Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning 2025, A fitting farewell to Ethan Hunt

The eighth and final instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise brings back Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, once again trying to save the world—this time from a nuclear catastrophe set off by a sentient AI called the Entity. The story picks up from Dead Reckoning Part One (2023). While the plot was thin and mostly predictable, I didn’t mind. The sheer pace of the film, with one action set-piece after another, left me exhausted in a good way. That constant momentum alone made the film enjoyable, and for that reason, I’m giving it a Ripe rating on Mangoidiots. But I’ll add: if you’re someone who looks for realism or is tired of one-man-against-the-world tropes, this may not be your cup of tea.

I liked how the film began with a quick recap and then scattered references to earlier episodes in the franchise. The central plot revolves around Ethan’s mission to find a way to destroy the Entity, an AI that has gone rogue and now poses an existential threat to humanity. His path takes him in search of the Sevastopol, a long-lost Russian submarine hidden deep beneath the Bering Sea. Whether Ethan succeeds or if his adversary, Gabriel, who now seems to serve the AI, succeeds, is what drives the story.

One of the things I genuinely appreciated in this film was the portrayal of women in authoritative and action-oriented roles. A woman as the President of the United States, another as the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, and an Inuit lady pilot who fearlessly flies the team across dangerous terrain—each one shown with strength and dignity, not as tokens, but as essential parts of the story.

The visual highlight for me was the deep-sea sequence. Ethan diving into the cold, dark waters of the Arctic to access a tearing apart, torpedo-laden submarine was both absurd and gripping. Yes, it’s far-fetched—like much of this franchise has always been—but I found myself completely drawn into that moment. We can’t help but get transported into the eerie silence of the ocean’s depths and root for Ethan to succeed. Compared to that, the finale in the skies with aeroplane stunts felt a bit underwhelming.

That said, the film had more than a few logic gaps. I couldn’t help but wonder — if the Americans or the Russians were capable of building an AI as powerful as the Entity a decade ago, why haven’t they built a better one since? And if they knew it was on a submarine, how come no one was able to locate it all these years? Also, why does Ethan have to be the lone man diving into the wreck? Surely, real-life missions don’t work like that. And here’s the biggest mystery—once the Entity sank the Russian submarine to hide itself, how exactly did it communicate with the outside world from the bottom of the ocean? The film never explains this.

There’s also a scene where the U.S. President has to make a last-minute decision in the face of a possible nuclear disaster. That scene didn’t have the impact or tension I had seen in older films like Dr. Strangelove (1964). It felt a bit rushed and convenient.

For me personally, some elements of the Entity and its god-like knowledge reminded me of the “Higher Synthetics” arc in Star Trek: Picard. I don’t know if it was intentional, but the similarities were hard to miss—perhaps just my long-standing love for Star Trek coming through.

Despite all the implausibilities, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) gave me an entertaining ride and a sense of closure. It felt like a fitting way to say goodbye to Ethan Hunt. Moviegoers around the world liked him a lot, and this film gave him the send-off he deserved.

Stretching him for yet another mission in the changed world of 2025 and beyond would’ve only made him a caricature. Every character belongs to the time and world they were created in—and the world order that shaped Ethan Hunt is long gone.