Spoilers Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025) - Review and Discussion Thread

[thribs]

Saw the regional Premier on Thursday. The movie was pretty good. The stakes certainly felt very high for this one. I wasn't expecting them to finally answer what the White Rabbit is after nearly 20 years which was a nice surprise. The submarine sequence which was around 20 minutes and completely silent with no dialogue was very well done and very tense. James Cameron would be proud of that.
The only nitpick I have is that the ending is very similar to that of Fallout. Other than that it was good.

To the Mods - I posted this in the sci fi section due to the plot dealing with AI.

 

[Saul]

Watched it tonight. Yeah, it's good, not the best but you get the bang for your buck. Doesn't feel like it's the end but surely a good place to leave it.

I don't get the flashback storyline between Ethan and Gabriel. It didn't lead to anything. Who was the girl, why was Ethan involved with him back then? Seemed to go nowhere.

 

[thribs]

Watched it tonight. Yeah, it's good, not the best but you get the bang for your buck. Doesn't feel like it's the end but surely a good place to leave it.

I don't get the flashback storyline between Ethan and Gabriel. It didn't lead to anything. Who was the girl, why was Ethan involved with him back then? Seemed to go nowhere.

That flashback was explained more in the previous movie. It was just the situation that got him into the IMF.

 

[Christopher]

That flashback was explained more in the previous movie. It was just the situation that got him into the IMF.

The previous movie barely explained anything about the flashbacks. It was more hints than explanations. The actress in the flashbacks was given incongruously high billing for such a brief appearance, so I assumed that she'd been signed to play a bigger role in the second part and that there'd be a fuller explanation of the backstory. If that's not the case, maybe their plans changed.

 

[thribs]

I did hear that they were originally going to have a de aged Cruise for that scene, but changed it later on due to either cost or not looking as good as they thought. Maybe they are just remnants from that idea.
Anyway, it isn’t that major to the plot so it doesn’t hurt anything.

 

[Saul]

That flashback was explained more in the previous movie. It was just the situation that got him into the IMF.

If it didn't include Gabriel I'd agree that's what it was.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Just came out of the theater. Loved it, and it was a good ending. Though I was hoping for more of a Passing of the Torch than just killing off Luther and having more people join the team (all of whom were easy to guess at the end of Dead Reckoning). Though it could be that Ethan retires to keep the Entity safe from escape. Maybe it could have been a better ending had Ethan been killed (oh, they certainly played with expectations to that effect at the end) or physically disabled, maybe the imprisoned Entity could have been entrusted to the Donloes - who were great bzw - , maybe the Phelps reveal could have lead to him being more crucially involved in the finale, setting him up as new Team Leader.

In the end, they did it this way, and I am quite satisfied. Yeah, maybe Cruise's ego/adrenaline addiction kept him from put a definitive end to Ethan's story, but oh well.
The cast was great, the stakes were high, the action was thrilling, the story actually had more to say than most blockbusters.

I really appreciated that it was teased but not confirmed that Neely lost somebody close to her through the events of the first movie. And I loved the misdirect with Nick Offerman's character.

 

[thribs]

I admit I didn’t notice what they were trying to do with Offerman’s character. I just thought he wanted to kill himself.

 

[Saul]

I really appreciated that it was teased but not confirmed that Neely lost somebody close to her through the events of the first movie.

But who? It was somebody both close to her and Ethan. Was it Maria?

 

[Kai "the spy"]

... Who?! I don't remember a Maria in the first movie.

I think it could be any one of Phelps's original team that were killed during the Mole Hunt, it could even have been Golitsyn.

 

[Aragorn]

... Who?! I don't remember a Maria in the first movie.

I think it could be any one of Phelps's original team that were killed during the Mole Hunt, it could even have been Golitsyn.

Marie was in a Dead Reckoning flashback for like 4 seconds, which was strange since the actress got prominent solo billing in the opening credits. Was she given more to do in The Final Reckoning?

 

[thribs]

Marie was in a Dead Reckoning flashback for like 4 seconds, which was strange since the actress got prominent solo billing in the opening credits. Was she given more to do in The Final Reckoning?

Not really. They just show the same flashbacks again.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Ah.

For the record, the Neely bit was a note with the date May 22 1996 (which was the release date of the first movie and, presumably, the date of the Mole Hunt), and Neely saying it was reference to her losing somebody important to her because somebody in charge didn't take a risk.

That last bit has me stumped, tbh, because the team did not die because Kittridge was risk-averse. Of course, the details of that mission would have been classified, anyway, so how Neely would know the circumstances is another question.

 

[thribs]

I thought it was just something her and the president went through on that date. Nothing to do with Ethan

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Yeah, well, Cruise and McQuarrie like to tie these things together, without necessarily spelling them out. Like the White Widow being the daughter of Max, that's something they never say out loud on-screen, but they talked about it in the audio commentary of Fallout, and there were hints at it on-screen in Dead Reckoning. So, I kind of expect them to have a definitive answer as to who it was that Neely lost. The date certainly suggests a connection to the original movie.

 

[thribs]

There is another child reveal in this movie. Even surprised me that one.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Yeah, I didn't see that one coming, either. But I've already talked about that one in my post from yesterday.

 

[thribs]

With the way they tried to connect the movie with the previous ones, it’s a shame we didn’t get one for MI 2. Could have brought back Nyah instead of Grace. I always liked her. Had one of the best lines in the whole franchise.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Well, for one, MI 2 seems to be a sore spot for Cruise himself, and he appears to try and ignore it as much as possible. As for Nyah, Thandiwe Newton is on record about how unpleasant her work with Cruise was, specifically with their preparation of the balcony scene. She did note however that he tried really hard, so she might not blame him. Doesn't mean she wants to work with him, again, though.

I would have loved for them to get Jeremy Renner back, though the timing of the production and his accident obviously would have prevented that even if they had tried to make it happen. But Paula Patton would have been great. Renner would have made more sense, though, as he could have been one of the people around Sloane instead of being on the actual team.

But obviously, getting actors and their characters back is a slippery slope, as there just have been so many over the years. A case could also have been made for Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, John Polson, Anthony Hopkins or Laurence Fishburne, and that's just former IMF people. And at some point it would have become just a "'member that character?" situation. With Kittridge and Donloe, they already had two of those, and they were smart enough to actually give them something to do, that would have been difficult with even more characters.
It's good that instead of getting the movie too over-crowded, they made more references that helped the plot of the movie.
Like the Rabbit Foot reveal, I didn't think we should ever find out as no answer could have been satisfying, but you know, I was actually satisfied, because they made it have emotional consequences for the characters.

 

[Christopher]

Well, for one, MI 2 seems to be a sore spot for Cruise himself, and he appears to try and ignore it as much as possible.

I, for one, am pleased to hear that they continued the practice of not referencing M:I 2, since I consider it apocryphal. I would've been happier without all the references to the first movie, though, since there's a lot I dislike about that one too.