Alright,Mission: Impossible. It’s a series that’s over. Maybe? Who really knows. Sure, the eighth film is calledMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and the fourth word of that five-word title would suggest a bit of, you know, finality, but money talks, and if this eighth movie performs better than the seventh (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), thenmaybe Ethan Hunt will return. There would be ways to make it work, if that’s whatTom Cruisewanted. He’s a legend who pretty much seems to get what he wants nowadays, but so long as what he’s doing as a star is entertaining, maybe that’s okay.
Speaking of entertaining,Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoningkind of is. Like, it’s probably a bit of a downgrade considering the last fourMission: Impossiblemovies, since the run from the fourth film (Ghost Protocol) to the seventh was a pretty remarkable one. Hell, even the third movie was good, as was the first, and the second might be kind of over-hated. Most of the series is good.The Final Reckoningis slightly less good, notably being longer and feeling a little less action-packed than usual, but there are still some big scenes here that should impress anyone looking for action. For present purposes, anything longer than a handful of shots is considered an action scene here.If there’s fighting, explosions, sustained gunfire, chasing, or all of the above in a scene, then it counts as an action sequence. And all such sequences ofThe Final Reckoningare ranked below.
This article will contain some spoilers for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
7The Cave Shootout and (Brief) Chase
Before he flies, Cruise survives a murky shootout and runs
Right before deliveringthe biggest action sequence in the film,Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoningalso gives viewers what’s likely the most underwhelming. Basically, the film’s conflict sees Hunt and his team ending up in a bunker in South Africa, all part of a complex scheme to fool the rogue AI program they’re up against (the Entity), and trap it inside a device of their own, which will prevent it from going through with starting a nuclear apocalypse the way it’s been threatening to do all movie.
There are lots of people in the bunker, and you get a kind of murky shootout that’s really just there to get Hunt and the main villain who’s not an AI program (Gabriel) outside and on board a couple of bi-planes. That’s the part that’s important. But everything inside the cave is murky and pretty boring. It’s hard to understand the layout of such a confined and dark location, and a car crash featured here in a brief underground chase didn’t exactly impress, either.Once Hunt’s in the air, and his team are doing their thing, things get better, but that really comprises another action sequence. The shots of action confined to just the cave are another thing altogether, and don’t amount to much.
6Paris Rescue
Now going to the start of the movie, here’s another scene that’s short enough it really only just counts as an action scene, but you have to take what you can get, with this film. The first hour only has a couple of bits of brief action, all between surprisingly lengthy andkind of repetitive scenes of people chatting. Sure, you need some set-up, plus it would be a little silly not to save the best for last. But… maybe the first act could’ve used a little more excitement, or just a little less by way of exposition dumps.
Paris (Pom Klementieff), who almost died at the end ofMission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, gets recruited onto Hunt’s team early on inThe Final Reckoning. It’s low stakes, but at least it allowsThe Final Reckoningto have one face mask reveal. Maybe it’s notMission: Impossibleunless someone reveals they’re actually wearing one of those infamously realistic-looking masks.Otherwise, the twisty espionage stuff is lacking a bit from thisMission: Impossible, the stakes perhaps being too high for that kind of silliness.
5Cell Breakout
Hey, you gotta have Tom Cruise running
Another early scene that’s just qualifiable as an action scene,Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoninghas Ethan and Grace (Hayley Atwell) captured by Gabriel early on. He’s not working for the Entity anymore, but still wants to harness its power, somehow.Of course, Ethan and Grace escape, but not in a way that also allows them to stop Gabriel, which all feels a bit contrived, but such a scene being in the film so early means it kind of has to end this way.
But hey, an escape also ends up being an excuse for Tom Cruise to run, so that’s something.
