Mission Impossible
Mission Impossible
Mission: Impossible Wiki
479
pages
in: Films

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Sign in to edit


“ Hello, brother. If you're listening to this, the world is still here and so are you. For the record, I never had a moment of doubt. I knew you'd find a way. You always do. I hope in time you can see this life was not some quirk of fate. This was your calling. Your destiny. A destiny that touches every living thing. Like it or not, we are masters of our fate. Nothing is written. And our cause, however righteous, pales in comparison to the impact of our effect. Any hope for a better future comes from willing that future into being. A future reflecting the measure of good within ourselves. And all that is good inside us is measured by the good we do for others. We all share the same fate, the same future. The sum of our infinite choices. One such future is built on kindness, trust, and mutual understanding. Should we choose to accept it. Driving without question, towards a light we cannot see. Not just for those we hold close, but for those we'll never meet. I hope you know I'll always love you, brother. And I will see you again. Though I hope it's not too soon. The world still needs you. Of course, they'll never know it. But we do. We who live and die in the shadows. This message will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Ethan. ”

–Luther's message to Ethan Hunt

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (previously titled as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two) is the eighth and final installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise and the direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. The film was released on May 23, 2025. It was previously set for release on August 5, 2022, but was delayed to November 4, 2022, July 7, 2023, June 28, 2024, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then to the current date due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. The first trailer for the film was released on November 11, 2024.

The Final Reckoning had its world premiere in Tokyo on May 5, 2025, was screened out of competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 14, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 23, by Paramount Pictures.

Synopsis[]

Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

Plot[]

Two months after evading capture in the Austrian Alps, IMF agent Ethan Hunt remains in hiding as an artificial intelligence known as "The Entity" reveals itself to the world, causing widespread panic, civil unrest, and prompting governments to declare martial law. The Entity has amassed a cult-like following of "acolytes" who believe the AI will rebuild civilization after an apocalypse. United States President Erika Sloane, a former CIA director, appeals to Hunt to surrender himself and the cruciform key in his possession, which unlocks the Entity's original source code stored in a chamber inside the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol.

Hunt reunites with his team members Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell, who is suffering from a terminal illness. Luther has developed a specialized "poison pill" virus that can neutralize the Entity when integrated with its source code. The team resolves to locate Gabriel, the Entity's human liaison, who might help them find the Sevastopol. Hunt and Benji rescue Gabriel's former associate Paris from an Austrian prison and recruit government operative Theo Degas.

At a U.S. Embassy function in London, Hunt reunites with Grace, a former thief now working as an IMF agent, who was sent by CIA Director Eugene Kittridge to capture him. Instead, they join forces to track down Gabriel, who ultimately captures and tortures them. Gabriel reveals that Hunt unwittingly contributed to the Entity's creation years earlier by stealing a prototype weapon codenamed "The Rabbit's Foot" from a Shanghai laboratory to rescue his then-wife Julia. After escaping, Hunt uses Gabriel's communication device to commune with the Entity, which sees itself as a godlike being and reveals its plans to seize control of the world's nuclear arsenals within four days. Armed with knowledge from the Entity's visions, Ethan hatches a desperate plan to shut it down once and for all.

Gabriel, rejected by the Entity after losing the cruciform key and seeking to control the AI himself, steals Luther's poison pill and plants a nuclear device in the tunnels where Stickell works. Luther stays behind to disarm the bomb, knowing it will cost him his life. Realising Luther is under threat, Hunt leaves the team, handing leadership duties over to Benji, and reaches Stickell in time to say goodbye before escaping the blast and surrendering to American authorities.

Hunt is transported to the Mount Weather military facility in Virginia by operative Jasper Briggs, who is revealed to be the son of Hunt's former IMF team leader Jim Phelps. At Mount Weather, Hunt pleads with President Sloane and her security cabinet to allow him to destroy the Entity rather than attempt to control it. Though the cabinet opposes his plan, Sloane secretly authorizes Hunt to proceed, directing him to the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which is engaged in a standoff with Russian naval forces in the Bering Sea.

Hunt outlines his plan to Admiral Neely aboard the carrier, who reluctantly assigns him to a submarine commanded by Captain Bledsoe. The plan will take him behind enemy lines to the Sevastopol's location once his team transmits the coordinates. To avoid detection by the Russian navy, the coordinates can only be transmitted to Bledsoe and Hunt in a small window of time.

