Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) may be Tom Cruise’s last run as Ethan Hunt, and while it’s far from perfect, it’s also everything that makes this franchise so enduring. Yes, the criticisms are fair: it’s unevenly paced, leans heavily on callbacks, and opens with more exposition and flashbacks than momentum. But once it locks into gear, this is another exhilarating entry in a series that has consistently redefined blockbuster action for nearly 30 years. For all its flaws, The Final Reckoning still delivers the kind of spectacle only Mission: Impossible can.
Set a few months after Dead Reckoning, the story sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) still in pursuit of The Entity, the rogue AI introduced in the previous film. With the Cruciform Key finally complete, Ethan sets out to retrieve the source code hidden inside a sunken submarine. Of course, nothing is straightforward: he nearly freezes to death underwater, contends with dueling bombs, is double-crossed by opportunistic allies, and faces Gabriel (Esai Morales) once again—culminating in one of the wildest aerial chases ever filmed. If Dead Reckoning teased the threat of The Entity, The Final Reckoning attempts to bring that storyline to a definitive close, while also giving Ethan Hunt his own curtain call.
Like the best entries in the series, the movie is stuffed with stunts that feel both terrifyingly real and impossibly cinematic. The climax, with Ethan leaping between two bi-planes mid-flight, is among Cruise’s most jaw-dropping feats yet—one that makes the long-running joke about him “trying to die for our entertainment” feel uncomfortably close to the truth. Christopher McQuarrie once again stages the action with clarity and scale, even if the plotting sometimes ties itself in knots.
The supporting cast continues to shine. Hayley Atwell returns as Grace, whose pickpocket charm makes her one of the more memorable newer additions. Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames once again provide the emotional backbone as Ethan’s loyal IMF teammates. The film even reaches back into franchise history by bringing back short-lived side characters like Rolf Saxon’s William Donloe from Brian De Palma’s original Mission: Impossible (1996), a deep-cut callback that shows just how reflective this installment is about its own legacy.
As a narrative, The Final Reckoning is messy, with tonal swings and pacing issues that occasionally drag it down. But as a piece of large-scale action filmmaking, it’s everything audiences expect from Mission: Impossible: globe-trotting set pieces, shifting allegiances, gadgets, impossible escapes, and Tom Cruise pushing his body to the brink. It may not reach the peak highs of Ghost Protocol or Fallout, but it’s still vastly more ambitious and satisfying than almost anything else the blockbuster landscape is offering.
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If this really is Cruise’s swan song as Ethan Hunt, it’s a fitting one: heartfelt, outrageous, and a little rough around the edges, but always committed to entertaining at the highest possible level. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning may not be the franchise’s best, but it’s still a thrilling reminder that Tom Cruise has spent decades giving everything to this role—and to audiences who crave spectacle done for real.
Score: 8/10
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Shea Whigham, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Angela Bassett, Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Cary Elwes, Katy O’Brian
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
- Runtime: 170 minutes
- Rated: PG-13
- Release Date: May 23, 2025
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Related Reviews
Cinephile Corner has reviewed the following Mission: Impossible movies:
- Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Mission: Impossible II (2000)
- Mission: Impossible III (2006)
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
- Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)
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