Don’t be fooled—there’s nothing final about this ending. I can assure you that Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning (2025) is not the end of this successful franchise. Perhaps it marks the closing of a particular timeline within the Mission: Impossible universe, but the studios will surely find ways to bring Ethan Hunt and his team back. Almost 30 years have passed since the first film in the franchise hit theaters under the direction of Brian De Palma, and now, with the eighth installment, the path is being paved for a generational handover.

Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning picks up exactly where its predecessor left off. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is working covertly with his team to stop Gabriel (Esai Morales) from gaining control of “The Entity”—a powerful artificial intelligence program that has seized control of nearly all the defense systems of the world’s most powerful nations, pushing humanity to the brink of total collapse. Unlike previous entries in the saga, this and the previous film pit Agent Hunt against an almost abstract villain. Gabriel is a cartoonish pawn controlled by an omnipresent force. The classic hero-villain conflict fades, and the protagonist loses strength due to the lack of a tangible antagonist.

The momentum built by Ghost Protocol (2011), Rogue Nation (2015), and Fallout (2018) dissipated with the arrival of the franchise’s two most recent films. Christopher McQuarrie has collaborated on the scripts of the last four entries and has also been in the director’s chair. His hand and style have shaped some of the best movies in the saga, and his ability to make action and frenetic sequences the focal point of the story has always paid off. If there’s one criticism to be made, it’s that the last two films completely forgo a subplot that would support the characters’ relentless momentum.

Basically, two major action sequences support the entire structure of Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning. The script rushes forward without much consideration to take Ethan first to a sunken submarine in the depths of the Arctic Ocean and then to the skies of South Africa aboard a biplane.

The underwater sequence is what delivers at the box office—without a doubt, the most well-executed part of the film. The tension is handled spectacularly, and the staging is truly impressive. The weak link of this sequence is the creative decision to end it with an exaggerated last-minute rescue trope. The second sequence—the airplane scene—is the final battle, and the most remarkable aspect here is the technical prowess and Tom Cruise’s daring, pushing his body to the limit to achieve a practical-effects action sequence without relying on CGI.

A love letter from Cruise to a franchise that is an essential part of his cinematic legacy. Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning celebrates its past with a montage that reminds us of iconic moments from previous films, honors key figures from earlier entries, and says farewell to others to establish a handover that ensures continuity.