Meanwhile, Benji's team travels to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, home to a Cold War-era SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System) base that could provide the Sevastopol's coordinates. There they meet former CIA cybersecurity analyst William Donloe. Exiled to the island thirty years earlier following Hunt's infiltration of CIA headquarters, he lives there with his Inuit wife Tapeesa. Russian special forces have already occupied parts of the island, also searching for the submarine's location. Donloe reveals that he's been warning the intelligence community about the Entity for years and that records of the Sevastopol's sinking were deliberately covered up by Director of National Intelligence Denlinger years earlier, but that he memorized the coordinates. As Russians attack and Benji's team engages them in firefight, Donloe transmits the coordinates to Hunt aboard Bledsoe's submarine.

On the submarine, Hunt is attacked by a crew member revealed to be an Entity acolyte. Equipment officer Kodiak provides Hunt with a deep-dive suit, and as they're pursued by a Russian submarine, Hunt descends to the Sevastopol. He successfully retrieves the Entity's source code stored on a hard drive called the "podkova." Hunt escapes as the submarine wreckage slides deeper into the ocean trench, but must lose his dive suit and drowns while swimming to the surface. Grace and Tapeesa rescue and resuscitate him using a makeshift decompression chamber. Ethan reunites with the team and meets Donloe, who reveals that in time he's become grateful for his exile to the island, as he would not have otherwise met Tapeesa.

The Entity systematically takes control of nuclear command centers around the world, targeting the United States arsenal last. With the Entity progressively gaining control, Hunt's team travels to the Doomsday Vault data repository in South Africa – a secure facility designed to preserve human knowledge that the Entity believes will offer it safety during nuclear conflict. At the vault, they encounter Gabriel, who has planted another nuclear device, and are intercepted by Kittridge and Briggs, who demand Hunt surrender the source code. In the ensuing confrontation, Gabriel escapes on a vintage biplane with the poison pill, Benji is critically wounded, and the bomb's timer is activated.

As the four-day countdown nears its end, President Sloane's advisers recommend launching pre-emptive strikes against all countries with arsenals under the Entity's control, including a sacrificial strike against an unidentified U.S. city. Sloane instead orders the U.S. nuclear arsenal to be taken offline to prevent the Entity from gaining control, but the AI manages to seize it anyway, withholding launch only until it can ensure its own safety in the Doomsday Vault.

Hunt pursues Gabriel by hanging off a henchman's biplane, eventually gaining control when he drops Gabriel's assistant out of the cockpit. After reaching Gabriel's plane and the resulting aerial struggle, Hunt recovers the poison pill as Gabriel falls to his death when his head strikes the plane's rudder. Meanwhile, Grace prepares a trap for the Entity, one that requires it become encased in a multi-dimensional drive built by Luther. She has only a few 100ths of a second to snatch the drive from it's port, a skill her pickpocketing give her. Meanwhile Paris performs emergency surgery on Benji to help him survive a pneumothorax injury that is collapsing his lung. Donloe, Tapeesa, and Degas work to contain the bomb, discovering they might be able to survive if they can reach the server room's protective shielding.

Hunt combines the source code and poison pill, allowing Grace to upload the Entity into the drive designed by Luther. The world's power grids temporarily shut down as the nuclear arsenals are deactivated, averting the apocalypse. Donloe, Tapeesa, and Degas reach safety before the contained bomb explosion.

Kittridge and Briggs recover Hunt, with Kittridge expressing frustration at the damaged source code while Briggs makes peace with Hunt. Luther's farewell message plays before the combined drive self-destructs. Some time later, the team reunites in London, with Benji recovered from his injuries. Grace presents Hunt with the drive containing the trapped and neutralized Entity. With the world saved from destruction, the team members go their separate ways.

Cast[]

Production[]

Announced in 2019, and titled as Dead Reckoning Part Two, the film was supposed to be shot back-to-back with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. In September 2019, director Christopher McQuarrie confirmed on social media that Hayley Atwell will join the cast. Paramount decided not to move forward with shooting back-to-back, and production on Part Two began in March 2022, just 14 months before Part One would release. After several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was given a release date of June 28, 2024.

In 2023, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and radio Artists (WGA and SAG-AFTRA) commenced strikes. The strikes impacted major productions on both TV shows and movies, forcing some to shift to later dates and some to shut down production completely. It was initially rumored that filming for Part Two was suspended due to the WGA strike, but this turned out to be false as McQuarrie was waiting for the promotions to finish on Part One. Unfortunately, filming was suspended in July 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Despite this, McQuarrie has revealed that "We’ve shot all but one of our international locations", and that much of the film has been finished.

