The Mission: Impossible franchise hits a big milestone this year… nearly three decades ago, the first film starring Tom Cruise opened in 1996. The Final Reckoning has a lot on its plate, working hard to say a fitting farewell to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his beloved franchise. It’s also designed to tie up loose ends for a bunch of side characters, while teasing future sequels without Cruise in the lead role. Of course, Cruise + co wants this ‘finale’ to be bigger and bolder than anything we’ve seen before.

Well, did it accomplish its ambitious task? I’d say this franchise, which focuses more on the spectacles, delivers on that front. Just like Part 1 (Dead Reckoning), however, it’s not so formidable narratively. It’s worth noting that this is Christopher McQuarrie‘s sixth feature film, four of which are MI movies since he directed Rogue Nation. It remains one of my favorites of the franchise, as the story is as dynamic as the action. One of its main strengths is the introduction of Ilsa Faust, a former MI6 spy who ends up as a deep-cover assassin for the Syndicate terrorist group. I love how she began as an anti-hero and eventually became part of the IMF team. I’m still gutted as to how she met her end in Dead Reckoning (something the franchise still has to reckon with, pun fully intended).

Ilsa’s been replaced by another beautiful woman, a supremely skilled pickpocket named Grace. While I think Hayley Atwell is charismatic in the role, Grace isn’t as intriguing a character, and she lacks the gravitas that Rebecca Ferguson brought to Ilsa. Still, Atwell fares far better than Pom Klementieff as her character Paris feels superfluous and inconsequential. Meanwhile, the old gang Benji (Simon Pegg) and tech guy Luther (Ving Rhames) get a bit more to do this time around, especially the latter, which is fitting given Rhames is the only other actor besides Cruise to appear in all 8 Mission films.

As it’s a continuation of Dead Reckoning, the plot revolves around this rogue AI ‘Entity,’ which goes from intel-gathering to an aggressive cyberterrorism threat. The script by Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen makes the story pretty convoluted and and the constant ‘mansplaining’ about how ‘Entity’ would wreak havoc on the world is mind-numbing. Obviously, this self-aware artificial intelligence will eventually take control of various nations’ nuclear arsenals. It really doesn’t get much scarier than that!

McQuarrie packs the movie with full-throttle action from start to finish, and naturally, Cruise does lots and lots of running because he clearly loves doing it. The two main action set pieces are jaw-dropping–Cruise isn’t satisfied with delivering death-defying stunts above ground, this time he goes deep underwater. As if exploring a ghostly Russian sub resting on the ocean floor wasn’t risky enough, it starts rolling with Ethan inside, loaded with missiles! The intensity is off the charts, even surpassing the nail-biting underwater vault scene from Rogue Nation. It’ll definitely make my list of the top 10 incredible action scenes from the MI franchise.

There’s another prison fight scene that seems like a rehash of the one in Rogue Nation with Ilsa (which again, made me miss that character even more). And of course, there is no Mission movie without Cruise hanging off a plane. Again, the team has to one-up the action that’s done before it, so we’ve got not one but two bi-planes for Ethan to tackle. I’m not good with heights, so my palms get sweaty just watching Ethan dangle off one plane after another. This is a movie to be seen on as big a screen as possible; it certainly looks great on IMAX.

While the movie moves at a decent pace, the nearly 3-hour runtime feels overstuffed with non-stop action, melodramatic goodbyes, and plenty of fan service in the form of montages from previous movies. A recurring character is revealed to have a personal connection with Ethan’s mentor in the first movie, and there’s a mention of a device from the third Mission movie that I can’t recall; those bits kind of took me out of the movie a bit. I suppose it’s a requirement from the producers and Cruise himself to include those, but a bit of restraint on the director’s part would’ve been good.

Now, not all callbacks are bad. One character from the first film gets closure (even an apology) from Ethan, which is a full-circle moment. Thankfully, that character doesn’t simply exist for nostalgia’s sake but is given an intriguing arc and real purpose that’s integral to the plot. The relationship between Ethan and Luther is genuinely emotional, which highlights the importance of teamwork in the IMF. The quote “We live and die in the shadows, for those we hold close, and those we never meet” doesn’t feel clichéd as it sums up the IMF’s dedication to protect people, even at a great personal cost.

There are so many characters to keep track of here, but glad that there’s no shortage of strong female roles, most notably Hannah Waddingham as naval admiral Neely and Angela Bassett as Erika Solane, former CIA director turned US president. I was also delighted to see Janet McTeer show up as US Secretary of State, and it’s amusing to see Nick Offerman as a US general, sans his famous mustache.

While the spectacles are indeed impressive, I have to say that because there are so many coming one after another, it dulls their effect a bit in some parts. Even with your suspension of disbelief cranked way up, some of the scenes still make your eyes roll. By this point, we’ve come to expect Cruise to cheat death with gusto, but I think the most spectacular stunt remains to be the Burj Khalifa scene in Ghost Protocol in 2011, directed by Brad Bird. That is the one scene that still takes my breath away, no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

That brings me to Cruise himself, who embraces the Impossible Mission Force’s motto of defying odds in his acting career. The 62-year-old (he’ll be 63 this July) risks his life more and more, bringing the wildest spectacles to his viewers since he did the first MI movie at the age of 33. I’m curious where he’d go from here and whether he could ever go back to doing ‘regular’ acting. Can he do a drama or comedy without relying on death-defying stunts? At any rate, his collaboration with McQuarrie has been a fruitful one, and sounds like it’s continuing beyond this franchise. McQuarrie’s next project is listed as ‘Untitled Tom Cruise/SpaceX Project’ with Doug Liman directing, so I guess it’ll be another stunt-filled movie.

If this 8th spy franchise movie truly is the final goodbye to the Mission: Impossible series, what a crazy ride it’s been! This installment is definitely the longest and priciest of the bunch, costing $400 million—$100 million more than Dead Reckoning. It has its flaws, but undeniably, this franchise is the pinnacle of action movies and cements Cruise’s legacy as the quintessential action star that spans generations.

What are your thoughts on the Mission: Impossible franchise and The Final Reckoning specifically?

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