Warning: SPOILERS for Mission: Not possible — The Closing Reckoning are forward!
The Mission: Not possible movie collection is over; Tom Cruise confirmed as a lot simply days earlier than the eighth installment, Mission: Not possible — The Closing Reckoning, was launched onto the 2025 motion pictures schedule. By way of rating these motion pictures, I place The Closing Reckoning someplace within the center, as a result of whereas I didn’t discover it almost as distinctive because the likes of Rogue Nation and Fallout, it was nonetheless a enjoyable watch. It’s undoubtedly value streaming with a Paramount+ subscription later this 12 months if you happen to’re not capable of find time for it on the movie show now.
Nevertheless, The Closing Reckoning will get one main ding from me when it comes to the way it didn’t resolve a thriller from 2023’s Mission: Not possible — Lifeless Reckoning. The ultimate two Mission: Not possible motion pictures are probably the most intently linked on this movie collection, which was to be anticipated on condition that The Closing Reckoning was initially known as Lifeless Reckoning Half 2. And but, this final hurrah fails to inform audiences the complete story of what occurred between Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and Esai Morales’ Gabriel, and I’m not happy about it.
The Closing Reckoning By no means Delves Into Specifics Behind Ethan And Gabriel’s Feud
Mission: Not possible — Lifeless Reckoning lastly answered a query that had been on followers’ minds because the movie collection started in 1996: how did Ethan Hunt be a part of the Not possible Mission Drive (IMF)? In 1989, Ethan’s girlfriend Marie was killed by Gabriel, and two years later, he was arrested by Eugene Kittridge in Spain as a consequence of being framed for her homicide. Ethan was given a selection between being despatched to jail or be a part of the IMF. It’s the identical sort of deal that was provided to Hayley Atwell’s Grace as Lifeless Reckoning was winding down, and he or she additionally selected to simply accept it.
I didn’t thoughts that Lifeless Reckoning didn’t delve into the specifics about what led to Gabriel killing Marie. There was sufficient already happening in that film, and I figured The Closing Reckoning would pull again the proverbial curtain on that occasion. Certain, the primary motive persons are testing Mission: Not possible 8 is to see extra of Tom Cruise’s wild stunts and witness Ethan Hunt defeating The Entity, however the hardcore followers have been certainly desirous to study the complete story behind Ethan turning into an IMF agent.
However we by no means get that. Gabriel was nonetheless inflicting bother in Mission: Not possible — The Closing Reckoning, albeit on his personal ever since The Entity deserted him as a result of he didn’t retrieve the important thing to the malevolent A.I.’s supply code. Gabriel even will get a becoming demise within the film, as a result of simply when he thinks he’s going to flee Ethan and parachute to security, he cracks his head on the aircraft rudder, dying immediately. But at no level are we ever clued in about why Gabriel felt the necessity to kill Marie to harm Ethan.
I’m Irritated That The Closing Reckoning Didn’t Dedicate Any Time To This Thriller
I walked out of Mission: Not possible — The Closing Reckoning with lots of questions on my thoughts. How did Ethan and Gabriel meet? What have been these two doing in 1989? What sequence of occasions led to Gabriel deciding it was essential to kill Marie? Who even was Marie? What was Gabriel doing within the following 30 years main as much as his alliance with The Entity?
All these questions go unanswered, and it annoys me. Sure, I understand not each side of a personality’s previous must defined to the viewers, nevertheless it’s unusual that Mission: Not possible — The Closing Reckoning didn’t carve out any time to make clear Ethan and Gabriel’s feud, even when it was simply by way of a couple of strains of dialogue. To those that watched the ultimate two Mission: Not possible motion pictures, Gabriel is just a few man who had beef with Ethan Hunt within the late ‘80s and determined to choose it again up three many years later.
The Closing Reckoning clocks in at 170 minutes, simply 10 minutes shy of three hours. You’re telling me there was no option to squeeze in any of this backstory? Hell, we even lastly discovered what the Rabbit’s Foot from Mission: Not possible III was (although that did depart an enormous unfastened thread within the course of). I used to be general entertained by the occasions that unfolded within the eighth and ultimate Mission: Not possible film, however I can’t assist however really feel misled {that a} thriller that was dangled in entrance of us two years in the past was by no means adopted up on.
Sharing These Particulars Would Have Made Gabriel A Extra Compelling Villain
Frankly, doing so would have made Gabriel a extra attention-grabbing adversary. To make clear, I don’t suppose Gabriel is a horrible villain, it’s simply that he doesn’t come wherever near holding a candle subsequent to the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian and Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane. I might additionally simply nonetheless be bitter about Gabriel killing Ilsa Faust in Lifeless Reckoning, although I perceive why Rebecca Ferguson’s completely superb with not being within the franchise anymore.
Regardless, I might have been extra invested in Gabriel’s actions throughout the final two Mission: Not possible motion pictures if I’d recognized extra about his previous. Informing audiences about what drove him to take certainly one of Ethan Hunt’s family members away from him would have made his battle with Tom Cruise’s character extra attention-grabbing. I’m additionally interested by how particularly Gabriel turned The Entity’s liaison past merely wanting to acquire energy. I imply, positive, that’s sufficient to clarify lots of horrible actions that individuals commit, however why not go the additional mile with this baddie?
Alas, that ship has sailed in additional methods than one. So though I’ll all the time be dissatisfied that Mission: Not possible — The Closing Reckoning by no means bothered to place this thriller to mattress, at any time when the time comes for a rewatch, I’ll simply concentrate on the film’s constructive components, just like the (largely) excellent submarine sequence, Tom Cruise’s excessive wing-walking aircraft stunt, and even the non-stunt-filled scene that was Nick Offerman’s favourite.