Mission: Impossible - Final Reckoning picks up several months after the events of the previous film, Dead Reckoning. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team continue their struggle to stop Gabriel (Esai Morales), a ruthless terrorist, from getting control of an artificial intelligence known as "The Entity."
Ethan has a bejeweled cruciform key, but he also needs a gadget called the Podkova, which was lost when a Russian submarine sank at the beginning of Dead Reckoning. Only Ethan can locate it and activate it using the key to stop the Entity from launching the nuclear missiles of eight nations and killing billions.
Back to aid Ethan on his mission are welcome faces such as Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), master thief/pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell) and assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff), whose ice-cold demeanor hasn't changed, even if she's switched sides from Gabriel to Ethan.
The tension of Ethan trying to get everything lined up in a bid to save the world from nuclear war is non-stop for the almost three-hour film. It never seems long, although Cruise seems to spend a knuckle-biting amount of time underwater navigating the downed submarine in an effort to fetch the Podkova, knowing that he has only 20 minutes of oxygen.
The other extended action scenes involve planes, as Ethan has to hop aboard one plane that's taking off, get control, and then stop Gabriel, who's flying the other plane. There's a lot of barely hanging on to bars as Gabriel spins the plane to try to get Ethan to fall. Knowing that some of these stunts were actually done by Cruise makes it even more intense.
Despite the title of this film, it's unclear whether there will be any more M:I films, but if this is the last, it's a great one to end on. It offers clips from the previous Mission: Impossible films of the past 29 years, which was incredibly entertaining and nostalgic, especially if you've been following Ethan through all of his missions.
It's impossible to imagine a plot that could provide more action and tension than this one. The story is the ultimate in high stakes, making Mission: Impossible - Final Reckoning the perfect movie to inspire audiences to flock to the theater, get some popcorn and a drink, and for a highly enjoyable two hours and 49 minutes, completely immerse yourself in another world. ~Alexandra Heilbron
5 out of 5 stars.
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Stop using the word "blockbuster" to describe modern films. Blockbusters no longer exist and haven't for quite some time.