Mission Impossible. When we think of the iconic franchise, we usually think of good ol’ Tom Cruise, doing stunts that quite frankly should probably kill him. What made it stand out from other spy projects from its time, like James Bond or The Man from U.N.C.L.E, was that, the agents in the show did not eliminate their enemies; rather they manipulated their own enemies into destroying themselves, like tricking them into thinking that they were betrayed by their own allies. While the new film did keep some of the iconic features like the exploding messages, masks, disguises, iconic musical theme, and the team reveal, it lacked what made the original film series iconic as it leaned too much into the stunts (which are not bad), and not what made the series memorable and acclaimed. While the earlier films kept some of the spy plots, intrigue, espionage and mystery from the original Mission impossible, the later films, like “Fallout” and “Final Reckoning”, leaned more on the stunts and the action. But there is at least one film that has a good balance between the captivating story plot and the almost impossible stunts, and captures the best of each side: The original Mission Impossible 1996.

The reason the more recent Mission Impossible movies like Mission Impossible: Fallout( 2018) and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025) were underwhelming, is that they leaned too much into stunts and action over the intrigue and espionage plot. While Fallout did have the “John Lark” plot  about figuring out who he is and what is his endgame, it is mainly overshadowed by the stunts, like the Halo Jump, and the helicopter fight at the end, which is not bad, but still misses out on any real plot, that causes the viewers  to question things or build any real tension, especially since the trailers and marketing material already hinted that August Walker, Ethan Hunt’s partner was actually the villain John Lark, which does turn out to be true in the movie. 

Now in Final Reckoning, the movie completely leans into the stunts, such as the underwater submarine sequence and the plane fight scene at the end. The underwater sequence I actually liked, as Tom Cruise made it feel very tough and dangerous, and also the underwater scene itself actually looked beautiful. The plane scene, at the end however I did not like, as compared to the other plane scenes in Rogue Nation and Fallout, this one felt sleazy, and not gritty as it should be. Overall the movie is very weak, as the plot isn’t very strong which features Ethan Hunt stopping the entity (the evil AI) hacking and taking over all the nukes and blowing up the planet, which is actually a strong plot but it is poorly executed and there aren’t as many interesting twists and turns as you would expect.