Cannes 2025 review – Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning sees franchise off on a high
3.5/5 stars
It has been almost 30 years since Tom Cruise first played IMF agent Ethan Hunt in 1996's Mission: Impossible. This latest – and presumably last – instalment, premiering out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival, does not let us forget it either.
The opening montage, filled with nostalgic clips from the series, is the first of many times we are reminded that Hunt's three decades have led to this moment with the world on the precipice of disaster.
Following directly on from 2023's
Dead Reckoning Part One , this concluding part continues Hunt's attempt to battle the Entity, an AI program destined to bring the planet to its knees.
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With a crucial, crucifix-shaped key in his possession, rogue agent Hunt is implored by the President (Angela Bassett) to surrender for the sake of humanity. But Hunt has other ideas, with his mission involving penetrating a sunken Russian sub where the Entity's source code can be found.
With Hunt re-teamed with his usual gang – Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg) and Dead Reckoning's pickpocket Grace (Haley Atwell) and gun-for-hire Paris (Pom Klementieff) – this eighth film in the series is typically globe-trotting, bouncing from Austria to the Arctic to South Africa.
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