In late 2023, three months after Part One released, McQuarrie announced that the film would no longer be titled as Dead Reckoning Part Two, but did not reveal the new title. It was also announced that same month that, due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, the movie was pushed back to May 23, 2025. Production resumed in March 2024, but delayed due to a malfunction of a submarine. In July 2024, Simon Pegg revealed on Instagram that filming has wrapped up on his part, though the cast and crew are maintaining radio silence.[1][2] According to an interview between Cruise and Paramount as per Hollywood Reporter in November 2024, the film has currently wrapped filming and is currently in post-production.

It will be 29 years since Tom Cruise joined the franchise and played Ethan Hunt, and despite Part One and Two being billed as a send off to Ethan Hunt, Cruise has expressed making more Mission: Impossible films. In November 2024, Paramount has expressed interest in marketing the film as the final entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise to boost audience interest but Tom Cruise is against a public goodbye to the character.

Music[]

Lorne Balfe originally announced in May 2020 to be composing the film's score, after previously doing so for Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, but it was later announced in April 2025 that he would be replaced with Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey. Aruj has previously provided additional music for Dead Reckoning and served as technical score assistant on Fallout. Both Aruj and Godfrey have contributed music to numerous projects scored by Balfe over the last couple of years. Cecile Tournesac was credited as the supervising music editor and score producer with Balfe of Dead Reckoning.

Release[]

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is scheduled to be released on May 23, 2025.[3] It was previously set for release on August 5, 2022,[4] but was delayed to November 4, 2022,[5] July 7, 2023,[6] June 28, 2024,[7] and then to the current date as a result of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, taking the original release date of The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.[8]

Reception[]

Box Office[]

TBA.

Critics[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 290 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10. This marks the first time since Mission: Impossible III that a Mission: Impossible movie hasn't received a score above 93%. The site's critical consensus reads: "Gargantuan in action, runtime, and scope, The Final Reckoning is a sentimental sendoff for Ethan Hunt that accomplishes its mission with a characteristic flair for the impossible." The site's "Audience Says" simply reads, "Mission: Accomplished." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Future[]

In June 2023, McQuarrie told Fandango that Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning would not necessarily end the series, and they were developing ideas for future installments.[9] In July 2023, during promotion for Dead Reckoning, Cruise expressed interest in continuing to make further films in the series as Ethan Hunt, despite both films having initially been billed as a send-off to the character, citing Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones well until his late 70s.[10] On November 12, 2024, insider Jeff Sneider reported that Cruise was looking at his Top Gun: Maverick co-star Glen Powell to replace him as the new lead. Powell denied this rumor on The Pat McAfee Show while Pat McAfee was congratulating him by phone.[11][12][13]In May 2025, during the world premiere for this film, Cruise told The Hollywood Reporter that this film is the last one in the franchise, adding that the film isn't called The Final Reckoning for no reason.

Gallery[]

Opening Title Sequence & Curtain Call Sequence[]

Trailers[]

Behind the Scenes[]

Promotional Stills[]

Posters[]

Characters[]

Characters (Textless)[]

Trivia[]

  • When filming airplane stunts for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Cruise would pass out due to not getting oxygen. Tom had to train himself on how to breathe in order to be able to complete the airplane stunts.
  • The Final Reckoning surpasses several records set by Dead Reckoning:
    • Most expensive movie in the franchise, with an estimated budget of over $400 million, surpassing Dead Reckoning's $290 million budget.
    • Longest movie in the franchise: Dead Reckoning's runtime was 2hrs and 43mins. Final Reckoning's runtime is 2hrs, 50mins, ten minutes shy of a three-hour runtime.
  • The movie sets several firsts for the franchise:
    • Given that the story is continuation of the story set up in the previous movie Dead Reckoning, The Final Reckoning is the first Mission: Impossible movie to omit the traditional self-destructing IMF message briefing.
    • First movie in the franchise that ends with a self-destructing message.
    • First movie since Ghost Protocol and the only movie directed by McQuarrie that omits the curtain call sequence.
  • This is the only Mission: Impossible film not to reach #1 at the box office, due to it getting beat out by Lilo & Stitch.

References[]

  1. ↑ https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/pom-klementieff-interview-mission-impossible-8-dcu
  2. ↑ https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/simon-pegg-cast-wrapping-on-mission-impossible-8-im-pumped
  3. ↑ Template:Cite web
  4. ↑ Template:Cite web
  5. ↑ Template:Cite web
  6. ↑ Template:Cite web
  7. ↑ Template:Cite web
  8. ↑ Template:Cite web
  9. ↑ Template:Cite web
  10. ↑ Template:Cite web
  11. ↑ [1]
  12. ↑ Template:Cite web
  13. ↑ [2]
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.