The upcoming movie Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has a feeling of finality to it. Not only does the title include the word final, but it will wrap up the story that kicked off in one of the franchise’s biggest and boldest films, Dead Reckoning (2023).
The film’s synopsis simply reads, “Our Lives Are the Sum of Our Choices,” and it suggests that things are going to come to a head in a way we haven’t seen before.
But director Christopher McQuarrie and his movie-making partner, and star of the films, Tom Cruise, have both kept quiet on whether this is officially the end.
When Empire tried to get an answer out of him, Cruise laughed and said:
“You gotta see the movie. It’s a hard thing for me to discuss at the moment, because it really is something that you have to experience.” It is, though, he says, “an epic, emotional journey of the entire franchise,” an odyssey of sorts. “It’s Homeric,” he promises.
McQuarrie is similarly hesitant to confirm, but also promises a film that encompasses Cruise’s entire tenure as Ethan Hunt. “It is, I hope, the satisfying conclusion to a 30-year story arc,” he says. “I’m pretty confident that people are going to feel that the title was appropriate.”
The pair has said over the years that they wanted to keep making these movies forever, but I bet if they found a great way to close out the series, they might have jumped on it.
Plus McQuarrie and Cruise have so many other ideas they’re constantly at various stages of working on. They’ve previously made the films Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow, and The Mummy together, as well as the hugely popular Top Gun: Maverick, which is set to movie forward with another sequel.
For now, McQuarrie and Cruise are in pre-production on the war drama Broadsword, which will also star Henry Cavill and Marion Cotillard.
We will just have to wait and see what the future holds for McQuarrie and Cruise, and as for Ethan Hunt, we will see how his story moves forward in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, in theatres this year on May 23rd.
