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James Mottram

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.


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.
There are some pleasing newcomers, including Tramell Tillman (Severance) and Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) as military personnel willing to aid Hunt in his one-in-a-million shot at bringing down the Entity.
Much like Dead Reckoning, the film does lose points in the villain stakes; smiling assassin Gabriel (Esai Morales), who is the killer trying to harness the Entity’s power, never quite works.

Compared to Sean Harris, the chilling antagonist in earlier Mission outings Rogue Nation and Fallout, he feels rather shapeless, given little to do until the final reel.
Once again, Cruise shows us his mettle with some heavyweight stunt scenes – both underwater (in a very clever, queasy sequence) and aerially (all taking place on two old-fashioned biplanes).
Yet, in truth, neither quite have the breathtaking feel of some of the franchise’s most famous stunts. Still, director Christopher McQuarrie knows how to conduct an action set-piece, and even at 62, Cruise remains the most polished of instruments.
Plot-wise, there’s a lot of retcon going on here, with earlier episodes made to conveniently fit into the storyline, as if Cruise and co had been planning this huge story arc since day one.

Running at two hours 45 minutes, the sombre end-of-the-world tale is also weighed down by exposition. This isn’t the nimblest of Mission: Impossible films, nor the most fun. But it wraps up this series neatly enough, allowing Cruise’s character to take one final bow.
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Tom Cruise plays agent Ethan Hunt, out to save the world, this time from a rogue AI, in an instalment that neatly wraps up the franchise


Tom Cruise plays agent Ethan Hunt, out to save the world, this time from a rogue AI, in an instalment that neatly wraps up the franchise.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tom Cruise plays agent Ethan Hunt, out to save the world, this time from a rogue AI, in an instalment that neatly wraps up the franchise

Tom Cruise plays agent Ethan Hunt, out to save the world, this time from a rogue AI, in an instalment that neatly wraps up the franchise