Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning' - video Dailymotion

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Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning'  Has the Mission: Impossible series finally run out of steam?  It would appear so.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/05/23/euronews-cultures-film-of-the-week-mission-impossible-the-final-reckoning  Spark your senses, wake your wonder. Euronews Culture seeks to show creativity in action and inspire our audience to explore the world through the five senses. Start your journey through the best of Europe's arts, gastronomy, traditions and high-end craftsmanship.

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00:00well welcome to this week's special edition of our cultural catch-up and we're concentrating

00:16on the massive franchise which is mission impossible joining me is my special covert

00:22spy david morricond you know i know what you've been doing behind you i know what you've been

00:27doing behind that desk you've been secretly looking at the history of this franchise which has been

00:32going on for now 30 years just so you must have started like watching the first one with that

00:36thumb in your mouth david uh well not quite but nearly um so yeah no i've i've i before the the

00:42release of uh final reckoning i did put myself through more than 900 minutes of the whole

00:49franchise i re-watched the whole thing from 1996 uh mission impossible by brian de palma all the way

00:55to 2023's uh dead reckoning part one and it is a special franchise to the extent that it has

01:03bucked the franchise trend it's one of these kind of series of films that is this almost blockbuster

01:10anomaly to the extent that ever since its beginning it's gone from strength to strength as opposed to

01:15several other series where there are dips now granted mission impossible 2 the john woo film

01:20was a little bit of a of a disappointment but if you hire john woo you get a john woo film certainly

01:25do lots of dubs yeah dubs flying everywhere where they should be singed pigeons instead but for some

01:31reason they're impervious to fire and and essentially this is like a franchise that has

01:36over the years over three decades really kind of not faced many diminishing returns

01:42except in 2023 with dead reckoning part one which we saw together and it was bloated it was weirdly

01:53underwhelming yeah and it represented a little bit of a for me at least a bit of a franchise low it was

01:59memorable for perhaps all the wrong reasons i would say yeah and and this is the thing now we come to

02:06the final reckoning it was originally supposed to be dead reckoning part two they've renamed it as the

02:11final reckoning and it has been billed as the final installment of mission impossible where ethan

02:17comes back and finishes off the story that started with dead reckoning part one so you know you've seen

02:24it and i know you've looked at all the french all each one in the franchise very very carefully

02:30how does this one rate compared with the rest rock bottom

02:36i need you to trust me one last time it is all over the shop it's an absolute mess of a film and

02:52it gives me absolutely no pleasure to say that because like i said i really enjoy the way that

02:57directors over the years have put their individual stamp on the film so you had brian de palma doing

03:02an espionage film then you had john woo and it went all over the shop as well but it was deliriously

03:08entertaining it was a very kind of early 2000s films loads of shiny leather jackets shades you know

03:14explosions in the background and then then you had jj abrams coming in and kind of giving it a little

03:19bit of a of a reboot or a rejuvenation brad bird afterwards for ghost protocol which was a fantastic adventure

03:26and then you had christopher macquarie who came in and who really kind of tweaked the formula

03:31and got it to where it needed to be with rogue nation and fallout which in my mind is the franchise high

03:39in 2018 and now you have the final reckoning which suffers from the same problems as dead reckoning

03:48which is very exposition heavy it's very clumsy the script is just all over the shop so essentially you

03:56you you pick up where it left off where there is the entity this um ai parasite which distorts the

04:04truth which sows seeds of division stokes fear if we want to bring the world back from the brink

04:14we have to deal with him should we choose to accept

04:18really the concept is excellent because it does speak to a time it does speak to kind of

04:27very very topical fears and at the beginning of um the final reckoning we hear about fanatics

04:33who are pledging their devotion to their digital overlord and you're like brilliant go with that go with

04:40truth distortion with post-truth with governments being divided and but no instead it it completely

04:48throws everything at the at the at the script and essentially the gaping digital sphincter that is

04:56the entity is both doomsayer um manipulator of doomsday and essentially is you have 72 hours to save the

05:06world from complete nuclear annihilation and this is the franchise forgetting what makes it so good

05:15at the beginning which is espionage films but you know obviously which is you know some of the action

05:22some of the stunts some of the state are completely ludicrous but you could suspend your disbelief

05:28because it was so deliriously entertaining

05:41there is a lunatic reliance on flashbacks you get these little snippets of the previous films because

05:48this film has been built of as it's all led up to this but it hasn't it almost retcons and and tries to

05:57kind of link the previous films to this one and you're just like why there's absolutely no need

06:04to do so but in doing that it really kind of puts the character of ethan hunt at the center and and

06:11mythologizes him there's there's dialogue cringe-worthy dialogue that says you know

06:17oh it's been 35 years mr hunt you were always the best of men in the worst of times you you are the

06:23chosen one that is a line in the film and you're just like i'm not watching a mission impossible

06:27film it's it's it's i'm stuck in the matrix there's you know now ethan hunt is no longer a special agent

06:34for the imf it's it's a messiah messianic figure and and it's so dull because the the first half of the

06:43film is like peddling through hummus because there is so much exposition it is it is so deadly just

