Cannes 2025: ‘M:I – The Final Reckoning’ is Flawed Yet Still Enjoyable
by Alex Billington
May 15, 2025
The grand finale. The end of it all. The sum of your life’s choices. The last moment. The final reckoning with Ethan Hunt. This is it. After 30 years, across 8 movies, Tom Cruise (and director Chris McQuarrie) give us one last spectacular cinematic experience with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. But is it really a spectacular cinematic experience? Well, that’s up to everyone to decide for themselves. I was lucky to watch The Final Reckoning in IMAX – at an IMAX cinema located just nearby the Cannes Film Festival at the same time Tom Cruise was on the red carpet. This is, of course, the best way to watch it – our seats were rumbling, the footage was crisp & clear, it felt like a true chest-thumping spectacle. But of course if I’m honest – The Final Reckoning has some flaws. Quite a few flaws. But it is far from being the worst movie in the franchise and anyone saying this isn’t really judging this movie accurately, they’re criticizing it because they wanted something specific out of it. It is the second half of Dead Reckoning (2023) and it spends way too long explaining everything, but it is still an emotionally satisfying conclusion to this action franchise.
There’s so much to talk about with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning because it’s pretty much like talking about all 8 of the M:I movies all at once. Not only is this movie an homage to the entire set of movies before it, with a specific focus on 1996’s Mission: Impossible 1 (still my favorite of the entire franchise), but it’s trying to wrap up all of the storylines and bring all of the characters across all of the movies together. “One last time,” as they say many times in this. Which also means this is one of these movies where anyone watching it will have their own unique experience with it no matter what anyone says. And this review, or any critic’s review for that matter, is irrelevant compared to whatever experience each person has. I fear some will hate it because it’s not what they want, it doesn’t live up to extremely high expectations. However, I am sure many others will love it because it’s still an epic movie with a few magnificent action set pieces. To each his/her own. I’m right in the middle: I don’t think it’s bad and it’s not my least favorite in the series, but it’s also not the best and has a strange first act that prevents it from being engaging from start to finish. But I was emotionally affected by watching all the classic IMF characters come together and save the world.
Among other accolades, this movie ranks very high on the list of the most intense ticking clock scripts ever written. Literally the fate of the entire world rests upon the final seconds as the clock ticks down across the entire runtime (the giant red clock is featured prominently throughout). It’ll also be a challenge for anyone to argue that the first 1-1/2 hours of The Final Reckoning are not a hilariously bad exposition dump that goes on and on. I was in awe. I checked the time and was baffled that they’re still explaining things. How?! For this long?! This movie goes all-in on Artificial Intelligence as the bad guy, but they also have to explain it to the “Regular Joe” moviegoer who doesn’t quite understand how any of it works or how it ties into the “save the world” plot. However, unlike my fellow critics, I do think the second half MORE than makes up for it with a truly entertaining, grandiose, gripping finale. Full-on sweaty palms, how are they going to pull all of this off, so many characters doing so many things. The two big set pieces involving Cruise doing death-defying stunts are as awe-inspiring as advertised. Though it does lack a third major set piece – something in that first half that could’ve amped things up while they’re explaining The Entity and how it will kill us all.
As for The Entity, it’s an intriguing villain. Instead of there being one guy or one organization to take down, it’s a kind of indescribable, intangible “idea” of a bad guy that can control all computers and change reality and/or do whatever. But this is all a big gimmick. I appreciate that McQuarrie wrote a grandiose screenplay which acts as a gigantic “AI is going to destroy the world and we must stop it before it takes out all of us” story. He knows what’s up. AI ain’t the future. It isn’t good for us. It’s not going to solve all of our problems. In fact, he’s so clever with this concept for this movie that he even wrote in the idea that regular humans will be so brainwashed & obsessed with AI, they’ll sacrifice themselves as acolytes and try to stop Cruise from stopping The Entity. Eerily realistic. On the flip side, however, it’s also fascinating that McQuarrie decided to finally explain the mysterious “Rabbit’s Foot” from J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III. Nearly 20 years later and we finally discover what it is – and it’s not what anyone thought it was at the time. Again, everyone is going to have their own take on this. Some will enjoy this kind of reveal (as I did) while others will find it cheap and cheesy, an unnecessary revelation in the midst of so much else going on in this Ethan Hunt plot.
What really matters the most in The Final Reckoning are all of the characters. Newcomer Tramell Tillman is my MVP. He’s my favorite new character in this; I wish we could see an entire spin-off series with him. I also very much enjoyed all of the finales and the writing for all the characters in this – they make everyone count and give them so much emotion. It got me. Each character has something meaningful going on and it’s cheesy, sure, but it’s also the good kind of cheesy where you’re rooting for them. Hell yeah, you go team, go save the world! Hunt and his pals really are the best! Simon Pegg as Benji gets a proper storyline in this and is given a chance to shine beyond being the comedic relief. Rolf Saxon returning from the first movie as William Donloe is my other fave – the storyline they give him as moving as anything involving Ethan and his team. And of course there’s Tom Cruise. His Ethan Hunt has evolved & changed so much since the first movie years ago it’s hard to say it’s even the same character. But what works is he takes this finale to new heights, literally, then brings it back down with a safe landing. His performance here is stronger than ever, he knows this one really has to hit hard, and we are so lucky we get to watch him entertain us one last time.
Alex’s Cannes 2025 Rating: 7 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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