Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Shea Whigham has an intriguing early review for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, which was released after viewers finally got a glimpse of the sequel. Alongside co-stars Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett, and Greg Tarzan Davis, Whigham will return in the upcoming action movie. The plot of Dead Reckoning is continued in The Final Reckoning, where Cruise's character Ethan Hunt keeps looking for The Entity and prevents Morales' character Gabriel from taking the AI for himself.

Whigham was recently asked what fans may anticipate from Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning in an interview with Screen Rant about his upcoming dramedy Lake George. Having "already gotten my hand slapped" for sharing too much, the celebrity quickly warned that he couldn't share anything. However, he did provide an early review of the movie, claiming that it would be "so good" and that all of Cruise's and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie's hype-raising remarks were "not hyperbolic." View Whigham's sharing below:

I've already gotten my hand slapped for saying things that I shouldn't say, and someone on this call would be upset with me. I'll tell you this, Cruise and McQuarrie are not hyperbolic. They love cinema, they're both cinephiles. This thing is so good. This next one, it's really, really good. It's because it's grounded in character, and that's what McQ knows, McQuarrie knows, so well. They give everyone a little slice, a little moment. We know that Tom is the sun, and we revolve around that, and we're happy to do that, honestly, but they always give everyone a little bit. It's very rewarding to do them. And Carrie, I'm going to bring her on to the next Mission, and she's going to bring me into the Ghostbusters next.

Impossible 8 and Its Implications for Mission

The history of Cruise and McQuarrie has undoubtedly established a precedent for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning to live up to his review, even though it may be simple for some to interpret Whigham's remarks as a star trying to make their film sound as nice as possible. Since his debut in the franchise, McQuarrie has produced the best-reviewed films in the series; Fallout (2018) received an astounding and nearly flawless 98% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics.

In addition to its reviews, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning has the advantage of being the most costly game to date. The eighth installment is reportedly approaching $400 million, mostly due to multiple production delays, surpassing Dead Reckoning's previous franchise-high $291 million price tag, though Paramount has not verified the exact amount. Even if the adage "bigger is better" isn't usually applicable to film sequels, consumers should feel more confident about Whigham's early appraisal given McQuarrie's growing popularity and bigger expenses.

Will the franchise truly come to an end with Mission: Impossible 8?

One of the things Whigham's review doesn't really address is if Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning will truly be the franchise's conclusion, even though it is guaranteed to be an intriguing preview of what's to come from the sequel. In addition to including the word "Final" in the title, a recent rumor said that Paramount was trying to market the movie as the last one in order to pique interest from viewers. It makes reasonable that the studio would be looking into every option to turn things around, given that Dead Reckoning was a box office flop following its matchup with Barbenheimer.

It does seem hard to think that The Final Reckoning will end the franchise, though, given the continued success Cruise and McQuarrie have had with recent Mission: Impossible films from a review standpoint. As long as the plot is interesting, Cruise has stated that he wants to continue portraying Ethan Hunt. He even wants to outdo Harrison Ford, who played Indiana Jones into his 70s. Additionally, McQuarie has previously stated that he has plans for the franchise that go beyond the original two-part Dead Reckoning plan.

In the end, Cruise's schedule and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning's box office performance will be the two main obstacles moving forward. Although Cruise is working with Paramount on Top Gun 3 and Days of Thunder 2, he recently inked a big first-look contract with Warner Bros. that is already resulting in his next film with Alejandro G. Iñárritu from The Revenant. It appears likely that the studio may change its mind about wanting to end the franchise if The Final Reckoning is as well-received as its recent predecessors and can make up for Dead Reckoning's box office failure.

Our Analysis on Whigham's Mission: Review of Impossible 8

With only a short hiatus with 2017's The Mummy, McQuarrie and Cruise's golden streak goes far beyond the Mission: Impossible franchise, which may be their most well-known collaboration. While their work on the first Jack Reacher film was an entertaining and reasonably accurate adaptation of the character, aside from the height difference between Cruise and Lee Child's eponymous hero, their first outing, the 2008 historical thriller Valkyrie, allowed Cruise to break away from the action genre. Additionally, McQuarrie contributed to significant rewrites for Edge of Tomorrow and Top Gun: Maverick, which benefited both movies.

Consequently, I am prepared to accept Whigham's initial acclaim for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. To his point, McQuarrie usually makes sure that the character arcs feel as significant as the grand set pieces, and based solely on the trailers, it appears that he has created an epic resolution to the cliffhanger in Dead Reckoning—and possibly the entire franchise, if the rumors that Paramount wants to end it are accurate.