This was Mission: Impossible‘s final reckoning, and this is my last article for The Viking Times, my final reckoning.  The Mission: Impossible franchise has been taking the world throughout the life of Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) since 1996.  Now, nearly thirty years later, Hunt’s final reckoning has come.  The film hit movies on May 23, 2025 in the United States.

The Mission: Impossible series is one of the most well-known in the film industry not just in Hollywood, but throughout the world.  M:I has also made Tom Cruise one of the best actors of all time, being able to seamlessly transition into the complex character of Ethan Hunt while performing some of the world’s most daring stunts.  Each movie, his stunts get more and more dangerous, adding to the thrill.  Before we get into the review of The Final Reckoning, let’s review the events of the other seven movies.

As iterated at the top, these next seven paragraphs may contain spoilers.  I like to keep reviews ambiguous, but consider yourself warned.  If you wish to skip to the review of The Final Reckoning, start at the paragraph after the image of Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell getting out of a car.

Mission: Impossible: Audience’s are introduced to the Impossible Mission Force (the IMF) in Prague, where Ethan Hunt is on a mission.  In the process, half of Ethan’s team gets killed including his team leader Jim Phelps (John Voight), and Ethan is framed for it.  He turns to the IMF to help him clear his name, but soon realizes that it was the IMF that sabotaged the mission, with the help of a mole.  Ethan must break into the CIA and recover the NOC (Non-Official Cover) List that includes the name of the mole (this is the famous scene where Cruise is suspended from the ceiling in a white room).  The mole turns out to be Phelps, who had faked his death and Ethan’s name is cleared from murder.

Mission: Impossible 2: A rogue IMF agent, Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) has gained possession of Chimera, a biological viral disease that could cause a global pandemic if left in the wrong hands.  Sean plans to auction off the disease while maintaining possession of its cure, Bellerophon.  Of course, the IMF hires Ethan to find and stop Sean from selling Chimera.  Ethan recruits Ambrose’s ex-girlfriend and thief  Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandwie Newton) and good friend and computer genius, Luther (Ving Rhames).  Nyah is tasked with seducing Sean in an attempt to steal the disease, but her deception doesn’t fool anyone and she ends up being injected with Chimera – she can only be saved if the Bellerophon is injected within a 20-hour period.  It is up to Ethan to save Nyah and prevent other people from becoming infected while stopping Sean from selling Chimera.

Mission: Impossible 3: This film brings out the more personal side of Ethan as we meet his fiancée, Julia (Michelle Monaghan), who is unaware of Ethan’s dangerous job.  Ethan gets word that one of his coworkers has been captured by arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and is tasked to rescue her with Luther.  When they rescue their coworker in Berlin, Ethan and Luther find an explosive pellet in her head, which detonates and kills her.  Luther and Ethan managed to recover some information from the place where Owen captured their coworker, and this information is made useful by IMF technician Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg).  Ethan realizes that Julia is risked at being put in danger, but before he tries to save her, she is kidnapped by Owen.  In order to bring back Julia, Ethan must obtain the Rabbit’s Foot, an highly important object that drives the plot of the rest of the film (yes, the audience and the people within the IMF has no idea what is does, but that doesn’t matter, apparently).  Long story-short (this movie is insane), Ethan finds Julia, but Owen implants an explosive pellet in Ethan’s head, but Ethan kills him before the pellet detonates.  He instructs Julia on how to save him, and she does.  Then, they seemingly live happily every after.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol: This is my favorite film of the franchise.  A nuclear extremist, Kurt “Cobalt” Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who has stolen Russian nuclear launch codes and threatens a nuclear war.  Ethan, Agent Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji are tasked with infiltrating the Kremlin to gain information on Cobalt.  However, their mission is intercepted by Cobalt and the Kremlin implodes, leaving Ethan framed for it.  Cobalt’s bombing is in fact a cover up for him to gain access to Russia’s nuclear warfare.  When learning about this, the president of the United States calls for “Ghost Protocol,” the disavowment of the IMF.  The IMF secretary secretly calls for Ethan and his team to finish the job of preventing Cobalt from launching Russia’s nuclear missiles.  However, Ethan must get through to Sabine Moreau (Léa Seydoux), where she will sell the stole launch codes.  To do this, Ethan must infiltrate the Burj Khalifa, yes, the Burj Khalifa, with the help of IMF analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner).  It’s amazing.  At the end of the film, Ethan stops Cobalt’s efforts to start a nuclear war, damaging many BMWs along the way.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation: “The Syndicate”, an organization formed by former British Intelligence agent Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), is wreaking havoc among the world.  Of course, it is up to Ethan, Benji, and Luther to stop him.  However, CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) confronts the US Senate to permanently terminate the operation of the IMF after the incident in Russia.  However, Benji and Brandt are determined to find and help Ethan, who escapes his kidnapping with the help of Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) to try and give out information about the Syndicate.  Ethan’s escape brings him, Benji, and Brandt to the Vienna Opera six months later to intercept one of the steps in Lane’s plan to complete terrorist attacks to send the world into a state of terror.  While there, he learns that Isla has been commissioned by Lane and the Syndicate to assassinate the Chancellor of Austria, who ultimately gets killed (not by Isla).  Ethan and Ilsa escape, but Ethan must release her to protect her and himself.  However, they reunite in Morocco where they steal a list of names that make up members of the Syndicate, disavowed and declared-dead agents of former international intelligence agencies working together to infiltrate the world.  Ethan and Ilsa must go to the British Prime Minister, who has access to a red box containing all of the Syndicate’s information, and stop Lane.  They stop him, and Lane is locked up.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout: Fallout is a continuation of Rogue Nation, taking place two years after the previous film.  As Lane is being transported from government to government to answer for his crimes, former Syndicate agents have formed together to create the Apostles.  A mysterious broker named John Lark recruits the agents to acquire three plutonium cores to create nuclear bombs with the intention of ending the world.  Of course, it’s up to Benji, Luther, Ilsa, and Ethan to save it.  Alanna Mitsopolis, the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby), is also a broker interested in the plutonium and plans to meet Lark at a party in London.  Ethan goes undercover as Lark to try an disrupt the exchange of the future weapons.  With him goes August Walker (Henry Cavill) who is sent to watch over Ethan by CIA Director Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) to make sure Ethan and his team won’t go rogue.  After traveling to Paris, London, and Kashmir, it is revealed that Walker is in fact John Lark and used his involvement in the CIA to gain power and access to the locations of the plutonium cores.  In Kashmir, Ethan and his team must stop the cores from detonating and with a little help from a prominent figure in Ethan’s path, the world is saved once again.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Released in 2023, Ethan, Benji, Luther, and Ilsa are tasked to find two halves of a complex key that went down with Russian submarine Sevastopol.  Governments around the world want this key, as it unlocks an unknown AI superpower known only as “The Entity” – and it knows your every movement.  When attempting to acquire the key, Ethan meets Grace (Hayley Atwell), an English pick-pocket wanted in many countries for various crimes.  The White Widow from Fallout is also interested in acquiring the key, leading to hers and Ethan’s paths crossing.  Ethan encounters a man of his past, Gabriel, claiming to work for The Entity.  In order for everyone to get what they want, sacrifices must be made and risks must be taken.  The Entity knows everything, as Gabriel repeatedly states that nearly every possible out “is written.”  Ethan and his team must outsmart the Entity and Gabriel (and dodge his fierce confidante Paris (Pom Klementieff)) to prevent the world’s governments from acquiring the two halves of the key.  The Final Reckoning is a continuation of Dead Reckoning, and let’s just say that Final wouldn’t have been made if Ethan let the Entity win.

