4K Blu-ray review: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

The Film

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has one fantastic set-piece, one good one, and a whole plethora of endless, dire exposition that leads nowhere. How well the first two work for you will define your experience with everything around them.

At nearly three hours in length, The Final Reckoning is more a film about people in dimly lit rooms speaking at each other in declaratives than it is an action movie. At its worst, it's an insufferably dull patchwork of several movies thrown into a blender after the COVID-19 pandemic derailed production. At best, it has momentary glimpses of what made the previous Cruise/McQuarrie pairings work.

It is pointless to repeat the plot, because the film does so much of that already. The first hour, at least, is nothing but exposition. The Final Reckoning begins with Cruise staring at a slideshow about the events of the first film, as Angela Bassett's President glumly intones "as you know..." before repeating to him everything he already does.

It's a sign that even the filmmakers are uncertain of what the hell happened in Dead Reckoning, a film with better action and equally pointless plot. But instead of spending time to streamline the unwieldy narrative, they double down by including more characters, each with their own subplots, and muddying the waters with pointless callbacks to the franchise's history. In one of the most egregious moments, Cruise sits down with a supporting character introduced in Dead Reckoning, and out of nowhere explains to them how they're related to a major villain from the first film.

It comes out of nowhere and goes about as far. The supporting character isn't seen again for almost a full hour. Their role plays off as contractually obligated. We paid for you, so might as well have you around.

If it was a singular event, I'd roll my eyes and forget about it. Instead, The Final Reckoning repeats the same trick not once, not twice, but four times in the process. Did you ever wonder what happened to a minor gag character from the first movie? Don't worry, they're now a major player in the story. Ever thought about where Ethan's knife from Mission Impossible went? Good news, it makes a return!

It's an odd insecurity to rely on the past this hard. It makes the film feel like a clip show instead of its own thing. Like a YouTube montage made by fans to celebrate the films they like. Fine on its own, but increasingly tiresome when you've bought a ticket to a new adventure.

When the film finally reaches new ground, it's far too late. The aforementioned fantastic set-piece? Well, it's a doozy involving a submarine rolling down the ocean floor with Cruise inside it. The whole premise is daft, but so entertaining and thrilling it doesn't matter. For a brief moment, it feels like a Mission Impossible adventure again. It doesn't last, and before long we're back to exposition-land, but it is there.

The much-advertised aerial sequence is also impressive, yet it comes so late in the movie that it means very little. By then, we know the film won't go out with a downer note. It spends so much time congratulating Ethan for who he is and what he represents that this feels less like a goodbye and more of a reminder to the audience how thankful we should be.

Once again, Cruise is a remarkable screen presence. His physicality is a marvel, and there's no question he isn't the best in the business for a reason. But even his star wattage can't distract from the fact that The Final Reckoning is an aimless collection of half-finished thoughts. Instead of bringing us along for the ride, it sidelines the viewers to ask, probably for the first time, why any of this is happening.

Perhaps it's just best to consider Fallout, the sixth film in the franchise, as the true ending. The two Reckoning films feel more akin to discarded demo tapes. Good ideas that never found the kind of shape to actually make it on one of the classic albums. Not inherently bad, but certainly not good, either.

Video

While I have my complaints about the film itself, there's no question that Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning looks frankly incredible. It was gorgeous in the cinema and the same is true on 4K Blu-ray. Every single detail, even in the non-IMAX sequences, which see the aspect ratio ramped up to cover the entire screen, come off pristine and clear.

The HDR deserves a highlight, too, as it pushes everything out of the 4K hardware with incredible brights and shadows, especially in the ending where the film skips between an underground bunker and an aerial pursuit. Colors pop beautifully and the entire setpiece in a crashed submarine is shockingly crisp.

This is a demo-worthy disc that anyone who wants to showcase IMAX-quality imagery at home should get. Even if they don't enjoy the movie, it's that good.

Audio

The same praise goes for the bombastic audio track, which is sadly just in English on the Nordic release. No other dubs or audio mixes, just one superlative one.

But what an audio track it is! From the opening fanfare, where Lalo Schiffrin's incredible score blasts out from the speakers, to the big airplane stunt at the end, The Final Reckoning is a loud and vibrant movie with tons of activity in every channel.

It's also a surprisingly nuanced mix, too. Listen, for example, how lovely and warm the mixing is in the scenes between Ethan and Luther or the final big moment where the team takes stock in the world around them.

Mission: Impossible has always been a franchise that delivers big audience-pleasing spectacle, and it doesn't falter in presentation one bit at this last stretch.

Extras

Surprisingly, the extras are quite lovely as well! The commentary track from Cruise and McQuarie is a highlight, offering plenty of insight into the practical effects and working ethos behind the film – even if it does goes overboard on the mythologizing about how Cruise is an indestructible machine who did everything himself without effects or stunts, even when we have video evidence that wasn't the case.

The short documentaries on crafting the big set pieces are equally welcome, and I wish we'd get more of this kind of behind the scenes material on big films. Again, there's a lot of erasure of effects work and the artistry behind crafting believable illusions for the sake of playing up this fallacy that Mission: Impossible films don't have CGI, but that's the kind of nonsense we have to trade in today.

Nonetheless, this is all good stuff. I hope that in five or so years we'll get a more candid version on everything that went wrong making the last two films. There is a far more interesting story behind all of this, one that Cruise and company won't tell just yet – but maybe one day.

Until then, The Final Reckoning is a great addition to the library of any action fan and certainly those who value high quality 4K cinema.