Was that the end for Ethan Hunt? Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning was definitely pitched as the conclusion of Tom Cruise’s 30-year saga with Ethan Hunt, and The Final Reckoning has an ending that does feel quite definitive. There are some major character deaths and plenty of the action that fans of this franchise have come to love. Let’s break it all down.
What happens in The Final Reckoning?
The Final Reckoning is, more than most Mission: Impossible movies, a direct sequel to its predecessor. As a result, it follows Ethan and his team as they attempt to stop Gabriel and the AI system known as The Entity from taking over the world by controlling various nuclear stockpiles. To take down The Entity, Ethan and his team have to hack the source code from inside the sonarsphere at the bottom of the sunken Sevastopol submarine. Then, they must use Luther’s poison pill to take it down.
This leads to Hunt swimming down into the submarine and briefly losing consciousness before ultimately being revived by Grace. After confronting Gabriel, the team is flanked by Jim Phelps Jr. and the team from the CIA. Gabriel flees in a biplane, which leads to the most thrilling set piece of the movie as Hunt chases him down and hangs from the wing of the plane. The two battle in mid-air, with Hunt eventually emerging victorious and securing both the poison pill and the source code.
How does the movie end?
Needless to say, Hunt and the team complete their mission and save the world from the Entity. Ethan’s parachute catches on fire as he attempts to put the poison pill in the podkova. He ultimately makes it to the ground intact. All those people concerned that Cruise would kill off his most well-known character turned out to be overreacting. Ethan survives this mission alive.
He and the rest of the team briefly reunite in London at the end before dispersing back into the crowd, satisfied that their mission is now complete.
Who lives and who dies?
Although you might expect a climactic installment like this to be filled with deaths, only one major character bites the dust in The Final Reckoning. Luther, who has been with Ethan since the beginning, dies in this chapter, a signal that Ving Rhames can no longer do the required action scenes and that this franchise might truly be coming to a close. Luther’s death comes fairly early on in the movie, when a bomb planted by Gabriel and his men under the streets of London explodes.
Nick Offerman’s General Sidney also bites the dust thanks to a bullet from an Entity spy, but he is a new character to the franchise in this installment.
Is this the end of Mission: Impossible?
While it’s impossible to say for sure, the vibes certainly suggest that Cruise and McQuarrie are ready to walk away from this franchise following this installment. Ethan Hunt might still be around to save the day, but this movie’s ending suggests that we might not be privy to the rest of his adventures. He averted nuclear apocalypse, and he’s earned a long break.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is now in theaters.