Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a 2025 American action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen.[7][8] It is the direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One[b] (2023) and the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The ensemble cast includes Tom Cruise (in his final portrayal of Ethan Hunt),[10] Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny and Angela Bassett.[11][12] In the film, Hunt and his IMF team continue their mission to prevent the Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence, from destroying all of humanity.
In January 2019, Cruise announced that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films would be shot back-to-back with McQuarrie co-writing and directing both films. Plans for the eighth film changed in February 2021, with returning and new cast and crew members being announced soon after, including Lorne Balfe, who composed the score for two other films in the series; Balfe was later replaced by Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey. Principal photography began in March 2022 but was suspended in July 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Production resumed in March 2024 and concluded in November, with filming locations including England, Malta, South Africa, and Norway. Originally subtitled Dead Reckoning Part Two, the film changed its subtitle in November 2024. With a $300–400 million budget, The Final Reckoning is one of the most expensive films ever made.
Two months after retrieving the key to the source code for the malevolent artificial intelligence known as the Entity,[c] rogue IMF agent Ethan Hunt receives a message from US President Erika Sloane. She informs Ethan that the Entity continues to seize control of global nuclear systems, aided by undercover doomsday cultists. Ethan is ordered to surrender the key, but he refuses and continues pursuing Gabriel, the Entity's former proxy, who was forsaken after failing to steal the key himself.[c] Ethan and fellow IMF agent Benji Dunn first visit their ill IMF hacker Luther Stickell in his off-grid lab beneath London, where he has finished developing the "Poison Pill" malware that can target the Entity.
The team recruits Jasper Briggs's partner, Theo Degas, and Gabriel's former lieutenant, Paris, who tells them where Gabriel is. In London, Gabriel's men capture Ethan and IMF agent Grace. Gabriel forces Ethan to recover the "Podkova" module developed from the Rabbit's Foot in the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol, which would give him control over the Entity. Ethan and Grace escape. Contacting the Entity, Ethan is shown visions of a nuclear apocalypse. The Entity says Luther will die and demands access to a digital bunker in South Africa to survive.
Ethan tasks his team with getting the Sevastopol's coordinates and retrieving him after the dive. He races to save Luther, but Gabriel steals the Poison Pill and traps Luther with a time bomb. Luther sacrifices himself to minimize the blast, and Ethan is brought to Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center. With three days until the Entity takes over the remaining nuclear weapons control facilities and launches nuclear armageddon, Ethan convinces Sloane to let him locate the Sevastopol, against CIA Director Eugene Kittridge's objections.
Grace, Benji, Paris, and Degas travel to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, home to a Cold War era naval sonar array that detected the Sevastopol's sinking. They meet former CIA analyst William Donloe, who was exiled to the island after Ethan's 1996 break-in at CIA headquarters[d] and coincidentally memorized the Sevastopol's coordinates. Captured by Russian special forces seeking the coordinates, Grace and Donloe's wife Tapeesa escape by dog sled, and the others fight off the soldiers as Donloe transmits the coordinates to Ethan.
Ethan joins the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush in the North Pacific Ocean and boards the submarine USS Ohio. After receiving the coordinates and barely surviving a doomsday assassin named Hagar who had infiltrated the Ohio, Ethan uses an experimental diving suit to reach the Sevastopol and retrieve the Podkova as the wreck slides down the continental shelf. Narrowly escaping without his diving suit, Ethan is revived from decompression sickness by Grace using a portable decompression chamber. Reunited with his team, Ethan plans to plug the Poison Pill into the Podkova, fooling the Entity into entering a physical drive instead of the bunker mainframe.
At the bunker, Gabriel ambushes the team with a timed nuclear device, demanding the Podkova. Kittridge interrupts, seeking control of the Entity. During the gunfight, the bomb activates and Benji is shot. Gabriel flees with the Poison Pill, pursued by Ethan with the Podkova. Donloe, Tapeesa, and Degas defuse the bomb; Paris, Grace, and Benji prepare the mainframe to trap the Entity.
Sloane avoids a preemptive nuclear strike, but the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is fatally wounded protecting her from a doomsday assassin, allowing the Entity time to take full control of the world's nuclear arsenal. Ethan chases Gabriel in a biplane, climbs onto his plane, breaks Gabriel’s arm, and retrieves the Poison Pill. Gabriel gets himself killed after hitting his forehead on the plane’s rudder after making a reckless attempt to escape. Ethan finds another parachute and inserts the Poison Pill into the Podkova mid-air, allowing Grace to trap the Entity just before nuclear launch.
Ethan listens to a farewell message from Luther in the Poison Pill, which self-destructs afterwards. He gives the destroyed Podkova to Kittridge, and Briggs, revealed to be the son of Jim Phelps, makes amends with Ethan for exposing his father as a traitor.[d] Reuniting in London, Grace gives Ethan the drive with the Entity, and the IMF team part ways.
