James Bond has appeared in seven different incarnations so far. His scion, Ethan Hunt, however, has only taken one form over the last 30 years: Tom Cruise. Cruise was 33 when the first Mission: Impossible appeared in 1996. Now, in this eighth outing, he is 62, remarkably little altered after three decades.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, clocking in at 169 minutes, is a direct sequel to 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (163 minutes). In the previous film, Ethan is attempting to get hold of a key, which is the only way of stopping a malevolent kind of self-aware AI, called “the Entity”, taking over the world.
Ethan pursues this wee key in the Arabian Desert, Abu Dhabi International Airport, Rome, Venice and then, in a bravura, vintage-style action sequence emulating Buster Keaton’s The General, on the Orient Express. Sadly, Ethan’s fetching sidekick from previous episodes, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), dies in the first film, but she is capably replaced by alluring pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell) and exotic assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff), both won over by his charm and decency.
This new film picks up the story a few weeks later. The Entity, “a godless, stateless, immoral enemy”, is rapidly commandeering all the nuclear weapons in the world, planning to eliminate humankind altogether. Ethan has the crucial key, but he refuses to hand it over to the US government, because he knows they want the Entity as a weapon, whereas he is determined to “kill” it, such power being too much of a temptation for any person to wield, save one so thoroughly decent, so selflessly devoted to his friends, as himself.
So the stakes are high. There are just hours, minutes, milliseconds to go, and Ethan is the only possible saviour of all humanity. “The whole world is in trouble, Ethan. You’re the only one I trust to save it. So what’s the play?” says Grace, straightforwardly. As before, events proceed in a peculiar combination of static, verbose exposition and hectic, wordless action sequences that contribute surprisingly little to the narrative. Sometimes you suspect they are there just to show off.
One big set-piece is aerial, another submarine. Ethan dives deep into Arctic waters to retrieve the kit the key operates from a sunken Russian sub, rolling around on the ocean floor. For the climax, he battles a human villain in the skies above South Africa, wing-walking over a vintage Stearman biplane (the explanation being that since the Entity controls everything digital, only analogue antiques can be relied upon).
These exploits go on far too long and seem more to serve Cruise’s determination to be the most prodigious daredevil in the movies than any audience demand. Once again, Cruise has no doubt performed these stunning stunts himself – but hundreds of CGI and special-effects artists are credited too. The film’s production budget is said to be some $400m, a stretch even for this franchise to recover.
And Peter Pan has finally aged a bit. Cruise sports longer, darker hair – “You know, I like the longer hair,” says Grace – to set off an older countenance. At first I couldn’t think who the new look reminded me of and then it came: Ronnie Wood. The energy is still there, though, including another demonstration of his slash-handed, knee-pumping running, as he races over Westminster Bridge and right through London to reach his imperilled bestie, Luther (grizzled colossus Ving Rhames) – an eccentric transport choice, especially when he’s old enough for a 60+ Oyster.
He gets his kit off as much as ever, too. Ethan has a nasty knife-fight wearing just his pants, and then, in the sunken sub, boldly strips down to his trunks to squeeze through a torpedo tube. Cruise may be in spiffy shape for his age: quite the reassurance for fellow boomers. But can cinema-goers 40 or more years younger sincerely relish so senior a torso? For how long? Cruise has said that he doesn’t see why he should not go on as long as Harrison Ford (82). He may. It is noteworthy that Ethan’s team includes spirited women but never any other challengingly attractive young men. Vast Luther and nerdy Benji (Simon Pegg) do not offer much competition for Ethan. Nor, for that matter, does the prime villain here, Gabriel (Esai Morales), said to be a “dark messiah” but is more like a tetchy maître d’.
So Tom Cruise has produced yet another thumping vehicle for himself, our great action hero, the would-be saviour of marquee cinema and the world. Yet he remains peculiarly unrelatable, sexless, strange.
“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” is in cinemas now
[See also: Modernity has killed the private life]
Content from our partners
Related
This article appears in the 14 May 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Why George Osborne still runs Britain