Review: Tom Cruise works very hard to enliven a listless ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is being touted as the sayonara film in the franchise. But the film is listless and open-ended enough to indicate that a proper send-off still awaits the series that has never failed to enthral in its 29-year-run.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie and written by him and Erik Jenderssen, The Final Reckoning is a sequel to the unfortunately subtitled Dead Reckoning (2023). In Dead Reckoning, a rogue artificial intelligence programme called the Entity has gained the ability to overpower global security systems, including nuclear defences. The key to stopping the Entity is literally a key, which Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) manages to procure.

In the sequel, Ethan must retrieve the Entity’s source code from a destroyed submarine while outwitting his adversary Gabriel (Esai Morales) – who wants to control the Entity – and also prevent nuclear Armageddon.

This order of business might daunt anybody who isn’t Ethan Hunt. He plunges into problem-solving mode with the go-for-broke quality that has made him one of action cinema’s most iconic characters. It’s a pity that Ethan’s enthusiasm – and Tom Cruise’s unwavering commitment – isn’t matched by the staging.

The Final Reckoning can’t overcome the weaknesses of its predecessor, which had an abstract enemy, a dull villain and a morose quality. The...

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