MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING

Ethan Hunt may have bit off more than he can chew

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE -- THE FINAL RECKONING (2025). Director: Christopher McQuarrie.

The sequel to Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning has Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) dealing with a malicious entity that has taken over the Internet and is well on the way to taking over the world. They need to find the original source code and a special key to destroy the entity, but killing it may also destroy cyberspace -- therefore the cabinet isn't crazy about Hunt's idea, although the president (Angela Bassett) eventually agrees. In the meantime Hunt and his team fly to various locations, deal with enemy agents in the employ of villain Gabriel (Esai Morales), and manage to wiggle their way out of assorted death traps, including a tense sequence on a submarine. Everyone winds up in an underground repository that is known as the Doomsday Chamber. 

Esai Morales makes a splendid antagonist for Hunt

While not quite as good as Part One -- the whole thing is almost exhausting and one has to take it all with a large grain of salt -- Final Reckoning is nevertheless exciting and entertaining, with the entire cast giving it their all. The stunt work is, as usual, excellent. I have often said that these MI movies remind me in many ways of old cliffhanger serials, and like those old flicks, Dead Reckoning may have you scratching your head in disbelief in certain sequences (such as Hunt being somehow gotten through yards of solid ice, but no matter.) Bassett and Morales and Tramell Tillman as sub captain Bledsoe give particular arresting performances.

Verdict: Typically absurd but fun. ***.