After almost 30 years and a series of escalating death-defying stunts, the fuse has finally gone out on the Mission Impossible franchise (for now). Let’s get this out the way from the start, there truly has been nothing like the Mission movies. As a franchise, it got off to a shaking start; the first sequel (directed by John Woo) was a double gun-wielding slow-motion dove-flying action epic. The opening climbing sequence aside, M:I 2 was a messy sequel that could have ended the franchise no sooner than it started.

The same could be said for J.J Abrams’s (underrated) Mission Impossible 3 (which has been retconned into being of significance to the plot of Final Reckoning), a middling box office return very much sent the message this was a franchise that had been played out. That thinking extended to the revamped Ghost Protocol, a sequel that introduced Jeremy Renner as a possible successor to Cruise. However, a massive global box office and a centrepiece stunt atop (or somewhat aside) the tallest building in the world jolted the franchise back to life. When Christopher McQuairre joined Mission 5, aka Rogue Nation, the ante was upped, and the partnership between McQuairre and Cruise has become more ambitious with each project. 

Picking up two months after the previous movie, the stakes are as global—and as nebulous—as ever. Without giving anything away, the plot of Final Reckoning centres on a dangerous piece of tech has fallen into the wrong hands (or maybe the right hands, depending on whose side you’re on), and Ethan Hunt and his loyal IMF team must race against time to track it down before it sparks worldwide catastrophe. The threat is both new and eerily timely, weaving in themes of artificial intelligence, digital surveillance, and the erosion of truth in a post-truth era.

Undoubtedly, Final Reckoning should be experienced on the biggest screen possible, IMAX, if you can, as nothing about this movie hasn’t been made for the big screen. While its nearly 3 hour running time zips by, the plot does become a tangled mess of MacGuffins, an array of new characters, callbacks, and a couple of needless plot twists. As promised, I’llrefrain from spoilers, but the connection to the first movie falls flat, and there are far too many characters to keep track of outside of the core cast. 

There is no escaping the sheer enormity of the production, which started pre-COVID with Dead Reckoning, endured the double strike, and pushed the budgets through the roof. According to multiple sources (including Box Office Mojo), the production budget for Dead Reckoning (Part 1) was $291 million (some outlets claim it was higher). That movie closed out on $571.1 million, which falls drastically short of breaking even (cinemas take 35-45%, and marketing costs would have been more than $100 million). Even with robust Home Entertainment sales, Dead Reckoning lost money. 

It’s an unusual set of circumstances that a studio would carry on making a sequel to a movie that technically flopped. So, Paramount and Skydance doubled down, well, maybe not quite doubled, but the reported production budget for Final Reckoning is a reported $400 million. Domestically, it’s opened bigger than the previous movie with $63 million (versus $54 million for Dead Reckoning) and a total worldwide launch of $200 million. That’s a solid start, even if it was bestedby the live action Lilo and Stitch movie. However, the mixed reviews (and the whopping massive budget) will make it difficult for this Mission to stick the landing from a box office perspective.

I very much doubt we have seen the last of Mission Impossible; Cruise has his new (nonexclusive) deal with Warner Bros,and a Top Gun 3 in development with Paramount. I’m hoping he’ll finally get around to that Edge of Tomorrow sequel, but I think Cruise will want to make that long-mooted movie in space with its director, Doug Liman before that happens. 

Cruise and McQuarrie remain a thrilling Hollywood partnership that delivers thrills, gasps, and perhaps the occasional yawn during the longest Mission in the franchise. If this is the end of this incarnation of Mission Impossible, it’s a fitting conclusion, but the door is far from closed on the overall franchise.