Is Tom Cruise's 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' worth watching? Full review and breakdown

Nearly three decades after Tom Cruise first donned the mantle of Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning arrives as the swan song to one of cinema’s most adrenaline-fuelled franchises (for now, at least). Helmed by regular Cruise-collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, this eighth chapter serves less as a plot-heavy espionage epic and more as a love letter to the franchise’s true beating heart: Cruise, defying physics and father time once more.

Let’s not kid ourselves. You’re not here for the storyline — and neither, frankly, is the film, whose villain feels ripped from today’s headlines and straight from a Netflix algorithm. The baddie is an all-powerful rogue artificial intelligence (AI) known as Entity that’s capable of destabilising global systems using tools such as propaganda, deepfakes, and, essentially, its technical prowess to pit nation against nation in an attempt to be – in the words of every supervillain ever – the ruler of the world.

To counter the dystopian reality the computing brain is working towards, Hunt must employ an analogue method – he must use the cruciform key he saved in 2023’s Dead Reckoning and link it to a “Podkova” device on a wrecked Russian sub that’s sitting on the seabed somewhere. The combination is expected to create a sufficient weapon against the Entity.

For this, he needs the help of his star-filled roster of sidekicks from previous missions - think Grace (Hayley Atwell), Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) – who will join the thankless mission to save the world (while cheering on the death-defying central character). Atwell’s Grace adds charm and wit, even if her chemistry with Ethan feels more mission-partner than love interest. Rhames’ Luther and Pegg’s Benji remain loyal fixtures, doling out the usual mix of tech wizardry and nervous quips. Klementieff, as the near-mythic assassin Paris, steals scenes with her silent fury and intense physicality.

Of course Cruise will defy destruction in the most Hunt way possible – by jumping off, onto or through something very, very dangerous.

His previous exercises of exertion, from climbing Dubai’s Burj Khalifa to that motorcycle jump in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (also known as the biggest stunt in movie history), have made quite an impression on us, the audience. But this last joyride won’t shatter expectaction either – in it, you’ll see him walking on the wing of a plane in one adrelanin-pumping scene. In an interview with Collider, McQuarrie said that for the stunt, the actor would sometimes be on the wing for 12 minutes at a time. “The really terrifying part of that is that when Tom climbs out onto the wing of that plane, he's immediately being hit with wind going 140 miles an hour. You can't breathe,” he said. Definitely worthy of super spy Ethan Hunt.

At one point, he’s also submerged in a claustrophobic underwater submarine sequence. McQuarrie, an old hand on the Mission films – he has directed four - lets the stunts breathe. It’s cinematic showmanship, and it’s smart. We came to see Cruise run, leap, dive, dangle, and sprint like the fate of the world—and his own personal legacy—depend on it. And in his early 60s, he's doing it better than most actors half his age. Which gives us pause and hope that he keeps to his promise to keep ’em coming. According to comicbook movie.com: During a recent carpet interview, he said: "For me, it's never goodbye. It's like, 'We'll see you again.' Do you know what I mean?… actually, I am going to make them into my 100s. I will never stop. I will never stop doing action, I will never stop doing drama, comedy films, I am excited." Fingers crossed.

As for the rest of the movie, it’s a cocktail of exposition, hushed conversations in shadowy rooms, and high-stakes techno-babble that fades into the background the moment someone starts running in the streets. While the script tries to deliver tension through dialogue, it’s the action that speaks loudest. Gracefully dodging emotional complexity in favour of straight-up spectacle, the film understands that audiences aren’t looking for monologues. They’re waiting for the next death-defying set piece.

And in a nod to its own legacy, the film smartly integrates flashbacks—catching new viewers up and giving longtime fans emotional callbacks. It’s a reminder that even if the storytelling hasn’t always been consistent, the emotional throughlines have stuck: loyalty, sacrifice, and one very determined man doing the impossible again and again.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning doesn’t reinvent the franchise—it doesn’t need to. It understands exactly what it is: a curtain call for one of Hollywood’s last true action icons. If you want nuance, look elsewhere. But if you want to see Tom Cruise give everything he’s got one final time—with breathtaking, beautifully staged stunts that deserve to be seen on the biggest screen possible—this mission is well worth accepting.

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff

Rating: 3.5/5