Originally published to 8 News Now on May 14, 2025.

Few film franchises span nearly three decades with the same lead actor. Even fewer maintain or improve their quality over that time. In fact, Mission: Impossible may be in a class of its own thanks largely to the relentless energy of its star and producer, Tom Cruise. As the series reaches its eighth installment, the result is a mixed bag — ambitious, intense, but not without its missteps.

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is a direct sequel to 2023’s M:I iteration, “Dead Reckoning,” picking up a few months after that film ended. For viewers who enjoyed “Dead Reckoning,” there’s more here. The scale of the film’s story and action is massive, and it feels that way. The stakes in “The Final Reckoning” are as serious as it gets, and each scenario Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team find themselves in has more dire consequences. It’s a feast for the eyes and ears, and a nightmare for the stomach lining.

“The Final Reckoning” is not without its quirks. There’s the cast’s tendency to ask “What’s the play” or “What’s the plan” before a character goes on a long-winded diatribe about the mission, and how precisely each piece must play its part. This occurs multiple times in the film, and although it’s a recurring theme of the franchise at this point, the complexity and improbability of each plot point in this eighth installment becomes overwhelming. Each task Hunt and his team face must be achieved with pinpoint accuracy, with nearly zero room for mistakes. While I suppose it is called Mission IMPOSSIBLE … it all gets a bit fatiguing.

In my review of 2023’s prelude to the eighth Mission: Impossible film, I said that the film’s sometimes corny dialogue and on-the-nose storyline were minor gripes that didn’t deserve much thought because “that doesn’t take itself seriously enough to warrant them.” This movie loses that barrier to criticism. There isn’t much humor to speak of in “The Final Reckoning,” and much of the time it feels like the film is struggling under the weight of its own self-seriousness. Somehow, actors with comedic chops like Simon Pegg show little to no lightness to balance the deadly consequences of the narrative. Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff return, and although we’ve seen each of these actors show plenty of humor in previous projects, there’s little of it here. The film leans heavily into its high-stakes tone, often at the expense of levity.

With that said, the movie does take its time. At nearly three hours long, it feels its length a bit and one suspects that there could be some bips and bops here and there to make “The Final Reckoning” a bit more digestible. After 30 years, it feels oddly timed to begin tying up loose ends and revisiting narrative threads left dangling in earlier films. Yet here we are. The film does a respectable job of reminding its audience of who, what, and when is being referenced, but I’ve never found an M:I movie to require homework. Each entry was mostly standalone, with a vague familiarity of previous installments paying off for vigilant viewers in minor but meaningful ways. This film, however, bucks that trend, creating ties at earlier entries that will delight hardcore fans, but perhaps confuse casual viewers.

Even so, “The Final Reckoning” is a feast for movie fans, and Tom Cruise is still Tom Cruise-ing all over the place. The film is an action-packed sprint to the finish, and slows down for nothing. That last bit, however, may be why the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise fails to rise to the top of the storied series. Each previous film found play in its joints for the quirkiness of its cast to shine through. For its characters to balance the seriousness. This film lacks that gel, delivering a theater-worthy thrill ride that ultimately falls short of the storied franchise’s highest highs.