Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Director: Christopher McQuarrie Actors: Tom Cruise, Simon PeggRating: 3.5/5
To start with, what I loved about Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is to watch AI as the most real enemy here. This faceless villain has under its control nuclear stockpile of India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. 
The UK, likewise, has been breached. Other nations shall follow, if this machine-learning monster isn’t stopped forthwith. And who else to do this, but naturally, Ethan Hunt, i.e. Tom Cruise, top spy, under the orders/advise of the black, woman US President (Angella Bassett). 
In mainstream movies, lead characters gotta goal. The (above) goal, in this case, gets locked within the first few minutes of the movie. Which is unusual. 
This early plot-setting frees up the picture entirely thence to switch into the vast scenery, stunts and other shenanigans you’ve been walking into a Mission: Impossible for. 
That’s ever since 1996. It’s been nearly 30 years. The Final Reckoning, the eighth, will perhaps be the last instalment. For that reason alone, the film should be worth the almost three hours of screentime. 
But, no, there’s more to this M:I movie, I believe — that is beyond the basic remit of a franchise. Consider the most extensive set-pieces in the film. There are two major chunks. 
One’s set entirely underwater. As if it was the marine version of Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity (2013). The other is completely up in the air. In the sense of, set between two aeroplanes, somewhere between control and free fall. 
Now, I didn’t clock these two mesmerising sequences. But I have a feeling they could come close to half of the movie’s entire second half! 
And guess what — there is literally no dialogue for that duration. You’re watching a wordless wonder. Your eyes don’t budge from the screen, one bit.
They’re stuck on Cruise, who stars in practically every scene of Mission: Impossible, including the highlight segments, of course. 
Wherein at least twice in the aerial combat manoeuvres, with Cruise evidently hanging from a plane – his hair and cheeks flying in motion – I had my hand on my forehead, worrying if this superstar will survive the scene. Obviously, he will!
But just the knowledge of how Cruise does his own grave stunts, defying gravity for the big screen, just puts the fear of God among his audiences. It’s not the same thing as watching any other star, over similar scenes. 
“Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this, ever in flesh and blood, walked upon this earth.” That’s what Einstein said about Mahatma Gandhi. Could the same be said for Cruise, 62? 
Especially since the future generations, raised on AI tools that turn them into heroes and villains of their own stories, will have no reason to believe someone risked their lives to please their audience. Or that the public, over decades, came to see an actor, foremost—his films, only thereafter. Indians, of course, will have no problem believing the latter bit. 
Our star system with heroes pushing or past 6o, making films totally centred on them, that audiences approve of, equally, is still an ongoing desi phenomenon.
Unlike the US, that replaced its stars with superhero and blast-fest franchises. Cruise is the rare one who defied these harebrained Hollywood exec-coterie. 
The Final Reckoning is a Tom Cruise Production, in the same vein that Salman, Aamir, etc, have film companies named after themselves.
Cruise, that way, is one of us. Both literally and metaphorically, an ageless running nostalgia. Incidentally, his first sprinting scene in the film takes place under the Clock Tower of London. 
Also explains why his comfort film has arrived in India, days before its global release? Don’t know about that. 
What can’t be denied—that the movie has a dedicated, captive fan base allows the screenwriters (director Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen) to tinker with plot all the more, go a li’l dense—sometimes for the heck of it, mostly for a reason, and on occasion, stretching towards self-indulgence—leaving me a li’l confused, between multiple keys, wires, codes, locations, spies…   
At its core, of course, the movie is the immediate sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), with enough montage shots from multiple Missions to give the sense of an ending. 
Also, a stern warning on what a world dominated by AI that’s taken over (fake) news could look like. The premise feels real. Ethan Hunt is fictional. Cruise is real too; and yes, like all of us, he ages. You can see it. 
What will survive public memory from this M:I, though, is the sheer visual experience. It was expected from Cruise to deliver. But the filmmakers have given it their all— going wide, on mountains, jungle, sky, deep-sea, dog-fighting aeroplanes, car-chase; tight on faces, reducing audiences to the size of human nostrils on IMAX. 
I picked up the fully immersive, centre seat, second row from the screen. Best seats, bro.