Deep dive: Tom Cruise in ‘Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning’.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING ****1/2 (170 minutes) M
In what we are told is his last turn at bat, Tom Cruise swings for the fence and hits a homer. Again.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning – the eighth film in the 30-year franchise – is thoroughly good and often great, an emotionally grounded action epic with two masterpiece sequences and an ingenious plot that includes a host of topical plug-ins and a major reference to Fail Safe. Talk about class.
In a nutshell: the ghastly AI beast The Entity introduced to us in Dead Reckoning wants to zap humanity by taking control of all the world’s nuclear arsenals.
Our man Ethan Hunt (Cruise) wants to kill The Entity outright; arch nemesis Gabriel (Esai Morales) wants to take control of it, thus setting the arena for dueling themes about power, the dangers of runaway AI and the ever-present threat of global thermonuclear annihilation, illustrated here with terrifying vividness.
With Cruise, now 62, spending much of his screen time running at full pelt and again doing his own stunts – he is even listed as a pilot in the final credits – the film is essentially a string of crisis points of escalating magnitude, with nothing short of all humanity at stake.
Director Christopher McQuarrie, who again co-wrote with Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers), presides over an intricate, finely-honed narrative loaded with moral dilemmas that are complex but – thankfully – never confusing.
Key plot points are continually nailed so that you never lose track of all that is going on, as is the cardinal rule of all good mass-market storytellers who rely on repeat business, saluting here the fact that, unlike other mega-franchises such as Star Wars and James Bond, the Mission Impossible fanbase has steadily grown with each episode.
As global as the consequences are, with nuclear missiles being primed for launch by The Entity, everything is emotionally grounded.
As has long been the M:I MO, virtually nothing, however meticulously thought out, goes to plan, with failure exacting a personal cost alongside the macro fallout. This keeps you invested in the outcome of each encounter, a rare quality in big films. (One can only hope all the effort will warrant some Oscar attention.)
Admittedly, the film does occasionally get a bit fruity with all the emphasis on how Hunt is The Only One capable of saving the world.
Sweeping aerial shots cast him as a sort of Saviour, an Action Man Messiah whose image is continually reinforced by the brandishing of the crucifix-shaped key at the centre of the plot.
It might only be speculation as to whether this is deliberate baiting of faith-based audiences, yet it’s hard to miss. Believers will no doubt respond positively.
As we have come to expect, the action scenes are purely premium and include two masterpiece sequences – one high in the air involving two biplanes; the other inside a sunken Russian submarine precariously perched on the edge of an abyss. The former is full of gasp-inducing thrills, the latter saturated with tension.
The supports are sturdy as usual, most notably Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg – his less jokey turn reflecting the serious tone throughout – and especially Esai Morales, channelling the type of world-conquering villains Bond used to give us before they went soft.
It’s also good seeing M:I long-hauler Henry Czerny as Kittridge and the ageless Angela Bassett return as the US president, with her inner circle including Janet McTeer and Nick Offerman (aka Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation).
Most gratifying of all – of course – is how the nameless henchmen who are typically dispatched with ease in most action films here prove themselves to be very tough nuts to crack, indeed.
They even know how to put up a fight and shoot straight, God luv’em.