BRAVO ECHO 1-1

Not that anyone reading this would know my personal favorite movies, but the Mission Impossible franchise is my favorite movie franchise of all time. I'm not even going to specify the genre—this is my favorite movie series out of all the movie series ever created.

This is not a joke: I hand-made T-shirts for my mother, father and me that said "Your Mission" on the front and "should you choose to accept it" on the back. We splurged ($90 USD) on IMAX tickets which were purchased three weeks in advance. I'm still not joking, by the way, and in order to fully prepare, I watched all seven Mission Impossible movies chronologically. I gladly watched them, by the way. This was not homework—I was happy to indulge myself in some of my favorite movies. All this being said, my bias is abundantly clear, but I am going to try my best to remain as objective as possible, if it's possible.

Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk. This message will not self-destruct. 

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is a part two installment. The first part, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1, seems to focus more on setting up for The Final Reckoning. The Entity is introduced as the next world-ending villain along with Gabriel, who is after the Entity and who apparently shares a history with Ethan.

It's hard to compare Mission Impossible 4-8 to 1-3. Movies 1, 2, and 3, while having iconic moments, are so different from 4-8, most likely due to the current times and the changing directors. I think it's obvious to fans that there's a real increase in caliber starting with the fourth installment and on. Thinking back to Dead Reckoning Part 1, when comparing it to 4, 5, or 6, it's definitely at a slower pace with what seems to be more dialogue. I didn't compare word count between the scripts or anything—this is simply based on feeling. Dead Reckoning Part 1 also only had one major intense action sequence, which was the magnificent train scene. It was a long scene which included a lot of classic Mission Impossible factors like "everything that can go wrong will go wrong" and Tommy boy putting his life in very real danger.

For some other recap notes about Dead Reckoning: Luther leaves to a secure, unknown location to work on his hard drive and analyze the Entity without being detected by it. Ilsa dies, and there are some new faces introduced that aren't IMF agents but will likely be allies to Ethan and Benji in the Final Reckoning.

The Final Reckoning clocks in at 2 hours and 50 minutes—it's long, people, but it's not entirely outside what the movie industry outputs these days in terms of runtime. I would love to summarize this nearly 3-hour movie for you all, but I'm here to give opinions, not be CliffsNotes. Okay, let's dive right in!

First and foremost, Tom Cruise is really that guy. The man is sixty-freakin'-two years old, about to be 63 at the time of me writing this. Not only are his stunts incomprehensibly insane, his dedication to making movies for the viewing experience of the audience is remarkable. It weirdly makes me feel special viewing his work, knowing how much dedication and effort went into the project—it truly projects through the screen. I've seen the entire franchise multiple times. As an action movie franchise, they are, in my opinion, some of the best action movies with some of the best action sequences ever created. And you know why? Because Tommy boy is living out his life purpose by making movies, and he puts in 100% effort 100% of the time.

What is Mission Impossible known for? It's known for having a crazy 5'7" A-list actor do his own—very dangerous—stunts. The stunts in Final Reckoning are actually insane. I honestly don't even know how they got Paramount to fund this movie. I mean, I do know, but the liability paperwork had to be insane. MI: Final Reckoning has two major "edge of your seat" action sequences: the submarine fiasco and the airplane scene. I have no idea who the writing team was for this movie, but I can tell you when they sat down, the first thing they brainstormed was everything that could go wrong in these particular circumstances, and then they green-lighted them all.

Particularly for the submarine scene, when I tell you everything that could go wrong did go wrong, I am not joking. Diving gear limitations, gigantic missiles falling everywhere, doors getting pinned shut, the entire submarine falling further down the ocean. You name it, it went wrong. Not to mention it's an underwater scene which, for me, already puts me on edge because I vicariously feel like I can't breathe. The entire submarine scene is a masterpiece in tension. From beginning to end, I was kind of white-knuckling my armrests. 

The airplane scene is just as wild but in a different sense. I felt that there was less tension but more like "what the f*** is this man doing?". I was deep in the junket before the movie released, and this was the big action scene that they used to promote the movie. So going in, I knew Mr. Cruise was really hanging on that plane for dear life. When watching the movie in its entirety, it's honestly just mind-blowing.

