Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

[mr_rating_result]

Tom Cruise is back as undercover man and super savior Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible franchise. The film is full of heart-stopping and incredible, absolutely surreal stunts. While the film does not make sense here and there, it makes up for this shortcoming on the level of propulsive action. 

This time Hunt is up against a spiritual force of Artificial Intelligence that is bent on giving the world a computer virus that threatens a nuclear holocaust. This aspect is compelling given our current war anxiety and AI fear. The sight of warheads at the ready for every nation is sure to induce tension.

On the slightly negative side, there are so many segments that go back and forth in time it is difficult to keep track.

At the start we are treated to a masterful and riveting montage sequence of past MI films that speak about the wonder of cinema and the power of film.
Hunt is charged with the weighty responsibility of keeping the magic ruby and gold key from the maniacal Gabriel (Esai Morales). The key controls the world and can initiate global submission.

The cinematic joy here is in its matinee style 1990s era filmmaking on par with Indiana Jones and James Bond. One can count on Hunt to escape within a hair of death be it by air, land or sea and therein lies the fun.

The frenemy assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff) returns as do Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames.

The stunts amaze the eye and Hunt gives all, bruised and battered, as an Apocalyptic man standing.

When the credits roll and the action pauses, the music swells into grandiosity. This final chapter can be seen as a valentine to action cinema with the films “Die Hard,” “Lethal Weapon,” and “The Bourne Identity” well in mind.

Cruise knows just what to do and he does it well like a Harold Lloyd of the 21st Century. His motions have the quality of a cataclysmic ballet.

Some of it does feel rote in convention. One knows Hunt is going to hang from a plane as the mad villain cackles with insanity. All is as expected. Still Cruise, to his credit, makes it seem good natured hi-jinx and almost but not quite, new.

Here and throughout, a bodily free-fall orchestrated by Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie becomes a star-shaped valentine to action cinema, popular a century earlier.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com