Nerdly » ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ Blu-ray Review

15th Oct2025

‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ Blu-ray Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett | Written by Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen | Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie return to our screens with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the direct sequel to last year’s Dead Reckoning Part One, and the eighth instalment in the Mission: Impossible film series. As such, it delivers the expected thrills, in terms of jaw-dropping action sequences, and the script finds clever ways to connect to the previous films in the franchise, making this feel like a satisfying wrap-up to the whole series.

Co-written by McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen, the story picks up two months after the events of Dead Reckoning, with IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) continuing his mission to stop arch nemesis Gabriel (Esai Morales) from getting his hands on an all-powerful AI program known as “The Entity”. With the direct approval of the President (Angela Bassett gets to deliver the time-honoured self-destructing message in a handy prologue), Hunt is accompanied on his mission by the other members of his IMF team, including tech-savvy Benji (Simon Pegg), computer genius Luther (Ving Rhames), pickpocket-turned-IMF agent Grace (Hayley Atwell), US intelligence agent Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis) and deadly assassin Paris (Pom Klementieff), a former ally of Gabriel’s who has switched sides, following his betrayal.

After a gripping opening section involving Ethan doing a lot of running (Cruise proving, as ever, that he’s one of the big screen’s all-time greatest runners, even though it does look like they’ve sped him up a bit at one point), the film settles in for an extended mid-section in which Ethan has to retrieve the Entity’s original source code from a deserted submarine at the bottom of the Arctic ocean. Meanwhile, the stakes get significantly higher as the Entity takes control of the world’s nuclear arsenal and is poised to strike, leaving President Bassett (actually President Sloane, but President Bassett is funnier) with an impossible decision to make.

The previous film in the franchise was a relative disappointment, thanks to a combination of a misjudged tone (the forced comedy of Cruise and Atwell driving around backwards in Rome), a lame plot with a decidedly “Will this do?” feel to it, a bizarrely dull, lengthy opening section set in an airport, some occasionally shoddy CGI work and a key set-piece stunt (bike off a cliff) that had already been heavily featured in the trailer and had little dramatic impact in the moment. Thankfully, the second part course corrects in satisfying fashion, not least in the way McQuarrie gets the overall tone right this time round, even managing to pull off some genuinely emotional moments.

Without giving too much away, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘s script finds an inspired way to connect to the first movie with the return of a particular character. This could easily have been cheap fan service, but the film gives that character a meaningful story arc, as well as a surprising amount of screentime, and the result is extremely touching.

Needless to say, the action sequences are superb. This time round, the key set-piece involves an against-the-clock bi-plane chase, and Cruise certainly looks like he’s up there for real, not least because the wind makes his hair look absolutely terrible and that’s clearly a sacrifice he has made for his art. That said, the presence of Esai Morales in the background of the same scenes does rather suggest a degree of digital trickery, since Morales was clearly NOT risking his life for a stunt on a bi-plane, no matter what Cruise was doing, and it casts a bit of doubt on the veracity of the whole thing, since the CGI work is clearly up to the task of faking it where Morales is concerned.

Elsewhere, the lengthy submarine sequence drags a little but is still fun, and the fight scenes are excitingly staged. McQuarrie also allows himself to have a little fun with the direction, particularly in a sequence where the tail end of a brutal punch-up scene is entirely conveyed through Hayley Atwell’s facial reactions.

As with his previous Mission: Impossible films, McQuarrie has assembled a terrific ensemble cast, and the script ensures that everyone gets a moment to shine. Stand-outs this time round include Klementieff, who has engaging chemistry with Pegg, and the aforementioned character from the first movie, but there are also colourful turns from Bassett and Nick Offerman (as General Sidney), as well as fun contributions from the likes of Hannah Waddington (as a Navy honcho), Love Lies Bleeding’s Katy O’Brian (insanely charismatic in a small role as a submarine crew member) and Severance’s Tramell Tillman as submarine commander Bledsoe.

On top of that, McQuarrie keeps things moving at a satisfying pace, so that the film never drags, despite its bottom-challenging 170-minute running time. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is also heightened by a pulse-quickening score by Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey.

Special Features:

Commentary by Director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise
Commentary by Director Christopher McQuarrie, Editor Eddie Hamilton, and First Assistant Director Mary Boulding
Commentary by Composers Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey, and Score Producer Cécile Tournesac
Deleted Shot Montage
Taking Flight – Filming the Biplane Sequence
To the Depths – Inside the Underwater Stunts
To the North – On Location in Svalbard
Additional Commentaries
Isolated Score Track
Still Galleries
Promo Stops

In short, this is an engaging and enjoyable Mission: Impossible movie that delivers the requisite thrills and spills while bringing the series to a satisfying close, regardless of whether or not they end up making another one. It may not hit the dizzying heights of Fallout (the series’ all-time high point), but fans of the franchise will be more than satisfied.