What’s a little disappointing, maybe, is that Hunt fighting a couple of people is kept off-screen, and the implied brutality of the fight is made into a gag. It feels a little like a cop-out, though, and even as a gag, theycould’ve made the sound effects sound gnarlierso it hit a bit harder humorously. But hey, an escape also ends up being an excuse for Tom Cruise to run, so that’s something. After a little more exposition from the Entity itself, he gets to leg it to Luther (Ving Rhames), though he isn’t fast enough to save the only other character, besides Hunt, to appear in all eightMission: Impossiblemovies.
4The Submarine Exploration/Escape
Cruise just cruising through on his own
In contrast to the aforementioned action scenes, the submarine sequence inMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoningdoes feel big. Hunt has to explore the wreck of the submarine that was shown being destroyed at the start ofDead Reckoning, retrieving the core module inside and getting out in one piece. This beingMission: Impossible, a bad situation gets worse, with the interior of the sub flooding and the entire wreckage sliding further down into the ocean.
It just goes on for a very long time, building tension to some extent, but also, at the end of the day, just being Tom Cruise navigating a dark and claustrophobic set.You know Hunt’s not going to bite it halfway into the movie, and you also feel as though the set piece isn’t as dangerous as some of the others from the series(they’re not actually as deep in the ocean, filming it, as Ethan Hunt is in-universe). It’s still an action sequence, and it has afew moments that might cause jaws to dropa little, but it’s otherwise a bit underwhelming for what ends up being the second-biggest action sequence in the film.
3One-on-One Fight on a Submarine
Almost scratches the same itch as ‘Fallout’s bathroom brawl
It’s hard to select the best fight sequence inMission: Impossible – Fallout, since that sixth movie in the series has so many great set pieces. The bathroom fight is a contender, given how brutal and intense it is, and it feels like the one-on-one fight sequence inThe Final Reckoningis going for a similar thing, since it’s kind of painful to watch and has an intimate sort of intensity to it.
Ittakes place on a submarine, but not the wreckage of the one Cruise later explores. Instead, he’s attacked by a naval soldier on board the submarine who’s actually aligned with the Entity. It’s not entirely necessary, but without it, the film would be without abig hand-to-hand fight for Tom Cruise, and so here it is.It’s a good scene on its own, though, so it’s hard to complain too much when it’s all going down, in the moment.
2Burning Home Brawl
Some of the best action in this film doesn’t even have Tom Cruise
Weirdly enough, one of the best bursts of action inMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoningdoesn’t have Tom Cruise in it. His team go off to Alaska for kind of convoluted reasons, and they connect with someone who was in the very first movie, and also encounter some Russian special forces members kind of just because. In typicalThe Final Reckoningspirit, the set-up is stumbled over and kind of wonky…
…But the scene itself is honestly satisfying. The cabin they’re in gets set on fire, guns play into it, and thenthere’s also a ton of hand-to-hand combat. It looks visually appealing because of the lighting the fire creates, andit’s the sort of scene where there are more stakes, given that characters who aren’t Ethan Hunt can die before the film’s conclusion. As for Ethan Hunt, there’s only one sequence where he could possibly die here, and it’s…
1The Bi-Plane Sequence
At least they save the best for last
The final action sequence inThe Final Reckoningis the best one, in terms of offering themost spectacle, tension, and impressive stunt work. GivenThe Final Reckoningis a movie (duh), it’ssafe to assume Cruise wasn’t in as much danger as Hunt was, but it’s hard to know to what extent. The bi-plane chase/fight that occurs right at the film’s end feels dangerous, and that’s the main thing.
It’s edge-of-your-seat stuff, much in the same way the other top-notch sequences from the series’ history have been. It’s Cruise in full-on daredevil mode, and seeing him hang off a plane and climb around it manages to arguably top the comparable sequence from the start ofMission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. It was, of course, wise to save a sequence like this until the end. Everything from the take-off to Hunt saving the day while plummeting down to Earth is great (even the rather silly way Gabriel dies; he’s made into a joke more than ever, in death, but it’s probably the biggest laugh in the entire film, so that’s something).
