Is 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' a genuine cinematic event, or has Tom Cruise's one-man stunt show finally worn out its welcome?

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  Omar5d ago

  i mean this respectfully but tom cruise is 62 years old running around doing all this and im just supposed to pretend thats normal. the man is not human. i dont care about the movie quality i just want to observe him as a zoological phenomenon

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  Reese6d ago

  I genuinely cannot think of another actor alive who puts his actual body on the line the way Cruise does. Hanging off a plane, diving out of helicopters, riding motorcycles off cliffs — he does it FOR REAL. That alone earns my ticket money every single time, story or not.

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  Jamie 924d ago

  The thing people miss is that McQuarrie and Cruise are very consciously making films about mortality and obsession at this point. Ethan Hunt is a man who literally cannot stop even when everyone around him begs him to. That IS thematically rich whether critics give it credit or not. Final Reckoning resolving that question — can he stop, will he stop, should he — is more emotionally interesting than most prestige drama this year.

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  Morgan _x5d ago

  The real answer is that Brian De Palma's original 1996 film is a genuine masterpiece of tension and editing that none of the sequels have come close to matching. Ghost Protocol is fun but it's a theme park ride. The first one was an actual movie.

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  Avery5d ago

  But isn't an unstoppable AI being the final threat Ethan Hunt faces kind of perfect? The whole series is about one exceptional human refusing to be replaced by systems and bureaucracies. An AI villain isn't lazy, it's the logical endpoint of that entire theme.

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  Nina6d ago

  The Final Reckoning is supposed to be nearly three hours long. THREE HOURS. For a Mission Impossible movie. I love this franchise but someone in that editing room needs to be held accountable.

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  Ravi 924d ago

  The honest truth is that Hollywood needs this to succeed commercially. If a legitimate big-budget non-IP original-ish action franchise can't crack a billion dollars we're just going to get superhero movies and animated sequels forever. The stakes are bigger than one film.

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  Avery5d ago

  Hot take: the villain being a literal AI entity called The Entity is the laziest most on-the-nose metaphor possible for 2024 anxieties. Like congratulations screenwriters you opened a newspaper. Actual spy thrillers have nuanced human antagonists with comprehensible motives.

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  Noah4d ago

  unpopular opinion incoming: ving rhames and simon pegg deserve their own spinoff more than any of these big dramatic conclusions. they have been the emotional core of this franchise for decades and consistently get sidelined for cruise close-ups

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  Kofi5d ago

  People keep saying Tom Cruise is saving cinema but statistically he isn't. Dead Reckoning Part One underperformed at the box office pretty significantly. The narrative that he's some lone messiah of the theatrical experience doesn't match the actual numbers.

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  Ravi5d ago

  Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise have genuinely excellent chemistry and I feel like nobody's talking about that. The human dynamic in Dead Reckoning was the most interesting the franchise had been in years. If they give that relationship actual resolution this film earns its runtime.

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  Leo S.6d ago

  saw dead reckoning last year and honestly fell asleep halfway through. the action is impressive technically but there's zero emotional weight anymore. i don't care if ethan hunt dies because the movie already told me he won't. twice.

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  Ravi L.5d ago

  Rogue Nation is still the peak of this series and it's not close. Rebecca Ferguson, the opera sequence, the underwater scene. Chef's kiss. Every film since has been chasing that high and failing. Final Reckoning will be no different.

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  Diego _x5d ago

  counterpoint: dead reckoning underperformed because it was the first part of a two parter and audiences KNEW it wasn't a complete story. final reckoning being the actual ending changes the calculus completely. people will show up.

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  Riley L.5d ago

  I'm more interested in whether Christopher McQuarrie actually sticks a satisfying ending than in any individual stunt. He's been building this mythology for like four films now. If the landing doesn't stick it retroactively damages all of them.

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  Noah6d ago

  My dad took me to see M:I 2 when I was nine and I've seen every single one in theaters since. This series has been a constant in my life for twenty-five years. Even if the movie is mediocre I'm going to cry when it ends, full stop.

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  Jamie4d ago

  it's mission impossible not citizen kane can everyone calm down. it's fun or it isn't. i don't need it to be important

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  Elena 215d ago

  I work in film distribution and the advance tracking on this is strong. People are booking IMAX seats weeks out in markets where that almost never happens for non-superhero fare. Whatever you think of the quality, the interest is real and significant.

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  Feli L.4d ago

  Went to a fan screening event last week where they showed all the films back to back. By the end the whole audience was weirdly emotional about a franchise nobody would have called profound ten years ago. Context and community changes how you experience films. Worth remembering.

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  Morgan5d ago

  lol ok grandpa

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