Cast
| Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Christopher McQuarrie |
| Written by |
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| Based on | Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Fraser Taggart |
| Edited by | Eddie Hamilton |
| Music by |
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Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 170 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States[3] |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $300–400 million[4][5] |
| Box office | $598.8 million[1][6] |
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a 2025 American action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen.[7][8] It is the direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One[b] (2023) and the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The ensemble cast includes Tom Cruise (in his final portrayal of Ethan Hunt),[10] Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny and Angela Bassett.[11][12] In the film, Hunt and his IMF team continue their mission to prevent the Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence, from destroying all of humanity.
In January 2019, Cruise announced that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films would be shot back-to-back with McQuarrie co-writing and directing both films. Plans for the eighth film changed in February 2021, with returning and new cast and crew members being announced soon after, including Lorne Balfe, who composed the score for two other films in the series; Balfe was later replaced by Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey. Principal photography began in March 2022 but was suspended in July 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Production resumed in March 2024 and concluded in November, with filming locations including England, Malta, South Africa, and Norway. Originally subtitled Dead Reckoning Part Two, the film changed its subtitle in November 2024. With a $300–400 million budget, The Final Reckoning is one of the most expensive films ever made.
The Final Reckoning had its world premiere in Tokyo on May 5, 2025, was screened out of competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 14, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 23 by Paramount Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $598.8 million worldwide, while also having the largest opening weekend of the franchise.[13] It was the last film co-produced by Paramount and Skydance as separate entities before they merged on August 7, 2025.
Plot
Two months after retrieving the key to the source code for the malevolent artificial intelligence known as the Entity,[c] rogue IMF agent Ethan Hunt receives a message from US President Erika Sloane. She informs Ethan that the Entity continues to seize control of global nuclear systems, aided by undercover doomsday cultists. Ethan is ordered to surrender the key, but he refuses and continues pursuing Gabriel, the Entity's former proxy, who was forsaken after failing to steal the key himself.[c] Ethan and fellow IMF agent Benji Dunn first visit their ill IMF hacker Luther Stickell in his off-grid lab beneath London, where he has finished developing the "Poison Pill" malware that can target the Entity.
The team recruits Jasper Briggs's partner, Theo Degas, and Gabriel's former lieutenant, Paris, who tells them where Gabriel is. In London, Gabriel's men capture Ethan and IMF agent Grace. Gabriel forces Ethan to recover the "Podkova" module developed from the Rabbit's Foot in the sunken Russian submarine Sevastopol, which would give him control over the Entity. Ethan and Grace escape. Contacting the Entity, Ethan is shown visions of a nuclear apocalypse. The Entity says Luther will die and demands access to a digital bunker in South Africa to survive.
Ethan tasks his team with getting the Sevastopol's coordinates and retrieving him after the dive. He races to save Luther, but Gabriel steals the Poison Pill and traps Luther with a time bomb. Luther sacrifices himself to minimize the blast, and Ethan is brought to Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center. With three days until the Entity takes over the remaining nuclear weapons control facilities and launches nuclear armageddon, Ethan convinces Sloane to let him locate the Sevastopol, against CIA Director Eugene Kittridge's objections.
Grace, Benji, Paris, and Degas travel to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, home to a Cold War era naval sonar array that detected the Sevastopol's sinking. They meet former CIA analyst William Donloe, who was exiled to the island after Ethan's 1996 break-in at CIA headquarters[d] and coincidentally memorized the Sevastopol's coordinates. Captured by Russian special forces seeking the coordinates, Grace and Donloe's wife Tapeesa escape by dog sled, and the others fight off the soldiers as Donloe transmits the coordinates to Ethan.
Ethan joins the aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush in the North Pacific Ocean and boards the submarine USS Ohio. After receiving the coordinates and barely surviving a doomsday assassin named Hagar who had infiltrated the Ohio, Ethan uses an experimental diving suit to reach the Sevastopol and retrieve the Podkova as the wreck slides down the continental shelf. Narrowly escaping without his diving suit, Ethan is revived from decompression sickness by Grace using a portable decompression chamber. Reunited with his team, Ethan plans to plug the Poison Pill into the Podkova, fooling the Entity into entering a physical drive instead of the bunker mainframe.
At the bunker, Gabriel ambushes the team with a timed nuclear device, demanding the Podkova. Kittridge interrupts, seeking control of the Entity. During the gunfight, the bomb activates and Benji is shot. Gabriel flees with the Poison Pill, pursued by Ethan with the Podkova. Donloe, Tapeesa, and Degas defuse the bomb; Paris, Grace, and Benji prepare the mainframe to trap the Entity.