The realness of the stunt translates onto the movie screen in a way that felt like a Red Bull athlete attached a GoPro to themselves while jumping from a satellite in space. I mean, the camera is probably a foot away from the man's face as he was being blasted in the face with 140 mph winds. The whole time I was just thinking, "Wow, he's really doing that." Granted, not my brightest thought in the world, but the man could have died! I know we take it for granted because this is what he does, but HE IS 62! Come on, it's crazy no matter what he does, and yes, I think the same thing every time: "Wow, he's really f****** doing that." 

Okay, enough of the stunts because Tom Cruise and his team smash it out of the park every time. If we're being real, no, this is not the best installment of the franchise. Fallout was nearly perfect—it would've been hard to beat. I do have gripes with the movie. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 80% compared to Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and Fallout, which were all in the 90s, Fallout with a whopping 98%. 

I purposely avoided reading reviews on Final Reckoning to prevent tainting my opinion on the movie. The villains in both Dead and Final Reckoning were Gabriel and the Entity; however, it was really the Entity that needed to be stopped because it was going to destroy the world. So in my honest, unadulterated opinion, here's my biggest gripe… Gabriel. Gabriel on paper, I'm sure, was a dynamic character that was meant to bring some more depth and history to Ethan's character. Gabriel served more as a foil to Ethan's character, and it had the potential to be an interesting choice, but the execution was not there in the slightest. First of all, Gabriel was not in any of the other movies. I rewatched MI 1-7, and not once is Gabriel brought up or shown. The introduction of Gabriel as Ethan's arch-nemesis and reason for joining the IMF was so random and felt almost like amateur hour writing. For a franchise that has been going for 30 years, Gabriel should've been thought about and, at the minimum, been a flashback in any other movie before Dead Reckoning to actually give him some substance. I also felt that the actor who portrayed Gabriel, Esai Morales, was simply not good. I'm sure he's better in his other roles, but I did not enjoy him at all. He was better in Dead Reckoning, but I honestly think it was because he had a lesser role with less dialogue. I'm not sure if it was the script, the direction, or the acting choices, but Gabriel came off kitschy. Almost like a Scooby-Doo villain. He had a line in the movie that almost took me out—he goes "Catch me if you can!" with a comical super-villain laugh to follow. Mind you, this was a super intense scene that he pulls this ca-ca in. It was bad, you guys, and very disappointing. A lot of his line deliveries pulled me out of the serious tone of the scene, which irritated me. Again, not sure if this was an acting choice or the script, but someone should've had the wherewithal to scrap certain lines completely or give Esai direction to make Gabriel less cheesy. I feel bad because, again, I'm sure he's a fine actor in other genres or projects, but this wasn't the role for him.

Gabriel was my most major gripe. I had a few other minor gripes, like some of the new IMF team members.

I loved, loved, loved the addition of Paris. Pom Klementieff portrayed Paris, Gabriel's assassin turned IMF ally, and she embodied Paris so wonderfully. She comes off as this badass, totally capable woman assassin who you don't want to mess with—a little off the rails in a good way. I think Pom had martial arts experience and also trained for this role; it totally comes across. Since Ilsa was killed off in Dead Reckoning, it was nice to have another trained female fighter join the team to fill that Ilsa-sized hole in our hearts.

On the other hand, I think Grace is somewhat of a polarizing character. She's also new as of Dead Reckoning, and I feel like some people love her and some don't care for her at all. She is a bit of a different choice since she's not a trained fighter—she's a pickpocket. I personally liked Grace; I think Hayley Atwell acted wonderfully as Grace. This wasn't an acting choice, this was a writing choice, but there's one scene after she rescues Ethan from the frozen ocean that's very meh.

Typical pretty girl in a low-cut top to nurse Ethan back to health after a near-death experience. It felt unnecessary and honestly made me a little confused about the relationship Ethan has with all the women on the IMF team. Does he have romantic relationships with them all but just never takes it to second base with anyone? Does he just care a little bit more about his female team members? Otherwise, I feel that Grace really holds her own in Dead and Final Reckoning where it would, otherwise, be really easy for her to be somewhat of a damsel in distress since she has zero training. She's of course not like Paris or Ilsa, but she is strong in her own way, and her pickpocketing abilities are critical for one of the best scenes in the movie.

