June 5, 2025 – Overlong, over-plotted and over-complicated, but nonetheless entertaining, and possibly the last of the eight Mission: Impossible movies, this one goes out with a big artificial intelligence bang and the world teetering on the edge of annihilation.

Tom Cruise, possibly the last of the classic Hollywood stars, follows up his marvelous 2022 sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick” with another, slightly less impressive giant action film, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” the sequel to the 2023 movie “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” You would think this one would be part two, but they decided to go with final, but is it really final? We will see. It depends on how much money this one makes.

Cruise returns as the indestructible secret agent Ethan Hunt. His team also returns: Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Grace (Hayley Atwell) joined by an “enemy of my enemy” assassin named Paris (Pom Klementieff) who wants revenge against the notorious assassin Gabriel (Esai Morales) who betrayed her. All these actors are reprising their roles from previous Mission Impossible films.

Hunt and his team are up against Gabriel, and other minions of a malevolent artificial intelligence program called “The Entity.” Hunt decides on his own that The Entity must be destroyed since no one can be trusted with its power. Gabriel wants that power for himself, and Hunt's own superiors want to control the power of The Entity too (a stupid idea to begin with, since it requires the belief that The Entity can be trusted to behave like it is supposed to). Hunt and his team have to hide from everyone.

In order to stop The Entity, hunt must recover its source code from a sunken submarine, a nearly impossible task in itself, but a number of complications arise beyond that, including rising global tensions caused by The Entity acquiring control of nuclear arsenals. There are further complications caused by the actions of Gabriel, who has gone rogue.

Stunts include underwater exploits and daring aerial stunts, with Hunt hanging on to flying aircraft. There are plenty of bombs ticking down to the last second and thermonuclear weapons ready to launch. The star-studded cast includes Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane, the embattled President of the United States, Nick Offerman as General Sidney, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Shea Whigham (also a regular in the Fast and Furious series) as intelligence agent Jasper Briggs.

The movie is preceded by a brief statement by Tom Cruise, thanking the audience for seeing this movie in a theater (“the way it ought to be seen”). These sorts of “thank you” statements are a reflection of the changes in the way people choose to see movies, particularly since the Covid pandemic, and this is one of those big-screen, Event Movies.

I would have preferred a movie much shorter than its nearly three hour run time. I would also have preferred fewer sub plots and last-minute complications. I would also like the movie to be more believable. Some of it was so absurd I laughed out loud several times. But in the end it is an entertaining story. It is well acted, with lots of action, and the production values are excellent. This movie rates a C+.

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