It might be, hypothetically, a bad idea to take a weed gummy before seeing Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
All through the alleged last installment in Tom Cruise’s stunt-heavy superspy franchise, you might wonder if what you’re witnessing is, in fact, weird as fuck, or if that’s just the work of the gummy. (Imagine my relief personally when my colleagues confirmed that, yes, the movie is that weird.)
“Here’s the thing: I think Tom Cruise is a seriously weird and strange guy,” a friend of mine recently posted on Bluesky, basically calling out the main reason why this shit is weird. Right from the jump, Cruise plays his unbreakable hero Ethan Hunt — famously dubbed “the living manifestation of destiny” by Alec Baldwin’s CIA director (RIP) — as Mankind’s Last Hope.
This Reckoning continues the story of the last installment (i.e., Dead Reckoning), with Hunt and his crew — Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg’s longtime tech vets, Hayley Atwell’s ravishing pickpocket, newly recruited gunslingers Pom Klementieff and Greg Tarzan Davis — going after a parasitic, apocalypse-hungry artificial intelligence known as The Entity. Much like when he encouraged people to take their asses outside and see movies again after the pandemic, here Cruise not-so-subtly hints to viewers that AI is, you know, bad, and people should get off the web and live, gotdammit! (How much are you willing to bet that he found out about the deep-fake Tom Cruise TikToker and was not pleased one bit?)
For a movie series that’s known for serving up energetic action sequences, Reckoning feels shockingly inert. Apart from some fight scenes here and there, the first two hours feature Cruise and company planning, strategizing, and saying expository mumbo-jumbo that makes the already baffling plot — assembled by director/frequent Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie and co-writer Erik Jendresen — even more incomprehensible. (Considering that the first Mission movie was notoriously indecipherable, why not end it the same way?) Even when the big set pieces happen, they’re more impressive than awe-inspiring. Yeah, it’s wild seeing Cruise get his Great Waldo Pepper on, dangling off biplanes (those are still around?!) in the climax. But let’s be real here: Cruise hanging from various aircraft is basically his thing now.
‘Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One’ opens wide this week
For the most part, Reckoning has Cruise at his most lone-wolfish. Although the movie is littered with characters — from Angela Bassett’s ex-CIA director turned POTUS to Severance scene-stealer Tramell Tillman’s sassy submarine commander — who are ready and willing to aid him, Hunt mostly goes at it alone. There’s a huge chunk of the movie where he silently takes a lonesome, dread-filled voyage to a lost submarine at the bottom of the Bering Sea. (Think James Cameron, but more existential.) He may have tech nerds and sexy assassins always there to help him. But when it comes to saving the world, which he’s done for nearly 30 years in seven previous films, it’s his cross to bear. And boy, does he bear it.
That’s what makes Reckoning such an odd, disorienting, high-blown experience. Hunt has always been a noble renegade — think James Bond without the creepy womanizing. (Hunt prefers cuddling!) But Reckoning has him in full-on Chosen One mode, someone who knows he was destined to fight for what’s right. And I think Cruise feels the same way about himself.
It’s hard not to think about Cruise’s rep as the King of Scientology while watching Reckoning. As I watched Hunt assume the role of adrenaline-junkie savior, virtually resurrecting himself after death-cheating moments, I remembered that he’s being played by the same guy who did a Scientology recruitment video rambling about being one of the few who can legitimately save this place.
Ultimately, Reckoning feels less like a summer blockbuster and more like Cruise giving himself $300 to $400 million flowers. He reminds the audience that he’s made sacrifices, lost friends, worked his body ragged, and spilled blood, sweat and tears just to entertain us.
We appreciate you, Tom. But we also would have appreciated you sticking the gotdamn landing and putting a nice bow on this franchise.