As premieres for The Final Reckoning drew near, cast members and Mission: Impossible stressed the importance of the franchise’s previous films and how everything will add up to this final film.  I’ve seen all the movies multiple times, so I thought I was in the clear.  However, there were some details in the new film that are carried over from other movies.  If you plan on seeing M:I-8, please familiarize yourself with the other seven films.  Each detail is important.   The Final Reckoning follows Ethan, Grace, Benji, Luther, and Paris in a race against Gabriel and the Entity.  In this film, the Entity is currently taking over the missiles and bombs of the world’s military superpowers which will turn all the nations of the world against each other in one of the most deadliest wars in history.  Ethan and his team, in order to stop the Entity, must break into the Sevastopol, the Russian submarine, and steal the Entity’s source code.  In order to do this, he must gain the trust of United States President Erika Sloane (Bassett) as she is the only one who can grant Ethan access to everything he needs to complete his mission.  This film takes the IMF all over the world as  Ethan encounters characters from previous movies whom audiences have seemingly overlooked (myself included) and answers for his actions from his long career with the IMF.

Those who know me and who have talked with me recently will know that I’ve been completely ecstatic for this film and impatient awaiting the release of this film.  The film was hyped all over social media, and I saw new clips of new trailers nearly every day.  As much as I loved the new movies, I was very disappointed.  First of all, something happened in the first half hour of the film that I was slightly expecting, but I still sobbed (yes, I sobbed, clutch your pearls).  Each of Cruise’s stunts, as mentioned before, was crazier than the last, but it got to the point of being too much (granted, the scene on the two biplanes was amazing, I would like to use a certain word but I cannot).  Yes, the franchise is not called Mission: Possible, but there is an unspoken extent of how far Ethan can go.  Everyone talks about how amazing and strong Ethan is, but his life has been saved so many times by so some people and those people that safe his life often go unthanked.

I was incredibly excited to see Hannah Waddingham portray Admiral Neely on the George H.W. Bush.  However, I found her role highly disappointing.  After having an appearance in nearly every trailer, Waddingham had an estimated screen-time of five minutes.  Her role was incredibly significant, and the way Ethan gained her trust was ambiguous (I believe it signals a long-standing relationship between Admiral Neely and President Sloane), leaving the audiences wonder if they’ll learn more (they don’t).  I hate the fact that I have to say I was disappointed in the film after looking so forward to it.  I believe this film was incredibly overhyped and let down massive fans of the franchise.  Regardless, M:I-8, with the help of Lilo & Stitch, broke box office records.  Mission: Stitch or Stitchpossible (corny, but adorable for the films’ releases), amassed a total $328 million worldwide, responsible for half a billion dollars in ticket sale.  The latest Mission: Impossible installment was the highest-grossing film of it’s franchise, and it’s bound to break more records the longer it stays in theaters.

I so badly wanted to believe that this was not Mission: Impossible‘s, or Ethan’s, final reckoning.  The biggest spoiler I’ll give is that the ending was very vague.  I mentioned by disappointment but I must be very clear: I will not be surprised and I will be incredibly excited if there is another film.  I am not giving up hope.  Nevertheless, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is nothing short of nail-biting, each even more tense than the last, each stunt more extreme, each sacrifice more painful.

“The world still needs Ethan Hunt” – Luther