06:50contrived and the worst part is with all these flashbacks and in the final reckoning is every

06:57time i saw like snippets from the previous film i was like that was good that was a really really

07:02good film that was fun and it just reminded me of films that i would rather watch as opposed to be

07:08stuck in the final reckoning and another problem that it it retains from dead reckoning part one is not

07:16only very very clumsy dialogue and a bloated script but also just characters i mean the cast do admirably

07:24well they are really really good they're giving it socks but there's there's a problem is that the

07:29villain played by a sign morales who plays a character called gabriel is so underwhelming he's

07:35he's a charisma vacuum in this and and he was that in dead reckoning part one and in the final reckoning

07:41it's the same thing and and a film especially an action thriller is only as good as its villain and

07:47when you've had in previous films philip seymour hoffman in mission impossible three um sean harris

07:54in um rogue nation and fallout who were fantastic villains and and and you know gave the the the

08:01series a sense of menace here you're just like okay you're a silver fox in a plane good for you

08:09what exactly is your plan

08:22it came to the point i was so bored by this film that at one point there's another useless callback

08:29from the first film um which leads us to this isolated cabin and this cabin is gorgeous it's got

08:37wooden beams it's got fantastic shelving there's books everywhere there's a little fireplace and

08:44this place because of the narrative i won't spoil it just well i will spoil it goes up in flames at one

08:49point and i was so just uninterested in this bloated narrative that i was just like what about the

08:56cabin what what what what what happens to the cabin these two people were living their lives you know their best

09:02lives in an absolute gorgeous chalet and you're just like you've ruined it for them what about

09:07the cabin tom cruise doing what he can for said designers around the world i mean it's not his

09:14fault he does he tom cruise as per usual is is great he does he does the stunts and there are plenty

09:20of really really good stunts in this as per the the rest of the franchise but even they feel bizarrely a

09:27little bit over underwhelming i just i i was bored tokes to be bored in a mission impossible film i

09:33mean that it's unforgivable sounds incredible and you're making it sound like a real snore fest

09:40and where does this therefore if this is like at the bottom of the the mission impossible rankings

09:45you know what does this say about the future of the franchise you know tom cruise has you know it's been

09:50they've been questioned so many times about the future could could you see him coming back

09:57it's an interesting question i mean in recent interviews he said you know he's been a bit cagey

10:01obviously because because it's billed as the final reckoning it's a little bit of a marketing campaign to

10:06say this is the last one it's all been leading up to this if you enjoyed the previous ones you have to

10:11see this one and and really for me no you don't have to see this one you you for me the franchise high

10:18was 2018 fallout and even that had just a better ending to answer your question this feels like it

10:26could be the last one it is purely because it's it you can't top the stakes nuclear annihilation you

10:34again it felt like a michael bay film it felt at times like even a film directed by mcg which is

10:40possibly the lowest compliment i can pay anything because this has absolutely gone to a whole other

10:47level it's just no you you stop it there it's done but really realistically what they're going to do

10:56is wait a few years and reboot the franchise and the only way they they can do this is by going back

11:03to the espionage routes with you know a new team maybe tom cruise coming back as this kind of elder

11:10spy who who who who plays the the the father figure to is there is there an heir apparent within the

11:16films well not really at first it was going to be uh jeremy renner uh who came i think in ghost

11:22protocol and who was uh in in in the latter films but here he's completely absent and and no there isn't

11:29and and in this case there shouldn't be it should be a brand new team tom cruise will probably come

11:35back as the jim phelps kind of character for this new team in a few years time so there is that but

11:40the the issue is and this is a mild spoiler it has to be said is that final reckoning just really lacks

11:47the conviction of its beliefs if it's all been leading up to this and we mentioned the bond franchise

11:53that under daniel craig it the the last bond film no time to die did this spectacular thing of let's kill

12:02off james bond it's never been done before a bold move a very bold move and it kind of worked and and

12:08the thing is is that here there is a sequence in this film again mild spoiler is that at one point

12:15a parachute malfunctions and you're just like ah this is it he's gonna fall to his death and his

12:21last moment is to put the flingamajig in the thingamibob and and and and save the world you know

12:27just at the last moment and then splat but no he he shows up at the end everything's fine he's you

12:34know they've trapped the the the ai in a little glowing box and it's just like well yeah isn't tom

12:41cruise isn't ethan hunt great and and yeah so it does leave the door open a little bit depressingly so

12:47but it has to be said this series of films the the the mission impossible ip needs the pants down

12:55spanking that jason born and mission impossible ironically enough gave the bond franchise to

13:01basically just go you've gone over the deep end lads you can't just have you know pierce brosnan kind

13:07of kite surfing over a digital wave you can't have tom cruise just you know miraculously surviving

13:13being in the mariana trench and then you know no consequences at all here you need to go back to

13:18something that is rooted in something that is believable and then stretch credibility but

13:24because it is rooted in real stakes you feel something i felt nothing here okay well mission

13:31impossible seems to be a flop you've made that very clear david uh our super spy uh taking that mission on

13:38on see us out right this video will self-destruct in five seconds

13:57you

Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning'

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