A very advanced AI called “The Entity” is making its move. And the world is about to be under its virtual thumb.
On the surface of things, most people aware of the situation think that control of information is the main issue to worry about. After all, The Entity has infiltrated cyberspace and is in nearly total control.
It manipulates what people hear. It can shift economies, start international conflicts. It’s even created a doomsday cult of followers who protest in the streets and who have slipped into positions of power.
But the threat goes far beyond that.
The simple reality is that The Entity is systematically seizing control of the weapon systems of the nuclear powers around the globe. Only the U.K., China, Russia and the U.S. still remain independent. And you can imagine what a parasitic AI might do if it controlled all of those countries.
And so it falls to Ethan Hunt and his Impossible Missions team to find a way to stop this destructive and elusive construct. The problem is that the AI’s source code is essential in that pursuit. And that’s stuck in a sunken Russian sub somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. Even the Russians are clueless about its whereabouts.
The real rub, however, is the fact that while Ethan is determined to destroy The Entity—a choice that many experts warn might destroy cyberspace itself—everybody else wants to control it. Based on the corrupt nature of mankind in general, that outcome might be the worst.
The clock is ticking. And time is running out. World governments are preparing for nuclear Armageddon. The stakes are high, and the possibility of success is abysmally low.
And that’s exactly when Ethan Hunt is at his best.
In The Final Reckoning, Ethan and others race against time and malevolent world forces to save mankind. Ethan is at the spear point of that effort, risking his life in extremely dangerous ways.
Ethan’s fellow IMF agent and good friend, Luther, sums their efforts up with their organization’s slogan: “We live and fight in the shadows for those we hold close, and for those we’ll never meet.” He proclaims that as an IMF team, they’ve worked and fought for one another and for all the many people who cannot fight. He tells Ethan how much his friendship has meant over the years.
Ethan encounters a man whose life was forever changed because of his mission-focused actions some 30 years back. Ethan apologizes for his involvement. But the man pushes back and declares that changes in life, good and bad, are all a matter of perspective.
Because of what happened, this guy was assigned to an obscure, frozen outpost. But without that, the man states, he wouldn’t have found his home, and he wouldn’t have met the woman he loves. So, in a real sense, “I owe you my life,” the man earnestly declares.
Ethan muses on the reach of The Entity and how no one could be trusted to control the power it has. But Grace, a skilled pickpocket and Ethan’s trusted companion, states that not only is he the only person that she would trust to save the world, he’s also the only person she would trust with control of The Entity.
Someone purposely sacrifices himself in order to keep an explosion from killing thousands. Later, several others face similar choices, and they each are willing to die to save people around them.
While discussing The Entity’s possible plans and questioning why it might want to destroy all of mankind, someone replies: “That’s a question Noah must have asked just before the flood.”
Luther devises a plan for The Entity, one he hopes will “trap the genie in a bottle.” Luther declares, “Nothing is written.” He believes that “men are the master of their fate.”
Someone pulls a St. Christopher medal out from the collar of her uniform.
Grace bares some cleavage. Ethan is shirtless on several occasions and battles an attacker dressed only in his undershorts. Later, he removes his gear underwater and swims in frigid water wearing the same underwear.
Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning is unquestionably a high-octane thrill ride. It repeatedly throws Ethan and his team into deadly situations, and explosive violence is a constant here.
Bombs detonate, killing victims in the blast radius. People are zapped with tasers. Thumping and pummeling fights abound. (In one, Ethan gets thrown around a small room and slammed into floors and the ceiling while wearing just his underwear.) People are riddled with bullets in gun fights.
A large man with a knife swings his blade at a weaponless woman. Someone decides he’ll use implements of torture on a captive woman to get Ethan to obey his commands. (Though manhandled, she escapes the torture.)
The Entity shows Ethan it’s intended outcome for mankind through a series of Terminator-like nuclear explosion videos. Buildings and other structures are obliterated. We catch glimpses of the corpses of dead people.
One of Ethan’s missions is to dive to great depths in an experimental diving suit. And the sailors helping him describe the extreme agony he’ll experience if things go wrong. Ethan barely misses hitting the huge, swirling propeller of a submarine.
After being trapped in a sunken sub—and navigating heavy, falling objects—Ethan removes all his gear to escape. Nearly naked, he writhes in pain while ascending.
Ethan’s IMF team gets into a firefight with Russian soldiers. That exchange causes a huge fire that kills those caught in the blaze.
The U.S. government discusses launching a preemptive strike on cities of other countries in an attempt to take the nuclear capability of The Entity away. They decide that they should also sacrifice a U.S. city as a means of showing global “fairness.” “You’d be sacrificing a 100 million lives to save seven billion,” a U.S. official reasons. Someone attempts to shoot the president and is killed.
One character is shot and realizes his lung is collapsing from the wound. So he instructs a compatriot to cut into his chest and insert an emptied pen body to open up an airway. We see car chases, gunfire and crashes. A pilot is knocked out and thrown from a biplane cockpit. A parachute catches on fire and crumbles away.
In all of the intense and violent details noted above, most of flesh rending is kept just out of the camera’s eye. For instance, Ethan takes on three men in a thumping fight with a large meat hammer. We only hear the crushing blows while watching a bystander’s reactions. Then we’re shown the apparently dead men afterward. The worst visual we’re shown is that of a man who rams his face into the tail of an airplane, with bloody results.
One character seemingly chomps down on a cyanide pill.
There are several uses each of the words “b–ch,” “h—” and “b–tard.”
Ethan and Grace are both injected with a drug that renders them unconscious.
Ethan straps himself into high-tech virtual-reality gear that lets him communicate directly with The Entity. It shows him images of its plans for the world’s destruction. But it also forcibly probes Ethan’s mind.
The Entity tells Ethan that it has already thought through every possible action that humanity could take against it, so it proclaims that the only wise course is to help the AI being and mitigate the potential destruction. “The Entity’s future, or no future,” it tells Ethan.
Remember when Mission: Impossible was all about a secret spy team tricking bad guys into spilling secrets with staged set pieces and rubber masks?
That seems like ancient history, doesn’t it?
After eight films and 29 years, Tom Cruise has transformed the M:I franchise into an adrenaline-fueled, save-the-world-from-extinction action serial. And Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is designed to culminate that run with a hand-to-your-mouth gasp!
This pic is nearly three hours long and packed to the gills with catch-me-up exposition and video flashbacks. And it still clicks along at a Cruise-run pace.
Cruise once again runs, swims, jumps and dangles by one arm through insanely difficult stunts. (The insurance costs alone had to have made up a sizable chunk of the production budget.) And the film compounds impossible complication upon impossible complication until the final resolving film frame.
Final Reckoning is fast, fun and emotionally moving. It nicely lauds those who sacrifice for others and suggests, to one and all, that the good inside of us is often measured by the good we do for others.
Those are all pretty solid pluses. But what about the negatives?
The biggest caution for families will be to consider the very intense and deadly violence in this movie’s mix. We don’t see a lot of bloody mess, but many deaths are on display, by bad guys and good. A bit of profanity turns up, too. And those elements are worthy of consideration.
And as you might have guessed from my description, the movie is a tad overstuffed. The story logic suffers at times because of it. But, frankly, no one in the audience will likely notice that.
(Oh, and in case you’re wondering, yes, the rubber masks show up, too.)
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
