- The narrative surrounding whether Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning represents the franchise’s swan song has been a confusing one.
- While Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have hinted this is the end, the proverbial door has been left wide open.
- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now screening in cinemas globally.
Title and marketing aside, there’s certainly an air of finality about Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
As leading man Tom Cruise has explained, the latest instalment (retitled from Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2) is meant to serve as something of a capstone for his “Homeric” tenure as IMF agent Ethan Hunt.
“This is like 30 years’ culmination of this, and I think that this is… I’d rather just people see it and enjoy,” Cruise coyly noted when prompted about the franchise’s future, stating elsewhere, “It’s the final! It’s not called ‘final’ for nothing.”
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McQuarrie has also expressed similar sentiments in evasive fashion.
“It is, I hope, the satisfying conclusion to a 30-year story arc. I’m pretty confident that people are going to feel that the title was appropriate,” he told Empire.
“You’d have to ask me after a very long vacation.”
Christopher McQuarrie via People
But what is everyone else saying?
The cast weighs in
“With Mr Cruise, you can never count him down or out,” Angela Bassett, who reprises her role as Erika Sloane (CIA Director turned President of the United States), said in her own conversation with People.
“He’s always up for an amazing adventure and to give the audience exactly what they’re craving. I would never assume.”
Hayley Atwell, the actress behind mercenary pickpocket turned IMF agent Grace, stated: “There is that sense of the emotional end of something that feels like a very emotional closure. And yet, Tom Cruise is never going to slow down. He won’t ever stop. This is who he is.”
“Never say never, do you know what I mean? That’s a rule I tend to live by,” answered Simon Pegg, who plays IMF tech support turned field agent Benji Dunn.
“The last two together took five years to make. So it depends entirely on a lot of things. I don’t think Tom likes the idea of finality. I think even if there isn’t anything that comes after this, you leave the theatre feeling like, ‘Oh, maybe there’s more.’ And I think that’s the golden thing, to leave the audience feeling hope rather than despair.”
The devil’s in the details
[Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning spoilers ahead]
Final Reckoning concludes in a rather open-ended manner.
After wheeling out Ethan Hunt’s greatest hits through what felt like an hour of flashbacks; call-backs (exiled CIA analyst William Donloe from the first film makes an appearance); and even a retcon of the “Rabbit’s Foot” from Mission: Impossible 3, the ageing superspy manages to clutch another world-saving effort.
Using the source code retrieved from the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol and the malware developed by the deceased Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), dubbed a “poison pill,” they rid the destructive artificial intelligence known as the Entity from all of cyberspace; and trap it into a flash drive before the AI can back itself up in a South African bunker.
The IMF team then reunites in London, where peace and order appear to have been restored (and Atwell’s Grace hands the drive to Ethan), before they wordlessly go their separate ways.
It’s as close to a happy ending as a character like Ethan Hunt could ever hope for. But if you’ve been paying attention, it certainly won’t mark the end.
As per the IMF oath, it’s incumbent upon all its operatives to “live and die in the shadows for those we hold close and those we never meet.” Meaning you shouldn’t expect any retirement parties, gold watches, and Arnold Palmers on the porch at sundown. A soul was exchanged for a second chance at life.
While Tom Cruise wouldn’t object to sprinting at full pelt and reinventing dramatic ways to possibly die for our entertainment well into his 100s, practicality says he will need to slow down and “serve” (both in the cinematic canon and behind the scenes) in another sense. The “Ethan Hunt, IMF Agent” chapter may be closed, but the entire book doesn’t have to be shut.
The prevailing theory is that our selfless hero will take on more of an organisational leadership role (read: desk job), thereby allowing the next generation – such as Grace, Paris (Pom Klementieff), Theo Degas (Tarzan Davis) – to do all the physical world saving; while still benefitting from his A-list association as de facto ambassador for cinema.
Though without Cruise personally taking on the setpiece stunts, perhaps Paramount may find it difficult to justify greenlighting additional flicks for financial reasons. For context, the globe-trotting antics of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ran the bill up to a reported sum of US$400 million before marketing costs. Meaning it’ll need to generate roughly a billion at the box office just to break even.
Perhaps the franchise comes full circle, returning to its roots as the hit seven-season CBS series, and bolsters Paramount+’s ever-expanding portfolio of streaming hits with spin-off properties built around the next generation. Though knowing Tom Cruise’s fanaticism when it comes to full-scale Hollywood productions, the small screen might be a non-starter.
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Tom Cruise’s next mission (should he choose to accept)
At this current stage, there are no concrete plans for Tom Cruise or Christopher McQuarrie to return for another Mission: Impossible. And both parties have full dance cards.
Among the former’s pipeline is a Days of Thunder sequel with Paramount.
Last November, The Hollywood Reporter revealed such a project was being weighed up by the 62-year-old action star and his longtime studio of choice against the future of the freshly-revived Top Gun franchise, with potential writers being enlisted at the time of the report.
Now, we have confirmation from the man himself.
“Yeah, we’re thinking and talking about many different stories and what could we do and what’s possible. It took me 35 years to figure out Top Gun: Maverick, so all of these things we’re working on, we’re discussing Days of Thunder and Top Gun: Maverick,” Cruise recently told Today Show Australia.
He continued: “There are numerous other films that we’re actively working on right now. I’m always shooting a film, prepping a film, posting a film. I just finished a film with Alejandro Iñárritu too, who did The Revenant, and we’ll be coming out with that. That was an extraordinary experience, and [Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie] and I are always working on several different films.”
There’s the matter of the long-gestating Universal picture set in actual space being helmed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, American Made); reportedly titled Deeper and to be shot in cooperation with NASA and SpaceX, it follows “an astronaut who encounters a terrifying force while on a deep dive into a never-before-explored trench.”
Then there’s the Tropic Thunder spin-off centred upon the Cruise career highlight that is Les Grossman, which he briefly alluded to in conversation with B.H. during the Sydney premiere of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning.
So even if Final Reckoning lives up to its name, there won’t be any shortage of Tom Cruise.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, and Henry Czerny is now screening in cinemas globally.
