Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg*

Have I Seen it Before: Never, and maybe never again?

Did I Like It: Here’s a confession, if I haven’t already made it in previous reviews for the Mission: Impossible films. Most people are never more delighted during these films than when Ethan Hunt (Cruise) dangles off of increasingly precarious things. That’s the brand. That’s why the vast majority posters for this movie show a biplane flying upside down with Cruise holding on by one hand. That will gets butt into seats**.

I, on the other hand, am never more delighted in this series when they make references to the original Mission: Impossible (1996). I have a weird affection for that uneven first entry with the byzantine plot, even when I’m willing to admit that Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) is likely the most satisfying entry, pound for pound. From Alec Baldwin’s muttering about the CIA Black Vault in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) through the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) being the heiress to Max (Vanessa Redgrave), all the way to the return of Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (2023), McQuarrie either has the same soft spot for the first film as I do, or had an interest in making the story of Ethan Hunt one where what came before has an impact on what is still to come. A valid ambition in my eyes, either way.

The references to the original film abound here as well. I found the revelations that Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham) is actually the son of Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) to be a little anemic, especially when it confirms finally and beyond all doubt that these films don’t share a continuity with the original television series.

But then there’s William Donloe (Rolf Saxon). The hapless mark in the aforementioned Black Vault, he was just a guy who knew how to manage a database. A man after my own heart, who go mistreated.

And he’s the secret heroe of the series, and steals every moment he’s in this film.

I am delighted, in that much at least, and that’s more than enough to recommend a movie.

Is this really the end for Ethan Hunt and company? Aside from dispensing with Luther Stickell in the first act, the film doesn’t seem like it wants to commit to a valedictory for the dangling man. This is as close as we’re going to get, and I hope it is the end. If for no other reason than I find it increasingly hard to believe that Scientology can give a man the tools he needs to do his own stunts into his 70s. This would be a good place to stop.

But if they want to do a spinoff series with Donloe, I’ll be the first one there on opening weekend.

*It took me all of my patience not to list Rolf Saxon in the main cast. More on that later. Also learned that he narrated the American broadcasts of Teletubbies. So there’s that.

**Enough butts in seats to cover a $400 million budget? One wonders, but maybe that’s a discussion for a different time.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg

Have I Seen it Before: Nope, but if the one religious figure who takes a clear stand on the vagaries of motion blurring wants me to do something, I do it. Especially when it means coming out to the theater for his nearly 300 million dollar* epic. If he starts making other demands of me, we’re just going to have to take those on a case by case basis.

Did I Like It: I like it when the following things happen to me:

- Spy movies make me feel like I could engage in espionage and intrigue, even though there is a plethora of airtight evidence that I would be absolutely crushed by any job with even slightly higher pressure than the one I currently have.

- I am witness to Tom Cruise proceeding with a series of increasingly preposterous stunts, which will inevitably culminate in what I can only assume is his somewhat hilarious demise.

- I get to sit in a darkened, air conditioned room and eat M & Ms. (Really, this would qualify when I get to sit in a brightly lit room with M & Ms, but they work even better in the dark)

- Mission: Impossible sequels make reference to the first—and for my money, the best—Mission: Impossible (1996).

On those qualifications, the movie is an unparalleled success, especially the last one, where with the inclusion of Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) this feels like—more than any other film in the series—a direct sequel to the original. Sure, the plot may feel a little saggy in the middle and a little convoluted, but the impulse to label that as a complain about the movie should really be redefined as a return to form.

* Studios, if you keep doing that… Forget it. It’s not worth getting into it right now, but one imagines I’m going to have a lot more to same by the time Barbie and Oppenheimer roll into town.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Director: Joe Johnston

Cast: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell

Have I Seen it Before: With Johnston directing and his pedigree from the The Rocketeer (1991), this might have been the Marvel movie I was anticipating the most.

Did I Like It: For a long time, it remained one of the more mundane pictures. It didn’t live up to the jaunty humor of the Iron Man movies, nor did it have the breakneck pacing of the aforementioned Rocketeer, but upon this rewatch I’m realizing those comparisons are unfair. Cap isn’t supposed to have the same milieu as Iron Man. It’s why when they meet in Avengers movies of various sizes and shapes, their chemistry pops. Comparisons to previous Johnston pictures also doesn’t work, as this first outing with Steve Rogers (Evans) is more of a straight war picture, while Rocketeer is a pulp adventure that happens to involve nazis.

Also—not for nothing—I originally saw the The Rocketeer when I was seven, and the movies we see during our first decade may eschew any attempt at even honest comparative criticism.

This particular movie is kind of like the casting of Evans in the title role. On first blush, he’s sort of bland and too earnest for his own good, but there’s something impressive in that as well. If he can be entertaining without the jokes that a Downey, Pratt, Hemsworth, or others might bring to the proceedings, then that takes a lot more restraint than I might have originally granted him.

The rest of the casting works out pretty well for this movie. Tommy Lee Jones may be so perfectly cast that I’m not entirely sure he’s even acting anymore. This is a far cry from his turn in Batman Forever (1995), when he made a very competitive play for most miscast performance in a superhero movie. Dominic Cooper’s attempts to play a young Howard Stark effectively echoes 

And still, there are things that work far less than they did in the early days of its existence. There are far too many shots artlessly designed to take a advantage of 3D projection. As I write that sentence, I can’t honestly remember the last time I went to go see a film in 3D. I’m only vaguely certain that they still release films in this fashion, but they certainly stopped having Cap fling his shield straight into the camera. For that matter, the scenes before Steve Rogers great becoming just look like Chris Evans’ head photoshopped onto a shrimpy dude’s body. The teaser trailer for The Avengers (2012) is a weirdly dated poor substitute for the fun that Marvel is known for bringing in its tag scenes.

So, while parts of the film remain planted in the year in which it is made, I’m a convert with this film. It’s one of the greats, especially because it doesn’t feel the need to be the movie I think I want it to be.