Recently, the married couple of my church went on a (much deserved) sabbatical. I also learned that their three sons (who are amazing) are fans of sorts of the Mission Impossible movies.
Well, by the time they come back from their sabbatical, I may finally be able to explain the plot of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.
That is not to say the film is inadequate, but to go through my notes and anything I find on Wiki to describe the plot of this thing would be…well, impossible. Still, I will try. Set only months after the events of Dead Reckoning, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is now in possession of the cruciform key, which is needed to stop the entity, a AI-esq …entity (I could not think of a better word) that is only days away from starting a global nuclear meltdown.
Hunt also needs to stop madman Gabriel (Esai Morales) from gaining control of the entity. Helping Ethan on this mission is former pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell), old collaborators Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames), Theo (Greg Tarzan Davis), and former enemy Paris (Pom Klementieff).
Being that there is indeed a fair chance that this is the last of the series, the film makes many callbacks to the former films. I won’t spoil them, but I will say that some do fizzle out while a few do prove affective (most notably the return of a minor character from the first film).
I did also forget to mention that the invaluable Angela Bassett returns (last seen in Fallout) as Erika Sloan, who has gone from CIA director to the President of the United States.
The first hour or so of this movie has some nice action scenes (and a little bit of comedy but not as much as previous entries in the series), but they are all buried under so much exposition one can’t breath.
Thankfully, the film has two action set pieces that more than make up for it all, and are worth the price of admission alone. The first is an under water sequence that is to take place in the north arctic (I forgot the name of the actual sea), with Cruise given specific instructions in a twenty minute (ish) time zone with no talking. It is riveting.
We have been told that Cruise is known to do his own stunts, so watching him underwater (and almost getting hit by a submarine) is mind boggling. Still, even that nearly fails in comparison to the final act, which takes place on two bi planes between Ethan and Gabriel. I’m not sure how they made it, but there seems to be no green screen in site. The stunt work is, for lack of a better word, impossible, but it is pulled off.
I’ve a theory on how this action set pieces are made: Cruise and the writers think of the most impossible stunts, and look for that 1% of chance that it could succeed, and go with that.
Parents, aside from some revealing clothing worn toward the beginning (that does not last long), there is nothing too much to worry about here aside from violence that is on par with other films in the series. The same goes for the swearing as well.
Stunt work on film is almost as old as film itself, starting with the likes of Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd. One might be able to say that those three (especially Keaton) walked so Cruise could run, but I am starting to believe that Cruise (along with director Christopher McQuarrie) is doing his own form of construction on those previous paths for the next generation.
Should the next generation choose to accept it.
Overall:
Nothing else to say 