Christopher McQuarrie directs Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff in this concluding chapter of the espionage franchise where Ethan Hunt and his team are humanity’s last hope against The Entity.

I am possibly too partisan to write sensibly about the final chapter of a franchise that has dominated my adult movie going life. When the opening montage of greatest moments and Hunt glorification fired up I had literal tears in my eyes within seconds. The sole big problem with Final Reckoning is it is too long and the excess is not just in the action but also in reminding us what has happened before, still needs to happen and just how amazing Tom Cruise is. I do not disagree with the self worship (he’s earned it) but it does create slack. We get two massive spectacle sequences. A near wordless underwater submarine assault course is breathtaking, while the ticking clock biplane dogfight countdown finale is simply some of the riskiest stunt work an A-List star has ever put themselves through for our popcorn munching pleasure. They are both as mind blowing and pulse raising as any beloved OTT ‘Tom’ moment in the series entire. Only on a gargantuan scale. McQuarrie knows how to sustain tension on a colossal canvas. And his now honed take on the IMF world has unlikely teams and omnipresent masterminds. Bringing us right back to his classic, gold standard script for The Usual Suspects. Only here plutonium yields replace silencers. He is in his element. Angela Bassett is back now as ‘the prez’ in a sideshow remake of Fail Safe. Klementieff steals focus constantly as the deranged killer turned good guy. It is a giddy big screen confection. Maybe one step down from the near consistent highs of the series entire but a more than satisfying full stop. Choose to accept it.

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