We’ve all been eagerly awaiting the outcome of the previous instalment of the MI series, Dead Reckoning (2023), and this one does not disappoint. While the movie is ‘long’ and has some plot holes/gaffs/conveniences, you’re practically on the edge of your seat the whole time, almost having a heart attack.

By Emad Aysha
Before getting into the details, two things become clear throughout the movie. The first is why Tom Cruise eliminated Rebecca Ferguson, aka Ilsa Faust. He did the same thing here with Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), a mainstay of the series from the very beginning.

Cruise is trying to reinvigorate the series with a whole new cast of characters to ensure the franchise keeps on going. He’s doing it in a very crude and cruel way, but the new additions to the IMF team are pretty cool—Pom Klementieff and Greg Tarzan Davis.

The second thing is the movie's moral message, which is about trust. To the considerable credit of the MI series, it never got swept up in the whole war on terror, torture is justifiable if not positively cool wave that came after 9/11. That’s more than I can say for the revamped James Bond series.

In a key scene, the Russians almost mess everything up, desperate to control the AI technology themselves, and for perfectly good reasons, given that the Americans were trying to do the same thing. Everybody interferes in everybody else’s affairs, driven by self-serving paranoia.

That’s the reality the ‘entity’ wants us to inhabit. The US president is also pushed into making a concession, on the model of the Cuban missile crisis, by having a limited nuclear exchange, something Kennedy rejected. This is a clear allusion to the US leading by example.

The AI engine embodies all our fears about too much knowledge and power in the wrong hands: electronic surveillance and the deep state. And weaponised AI isn’t far behind.

Note that the bad guy, Gabriel, is as much of a fanatic as the so-called terrorists the deep state is after. You fight demons for long enough, you take on their qualities, hence Gabriel talking fatalistically about how ‘it is written’.

With the world media breaking down and martial law declared, an AI cult develops, calling for an end to the world, and people who infiltrate government agencies to get the job done by hook or by crook. That’s the price of the garrison state.

Note also the scene in Trafalgar Square at the opening and end of the movie. I presume this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Napoleonic wars, and having British characters is a reference to the Americans learning from the older, more experienced Brits—the special relationship.

Not to mention the religious-sounding names, such as the overly stiff love interest (replacement) ‘Grace’ (Hayley Atwell). I do like the actress, mind you. She has a commanding screen presence and an exotic, top-heavy look. (She’s part Irish, part Native American)

But in Final Reckoning, she appears very smug and maintains the same expression.

DAMSEL OR DISTRESS: Hayley Atwell as the English kickass love interest of the all-American Ethan Hunt. The special relationship needs some reinvigorating itself.

The movie ends with a kind of de facto plea for nuclear disarmament, since every government selfishly wanted to control the entity and refused to deactivate their bombs, including the US, of course. Israel is also mentioned, with the capital as Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem!

Serbia in 1996 is mentioned as well. A stop-the-genocide reference?

It could also be that Oppenheimer influenced them. The imagery of the Earth burning looked familiar. Even the underwater sequence, claustrophobic and insane as hell, smacked of The Abyss (1989).

Still, the movie is full of surprises, from the decision-making room to the action sequences to (some of) the nostalgia references.

Esai Morales, aka Gabriel, really gets what he deserves here, and you enjoy every excruciating minute of it. The cinematography is also worth praising. The first movie had some motion blurring and some scenes that were clearly CGI. Here, everything was sharp as hell and natural-looking.

As incredible as the stunts were in part one, these far surpass them. The secondary characters are great, especially the president (Angela Bassett) and the husband-wife duo played by Rolf Saxon and Lucy Tulugarjuk, who perform sincerely and with heartfelt emotion. The same goes for Simon Pegg.

Even Briggs (Shea Whigham) gets his chance to shine, blue-collar white dude that he is. You have minorities everywhere, as well as women soldiers and spies, with likeable characters contributing generously to the plot.

One actress to look out for in the future is Katy M. O’Brian, the sexy, handsome diver from the submarine crew. The submarine captain (Tramell Tillman) is another potential heavy hitter.

So diversity does actually work, provided it’s not forced, serves a purpose, and is sincere. (Indira Varma is missing for some reason, though.) I presume director Christopher McQuarrie is responsible, once he’s given the autonomy he needs from a trusting star like Tom Cruise.

Talk about art imitating life, in a good way. You saw the same thing in smaller form in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Kudos to Tom Cruise, despite his ego, which is the only thing that gets in the way.

I still can’t forgive him for killing off the crew in the first MI movie and desecrating the legacy of James Phelps (Peter Graves). His ego shows here, too, such as in the ridiculous scene where he’s floating up to the ice and is rescued by Grace in semi-sexual form.

Afterwards, he gets to keep the entity as the only person trusted with that power. Balls!

For some reason, they had a lot more chemistry in the first movie. Oh, one last thing. Please watch the movie. The theatre was empty. An AI campaign against it? God help us all!