I do want to address the elephant in the room: Luther did die. It's not really an elephant—anyone who even remotely likes the MI movies probably had a feeling or knew that Luther's character was going to be killed off. I called it after Dead Reckoning; Luther was a goner. Luther was an interesting constant in the MI franchise, never having a major role but being a major character because of his consistency throughout the movies. It's really just been Luther and Ethan since the beginning. Technically he wasn't in Ghost Protocol, but he had a cameo at the end, which was sweet. I personally loved Luther. Who the hell didn't? I felt that he was a character that connected all the movies together, outside of Ethan obviously, and allowed audiences in on a more personal side to Ethan in some instances than always seeing the IMF agent Ethan Hunt. I thought he was a good, calm presence to Ethan's "I'll figure it out" approach.

I don't love or really understand Luther's story in Final Reckoning. At the end of Dead Reckoning, he bids Ethan adieu to go work on his hard drive off the grid so he is undetectable to the Entity. But when Ethan and Benji meet up with Luther in Final Reckoning, he's underground in this tunnel network, magically ill with a hospital bed in a makeshift hospital room working on the poison pill. He apparently even has nurses come by to administer his medicine. Similar to the Gabriel storyline, there's no explanation on how or why Luther is suddenly sick. Then, of course, Gabriel takes advantage of the fact Luther has nurses administering medicine to drug him and lock him behind bars with a bomb that can either kill everyone or just him. This happens within the first quarter of the movie, so I think Ving Rhames was probably ready to be done with the MI movies. It's been 30 years, for Pete's sake—I don't blame him. I also have no idea what it was like behind the scenes for him. I have never seen him do press or premieres for any of the MI movies;

maybe in the early days he did, but not since Ghost Protocol, that's for sure. I also learned that he wasn't in Ghost Protocol as an actual role because of salary disagreements, which, being the only Black character in Mission Impossible, who knows what those conversations were like or how he actually felt. Being the idealist that I am, I hope he's real-life friends with Tom and Simon, but who knows. Either way, I thought it was bittersweet that it was just Ethan and Luther in the moment he ultimately died because it's been Tom and Ving since 1996. I wish the writers gave more explanation to Luther's situation in Final Reckoning, but ultimately he did die as a faceless hero. 

In the final "do or die" scene, they need Luther's poison pill and the Sevastopol to essentially make the Entity think it had control over all the world's missiles, and then the Entity would be downloaded into the poison pill and unplugged from the main server at the perfect time. The issue is, they had something like a hundredth of a second to get the timing right to make sure the entire Entity was in the poison pill and unplugged from the server before the Entity started re-downloading itself back into the mainframe servers. Grace was tasked with this job because of her pickpocketing abilities, and let me tell you, Grace had a hundredth of a second to unplug the poison pill, and the editors had a hundredth of a second to get this scene right, and THEY NAILED IT! It was pure cinema executed to perfection. I could watch that scene a thousand times. In my theater, the entire audience audibly gasped. The timing of the editing, the cuts that were made, everything was absolutely perfect.

Now the question on everyone's mind… is this really the last Mission Impossible? Who can say. The end of the movie made it feel like this is not the last installment of the franchise. Maybe this was Tom's last Mission Impossible and the movies will continue with the new team. Maybe Tom will still be a part of the franchise in a lesser role, like a Kittridge type of role while still being heavily involved in the production? Maybe they'll take Mission Impossible in the television direction? Who can really say. In my personal opinion, Tom is irreplaceable. It kind of feels like being a Game of Thrones fan (which I am) and then being extremely skeptical about House of the Dragon. House of the Dragon is very good, but is it Game of Thrones? God, no. But again, the ending did not, in the slightest, feel like a finale.

Overall, this movie was well done. It had magnificent action scenes that are top-tier cinema, lots of nostalgic moments, particularly with their choice to bring back agent William Donloe from the very first Mission Impossible.

Remember him? He had a pretty nothing role as the somewhat dopey agent who was guarding the IMF mainframe in the CIA headquarters in MI: 1 and came back as a pretty significant chess piece for Final Reckoning. We saw old faces and new faces, and at the end of the day, it was a great movie to enjoy in the theaters with friends and family. No, it was not the best installment of the franchise, but it was one of those ones that touched the heartstrings of the fans that have loved these movies for the last 30 freaking years. I would one hundred percent recommend going to see it in the theaters and get some popcorn too, since Tom enjoys popcorn so much. Little joke there for those who get the reference.

Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning, I grant you 7.8 out of 10 stars!

Au revoir!