Sloane avoids a preemptive nuclear strike, but the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is fatally wounded protecting her from a doomsday assassin, allowing the Entity time to take full control of the world's nuclear arsenal. Ethan chases Gabriel in a biplane, climbs onto his plane, breaks Gabriel’s arm, and retrieves the Poison Pill. Gabriel gets himself killed after hitting his forehead on the plane’s rudder after making a reckless attempt to escape. Ethan finds another parachute and inserts the Poison Pill into the Podkova mid-air, allowing Grace to trap the Entity just before nuclear launch.
Ethan listens to a farewell message from Luther in the Poison Pill, which self-destructs afterwards. He gives the destroyed Podkova to Kittridge, and Briggs, revealed to be the son of Jim Phelps, makes amends with Ethan for exposing his father as a traitor.[d] Reuniting in London, Grace gives Ethan the drive with the Entity, and the IMF team part ways.
Cast
- Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt: An IMF agent and leader of a team of operatives.
- Hayley Atwell as Grace: A former thief turned IMF agent and Ethan's ally.[14]
- Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell: An IMF computer technician, one of Ethan's closest friends, and member of Ethan's team.
- Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn: An IMF technical field agent and a member of Ethan's team.
- Esai Morales as Gabriel Martinelli: An assassin with ties to Ethan's past before the IMF, who previously acted as the Entity's liaison.
- Pom Klementieff as Paris: A French assassin who was betrayed by Gabriel and became Ethan's ally in order to kill Gabriel.
- Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge: The former director of the IMF in the first film who now is the director of the CIA from Dead Reckoning.
- Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane: The former CIA director, now President of the United States; Bassett returns from Fallout.
- Greg Tarzan Davis as Theo Degas: A US Intelligence agent and Briggs' former partner who was assigned to track down Ethan and his team. He joins Ethan's team in this film.
- Holt McCallany as Serling Bernstein: The US Secretary of Defense
- Janet McTeer as Walters: The US Secretary of State
- Nick Offerman as General Sidney: A U.S. Army General and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
- Hannah Waddingham[15][16] as Rear Admiral Neely: USN, the Commander of Carrier Strike Group 10.[17]
- Tramell Tillman as Captain Jack Bledsoe:[18] USN, the commanding officer of the rescue submarine USS Ohio[19]
- Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs / Jim Phelps Jr.: A US Intelligence agent assigned to track down Ethan and his team. Son of Ethan's former team leader who went rogue, Jim Phelps.[20][21]
- Charles Parnell as Richards: the DNI, and head of the NRO.
- Mark Gatiss as Angstrom: Head of the NSA
- Rolf Saxon as William Donloe: a CIA analyst who was last seen in the first film being transferred to Alaska.[22]
- Lucy Tulugarjuk as Tapeesa: Donloe's wife[23]
- Katy O'Brian[24] as Kodiak, a U.S. Navy diver on board the submarine.
- Stephen Oyoung as Pills: a Navy diver on board the submarine.[25]
- Tomas Paredes as Hagar: a Navy diver on board the submarine and a Doomsday cultist.
- Paul Bullion as Shirley: a Navy diver on board the submarine.
- Mariela Garriga as Marie: A woman from Ethan and Gabriel's past, seen in a brief flashback.[26]
- Pasha D. Lychnikoff as Captain Koltsov
- Tommie Earl Jenkins as Colonel Burdick: U.S. Army, General Sidney's executive assistant
- Cary Elwes as Denlinger: the Director of National Intelligence in Dead Reckoning, seen in a brief flashback.
- Sydney Cole Alexander as Lieutenant Commander Bennet.
In February 2021, Deadline Hollywood reported that the film would no longer be filmed back to back with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.[29] By November, McQuarrie was in the process of rewriting the film's script.[43] On March 23, 2022, The Hollywood Reporter reported the beginning of principal photography of the then untitled Mission: Impossible 8.[44] Filming took place in the UK at Longcross Studios and the Lake District. Other locations included Malta, South Africa, and Norway. In December 2022, filming was finished in the UK.[45] The crew then moved to Apulia in Italy to continue filming aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush.[46] During the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, production was thought to have been put on hold according to an interview with McQuarrie in the June 2023 issue of the Empire magazine.[47] However, this was later revealed to have been a misinterpretation of McQuarrie's statement, and continued production was only waiting for the promotion of Part One to complete.[48] Filming was officially suspended in July due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[49]
The film returned to production in March 2024, though in May, it encountered a delay due to a submarine malfunction.[50][51] During filming in England, Cruise and Morales were observed performing stunts from an airborne biplane, with Cruise holding onto the wings of the open cockpit aircraft as it flew upside down, while the pilot wore a greenscreen suit so as to be digitally removed from the final shot.[52] In July 2024, Simon Pegg revealed filming had concluded for his part, though the cast and crew were maintaining radio silence.[53][54] By November 2024, production had concluded and the film was in post-production. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the budget had neared $400 million due to the production delays.
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