“This message will self-destruct in five seconds.” From a humble birth on the small-screen in 1966 when 171 episodes of 50-minutes began to be aired week by week, to ambition, eye-watering production cost, and worldwide scale. 59-years later, the cinematic epic “Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning” (Paramount Pictures) practically smashes through the walls of the Montrose Playhouse.
We know from the cliffhanger at the end of the first part of this instalment, “Mission:Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One” (2023) that the current film will have the goal of locating a Russian submarine lying wrecked somewhere at the bottom of the sea. Once found, a strange cruciform key will prevent an “Entity” from destroying the world by causing the “annihilation of cyberspace.” As we get the feel of the new movie, we realise the significance of the repeated line “the fate of every living thing will be decided in the blink of an eye.” Meanwhile the baddie, Gabriel, is trying to get there first—to control the Entity and hammer his villainy onto some sort of post-nuclear future.
There are scenes above ground, on the Earth’s surface, and underwater; scenes where the speech is very effectively whispered, slowly explaining points of the plot development, and magnificent crescendos of both action and volume. The extremes of the film are awe-inspiring, the locations superb—and the screenplay often rather grandiose: “You refuse to sacrifice the ones you hold close.” “The anti-God thinks it’s God.” “It is written.” “This is what I was born to do.”
Shrinkflation, as applied to, say, the size of chocolate bars, apparently works in reverse in the “Mission: Impossible” (MI) series. The first film was 1H50 long and this one clocks in at a few minutes shy of 3H—certainly representing excellent value for money. Other than one short sequence at the end of the long ice-sequence, it doesn’t flag; almost no one present at the Playhouse preview seemed to need to use the restroom. Relentless forward momentum is maintained by an abundant bag of tricks. We pelt between countries and continents at opposite ends of the planet. We spin into the air and dive into the sea. One particularly effective strategy is to split single scenes between all manner of locations. Take a clever late scene which darts between Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, in the air, the rest of his sidekicks led by Benji, played by Simon Pegg, in tunnels underground, and the US President’s inner circle, on land. It’s enough to induce motion-sickness.
A whole review could be written about the sound. I’ll choose a few highlights for now. The industry-leading Dolby Atmos surround sound has never been so powerful at the Playhouse. The audio isn’t so much heard as experienced deep in the body. At times, the rumblings deep in the sea are so strong that the seats shake as if in a 4K presentation. I found that I had been holding my breath as one of the submarine propellers turned. The famous original MI theme by Lalo Schifrin is used to great effect throughout. As the vertical height changes so does the music (going up a scale as we ascend from the bottom of the Pacific, say).
Sometimes the buzz at the time of a new MI release is all about Tom Cruise. This misses the point. As the film drew towards the end, it came to me that over the years the writers have purposefully created scripts which build weight and depth in the co-stars—so they can have fans of their own. Ethan can’t do what he does without them. And, as in earlier adventures, “The Final Reckoning” has many juicy small-parts—notice, for instance, how many speaking parts there are in the U.S. President’s team (the President herself is played by Angela Bassett). The submarine captain, played with skilful balance by Tramell Tillman, has a wonderful part, and some of the best lines of the film (“You must be Captain Bledsoe.” “And you must be out of your mind!”). So does business-like Rear Admiral Neely, played by Hannah Waddingham, confidence oozing from her every pore on the aircraft carrier. It’s a shame that Paris, an intriguing French assassin, played by Pom Klementieff, has a much reduced part compared with “Dead Reckoning.” For that matter, Gabriel, played by Esai Morales, doesn’t have that chunky a role to play either.
MI must be such fun to make. So many neat problems to solve during the selection process for locations, set design, and meetings to plan the visual effects. Of all the geographies, the frozen Arctic island, sled dogs and all, has to be the best (it’s filmed in Svalbard, Norway). There are some lovely sets, such as the U.S. Command Centre in Virginia, the tunnels underneath King’s Cross station, and a neat reprise of the famous “black vault” scene from the first movie, where Ethan is dangling from a ceiling. Industrial Light and Magic, the best in the business, take first-billing for special effects and animation, but a multitude of other major players in the visual-effects world are credited at the end.
Anyone who saw “Dead Reckoning Part One” is very unlikely to be disappointed. I’ll be back in a few days, plan on spending the whole evening, get a popcorn, and enjoy the movie a second time. The grandiosity and sheer expensiveness of the whole thing is the point. It’s designed as a spectacle: nobody does it better. Much is made this time around of Ethan’s appetite for gambling with the lives of those he never meets based on his own intuition (there is rather a mixed metaphor in there somewhere about checkmate…). Hollywood gambles on Tom Cruise and “Mission: Impossible” to entertain those it never meets. “Who would you trust with that much power?” “Well—you of course!”
Adam Poole
19 May 2025
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