A memorable sendoff Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany,...
A memorable sendoff
Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Mariela Garriga, Janet McTeer
“Our lives are not defined by any one action. Our lives are the sum of our choices,” is the main theme for not just the (most probably) last Mission: Impossible film, but, in retrospection, all of the films in the franchise, but it is this film that fully embraces the theme (which most probably, in a real-life situation, would leave to a lifetime of existential crises) and works around the idea. The films (Dead Reckoning and Final Reckoning) work around this idea, and inevitably, become the ones in the franchise that rely mostly on heavy (and sometimes tiresome, and oftentimes pretentious) exposition for the most part, while still delivering on the set pieces — unarguably, some of the best setpieces in the entire franchise. This film, for the most part, revolves around Tom Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, battling his psychological demons — you can’t save everyone; and unarguably makes it the most intimate hours we’ve spent with Ethan Hunt, thanks to Tom Cruise’s brilliant and authentic performance of a man tormented by his own demons.
You could well argue that this takes itself way too seriously for its own good, and while that is not entirely wrong, you could also make the argument that this installment in the franchise just might be the most important one. If not for this installment, the franchise would go down as just another blockbuster franchise where the characters lack depth. Possibly the most important action film — which is completely mainstream — made in a long time, as it combines Dostoevsky’s guilt-stricken man with a severe God and morality complex, and the core ideas that formed the foundation for the entire franchise, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is unlike anything we’ve seen from the franchise.
Christopher McQuarrie — undeniably the best filmmaker who has been attached to the franchise, right above De Palma — has turned the franchise into something bigger than just large-scale action blockbusters — which the franchise, more or less, was before Rogue Nation (not a bad thing); the franchise, since the release of Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation in 2015, has become as psychologically inclined as it is inclined towards delivering as thrilling of an experience as possible. Of course, the psychological subtext that the films bear has become very evident as the years have passed, but so has the larger-than-life set pieces.
The franchise peaked with Fallout in 2018, concerning the direction, performances, screenplay, setpieces…everything; Fallout is essentially the pinnacle of blockbuster cinema, and McQuarrie and Cruise are well aware of that, so the two installments succeeding Fallout, don’t feel like they’re trying to top it in anyway whatsoever, it feels more like a conclusion to the story. None of the set pieces are meant to be better than those in the previous film; it is what is right for the film. The Final Reckoning has the least amount of larger-than-life set pieces out of any M:I film, but it's not the sheer size or the number of set pieces, but the significance it holds that eventually makes it memorable. With only two major set pieces in the film, this still ends up being memorable.
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