plays before self destructing, who expressed he never doubted his success. Ethan then gives the now destroyed module and finds amends with Briggs, who accepts that his dad was in the wrong. With the world safer, the film ends with the protagonist and his team smile to one another proud to have saved the world, and part ways in London. 


THOUGHTS


If there is one thing that remains constant is that cinematic franchise finales are gonna go big or go home. Actor Tom Cruise, writer Erik Jendresen and Director Christopher McQuarrie knew that Mission: Impossible needed to conclude at some point and it blows me away they topped themselves on how epic a spy film can be. Max Aruj & Alfie Godfrey also unite to make a whole new exciting score while Fraser Taggart’s cinematography and Eddie Hamilton editing were spliced so well together to make every scene a spectacle of its own right. Every time you think the scale isn’t getting topped, you’re proven wrong with the next scene that is full of suspense before you get the happy ending we all deserved after years of thrills. With such elements, this film is equally to the first half because it continues a natural discussion on free will versus fate. Fate may be something bound to happen without us knowing in advance, but the former will always be more important because if we lose the way to decide for ourselves, then there is no point in living. Hunt knew this better than anyone and he tops himself in putting his life on the line the way. Cruise earned his Honorary Oscar at the Governor Awards in ‘25 because he is a man who pushes in authenticity in filmmaking, hence producing the films he stars in in recent memory. Playing Hunt is no exception because he would do the unexpected to prove uncanny commitment. It’s a no brainer he’d hold his breath for the submarine scene since he did it before in Rogue Nation, but actually hanging onto a biplane before having to pull off a Guinness World Record of 16 burning parachute jumps is insane, easily topping what he did in Dead Reckoning. It just comes to show how far in the same vein of this iconic character. He kept fighting the good fight against the Entity closer to his way because he knew improvising from the start would backfire, hence thinking ahead in a more reasonable case. He wasn’t even sure if he was gonna meet the confident Bledsoe, who was well played by Trammel Tillman, but had to take that risk because he didn’t know what else to do at that point to get where he needed to be. There’s no denying that his determination is what leads to his undeniable success, but what makes the journey worthwhile is everyone else who has grown to trust him over while. What I liked so much more in seeing Benji this time was that he’s able to quicker at thinking and share that level of compassion that drives him to make it to the end. What was also a big surprise was losing a legacy character that had been with Ethan from the start. It was always great to see Ving Rhames as Luther for evolving into a wise confidant, which is what made it all sadder that his sacrifice was what had to happen to keep Ethan going, no matter how much they wished to avoid it. Hayley Atwell continued to fit into the mold as Grace because her fast learning made her resilient enough to hold her own and trust Ethan’s progress as much as she did. Pom Klementieff was dope as Paris for being most lethal yet willing to do the bare minimum of holding back in order to be on the same page. And on top of that, she grew to be less heartless since she was able to perform makeshift surgery on the fly as instructed. You can then say Greg Tarzan Davies was a little underdeveloped as Dagas, but he remained interesting because he was principled enough to not overthink the stakes and share the trust everyone had towards Hunt. It was even a bonus for Angela Bassett to return as Sloane because her promotion to be POTUS proved she’s improved to be more strategic as a leader and wise enough on who she trusts. Knowing what Hunt went through in Fallout, it’s a no brainer she would trust him enough to let him do things his way. That does back up the sternness & skepticism Hannah Waddingham brought to the table as Neely because one nod of approval from a sister in arms is enough to keep the pace going on trusting Hunt with the bare minimum of knowing why he has to do things his way. Since this finale was gonna go out on a high note, it was bound to get nostalgic in more ways than one. Little would we expect unexpected callbacks from the first film. I totally welcomed Rolf Saxon back as Donloe because it spoke the right volumes. Anyone else could’ve hated Hunt for changing his life out of proportion but instead, he reveals to be full of content because he understands he wouldn’t be happy with his wife had he not stolen the NOC list, an unlikely blessing in disguise. Hearing this defends why he was still willing to help him for the remainder of the story apart from the fact his house got burnt down. We then get a stranger callback in revealing Briggs to be Jim’s son since there were no hints at all in Dead Reckoning. What I can say though however is that Shea Wingham still did his best in selling the fact on why he’s more morally forthright in going against Hunt. He chooses to let go of that animosity in the end because knowing how far he went to stop an AI came to accept it wasn’t his fault what happened to his dad. It was still pretty interesting to see Henry Czerny return as Kittridge because his cynicism was bound to worsen when the stakes get higher. He basically makes the same mistake Denlinger when it comes to wanting to control the Entity because he assumes controlling something can be permanent once (re)captured. He does learn that the hard way by the time the AI gets destroyed, but I know he can’t hold it against Hunt since it was all for the greater good. Last but not least, Esai Morales still makes an interesting villain out of Gabriel because he continues thinking he can gain anything out of being an agent of chaos, which definitely wouldn’t seem possible if he were to try controlling the Entity too. This does maintain his ruthlessness, but he loses his pragmatism thinking Ethan won’t stop him. Ironically, he got himself killed with all the pointless showboating at the very end. Looking back, it was fitting for the team to not say anything when parting ways because their looks said enough on how proud they are of what they accomplished together. They probably won’t ever see each other again after this because there’s no reason to keep in touch per se but if they do, you can bet they’ll continue sharing a bond no one will ever compete with. I’ve given this movie enough credit when saying this will hold up with the rest of the franchise, but even the best finales have confusing moments upon rewatching. For instance, it was smart for Ethan to have mask in order to sneak into the prison in the opening and recruit Paris, but there is no clear explanation on why he doesn’t keep it up when looking for Gabriel. If he doesn’t want his rival to get the jump on him, this rookie mistake should’ve been avoidable. And if Inuit fishermen found both halves of the key, what led to the Russians getting it? There should be clarification if either fishermen sold it or were murdered for it. There’s even no point for Gabriel to un-cuff Ethan when he intends to defibrillate him after digesting a poison capsule. And is it really true that Luther is the only one to make a poison pill? Benji may have evolved to a field agent, but it’s not like he stopped knowing the same stuff he trained for at the beginning. It’s also on Briggs acting like there wasn’t proof on Jim being a traitor when Ethan recorded his confession in the climax of the first film. Even Donloe sounds believable since Benji sees him as a legend. And my only unbelievable aspect of his involvement is that he was allowed to keep the knife Krieger dropped on accident. That’s evidence of a break-in. That shouldn’t be possible to keep at all. It’s even far too ironic that Ethan only orders Paris to shoot at Gabriel in the climax as he flees, when he could’ve told everyone else to aim at him. Had he done that, he wouldn’t have to worry about her gun jamming or the idea of having to chase him once more. In conclusion, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is a conclusion that knew its audience and succeeded in being as epic as a finale can be. If you’re a fan of this spy franchise from the start, there shouldn’t be any doubt you’ll be pleased with how it all ends.