Succinct Cinema: Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning
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Today subscribers you are getting a special double feature of Succinct Cinema! This is the second review and features a film playing in theaters; the first review is streaming at home.
I love the cinema. Growing up in NYC, going to a movie theater and watching something all-consuming on the big screen has been a constant source of joy for me. In fact, movies in the summertime is a perpetual peak experience because I get to ride my bike to some Manhattan moviehouse and indulge in whatever visual storytelling strikes my fancy. This week, I decided to watch Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. Although the film premiered in theaters on May 23rd, I couldn’t get away to watch it, but I’m glad I finally did. This film marks the eighth and final installment of the Mission Impossible franchise that Tom Cruise and his former producing partner Paula Wagner launched in 1996. Later, in the franchise, Christopher McQuarrie, the writer behind indie classic The Usual Suspects (1995) became a key writer/director/producer working with Cruise.
McQuarrie’s first official collaboration with the star was 2008’s WWII Hitler assassination plot drama Valkyrie, based on an improbable true story. McQuarrie went on to collaborate with Cruise as some combination of writer, producer and/or director (often all three at once). They worked together on hits like Jack Reacher (2012), Top Gun: Maverick (2023) and Mission five through eight. Mission 8, in theaters now—written, directed and produced by McQuarrie alongside perennial producer Cruise—has made nearly $580 million in the global box office so far and has an impressive 88% audience score and 80% critics score with Rotten Tomatoes. The film also had a $400 million budget, so it’s not turning a major profit, but a win is still a win!
When I biked over for a late night screening of the final Mission Impossible I felt obligated to watch this film on the big screen, in particular. I rarely watch IMAX, but I imagine this would be an excellent candidate for such an expensive ticket. I saw the very first Mission Impossible when I was a teenager in 1996 at my local Bronx movie theater and I still remember the exhilaration of that original feature—I particularly recall how exciting the scene with the exploding fish tank was to watch for the first time or the nail biting sequence with Cruise suspended from the ceiling. Those were the days of Cruise in movies like The Firm (1993), Interview with the Vampire (1994) and Jerry Maguire (1996). He was on a tear. This time for The Final Reckoning I squirmed in my seat once more at the death defying stunts Cruise performs; hanging upside down in the sky (for real!) or building a massive 8.5 million liter water tank to simulate the depths of the ocean.
In Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Cruise’s character, Agent Ethan Hunt, is joined on a seemingly final mission by his most trusted colleagues/friends as they attempt to destroy a sentient AI technology known as “The Entity.” This AI technology, also featured in the previous film, is on a path towards total domination of information, reality, financial systems and military arsenals.
On an intellectual level, I think this final installment and the entire catalogue of bad guys throughout the film series are a warning. Yes, this is a fictional story, but considering all the unregulated shenanigans going on with AI, for one, Mission Impossible is arguably an eight-part (heightened) exploration of human choice and loyalty to mankind vs. determinism and selfish greed. Indeed, every government assignment for a Mission Impossible Force (IMF) agent inquires:
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it...”
Choice. Choice is a big part of Mission Impossible, not so much about options, but about free will. It presents the idea that the IMF agents choose to risk their lives for their country despite the dangers and isolation from regular society. Mission Impossible, based on a late 1960s television show, represents a bygone era where American patriotism was an ideal worthy of a global franchise celebrating a nation of laws, justice, cultural diversity and inalienable rights. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is an otherworldly patriot, hero and friend, always risking his life for others and the greater good above all else. This final film, takes us down memory lane of Agent Hunt’s career as seen through previous films amidst his current impossible mission and this final jaunt is really really impossible.
Old story lines are brought to fruition as this mission represents a culmination of Hunt’s career battling maniacs convinced their dystopian vision of the world is the only viable future. At a time where we already use AI too haphazardly, The Final Reckoning reminds us of the enormous life-sustaining potential of human will especially in partnership with other human beings. Even watching BTS of Cruise throwing his body on the line doing outlandish stunts for this film (and previous), is a potent reminder of what human beings can do when we put our minds to it.
I suppose the final message of the franchise is that nothing is truly impossible.
Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning in Now Playing, though it may not be for much longer, so head out to the theaters if you want to catch the end of an era!