So, what’s the play? Ethan Hunt and his Dead Reckoning team are back one last time for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, but does Tom Cruise’s character meet his maker?
You might be surprised to learn Cruise’s first-ever mission was as long ago as 1996, taking all of his original IMF team down to set Ethan up as a suspected mole. From there, the missions have only got wilder, hairier, and more unhinged since.
In Dead Reckoning, we were introduced to The Entity, a self-aware AI with plans to destroy humankind one cyber-attack at a time. Its origin code was lost in the Sevastopol, a Russian submarine which sank at the beginning of the seventh movie.
By Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, getting its source code (aka the Podkova) is the key to making sure all of civilization isn’t wiped out. As it’s out in the UK from May 21, 2025, does Ethan Hunt succeed, and does he die in the process? Warning: spoilers ahead!
Ethan takes down The Entity in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ending
After successfully combining the Podkova with Luther’s ‘poisoned pill,’ Ethan and the team coax The Entity into a 5D drive designed to look exactly like the Doomsday Vault, saving humankind from cyber-destruction.
Obviously, this two-parter storyline is fairly complicated, so it’s helpful if you’ve seen Dead Reckoning shortly before this (however, The Entity briefly recaps for us if you haven’t). What you really need to know is that the self-aware AI has taken its overthrowing of humankind to the next level, meaning martial law has had to be enforced in most countries. Its next target is a select number of nuclear weapons control centers across the world: UK, France, Israel, Pakistan, India, North Korea, France, and the USA.
Ethan has gone into hiding since we last saw him, trying to keep the Cruciform key that unlocks The Entity’s Podkova out of the wrong hands. As you might remember, villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) wants to control it for his own gain, whereas the US government wants to be the international power that wields it. Now-President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) doesn’t give Ethan a mission, but an ultimatum: surrender and give over the key.
Trying to beat the government at its own game, Ethan tries to target select officials in London’s US Embassy, helped by Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames). He meets Grace (Hayley Atwell), who helps him out of a tight spot. However, the pair is captured by Gabriel, wanting Ethan to get The Entity’s source code for his own benefit. However, The Entity wants Ethan, trying to communicate with him. Why should Ethan agree? Someone close to him will die, which is set up to be Luther.
While Luther is imprisoned with a bomb, Ethan tries to rescue him to no avail. Luther says he can limit the bomb’s explosion to the tunnel network they’re in, but that means he goes up with it. Gabriel has taken Luther’s ‘poisoned pill’ in the meantime, an algorithm he made to disintegrate the source code. Leaving him no choice, Ethan makes it out of the tunnel just in time, where he’s met by US military officials.
ParamountThey take him straight to Erika, where he explains his plan. Together with Grace, Benji, Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), and Paris (Pom Klementieff) – who he has recruited from Paris’ incarceration – they will get the Podkova. Using a US submarine, Ethan wants to find the coordinates and dive to the Sevastopol wreckage (in the Arctic), retrieve the Podkova, get the pill from Gabriel, and fuse them together, potentially wiping out the world’s digital framework in the process.
While she tells her secretaries she’s against it, Erika secretly gives Ethan three days and access to the USS Bush to do the job. On board, Officer Neely (Hannah Waddingham) reluctantly gives Ethan access to the submarine closest to the last known whereabouts of the Sevastopol. There, he waits for news.
Here’s where the others come in. Benji, now leading the team, has been instructed to find a SONUS spot (basically listening bases for troops) closest to the same point, using coordinates supposedly hidden there to send them via Morse code to Ethan through the SONUS radio frequency. From there, the team will meet him at the exact location he should surface to, dig him out of the ice, and put him in a decompression chamber.
When the team arrives at the base on St. Matthew’s island, Russian troops have already arrived. It’s revealed Mission: Impossible 1’s William Donloe (Rolf Saxon) now lives there, with unknown officials wiping all records from their home back in 2012. The Russians claim they have a duplicate key, forcing Donloe to build a new drive. As he pretends to, he tells Benji he has the coordinates memorized, giving them to his wife Tapeesa, who leaves to “feed the dogs” with Grace. A fight breaks out with Donloe’s house going up in flames, but not before he’s able to get the coordinates to Ethan.
ParamountWhile Grace travels to the location via dog sled, Ethan begins his descent to the wreckage after instructing Commanding Officer Bledsoe (Trammell Tillman) to steer an encroaching Russian vessel away from the Sevastopol. Successfully finding the wreckage, a tense and life-threatening situation unfolds for Ethan while obtaining the Podkova, almost killing him. Luckily he wakes up in the decompression chamber with Grace. Benji arrives in a hangar, where it’s revealed all survived the base fire.
Then comes the next stage of the plan. The Entity has already told Ethan the ‘final showdown’ takes place in the Doomsday Vault in South Africa, where Gabriel is essentially expecting their arrival. What Ethan doesn’t know is that Kittridge (Henry Czerny) is also tailing Ethan, convinced he will betray the US.
Because The Entity’s next step is to control international nuclear power (by this point, it’s got control of all bar the US), Ethan’s plan to imprison it in the 5D drive comes into play. Grace will have to cut the vault’s central power and eject the drive at precisely the right second. Too soon and The Entity isn’t locked in, too late and it’ll detonate nuclear weapons across the globe.
ParamountBack in the US, Erika nearly risks 100 million lives by launching a nuclear attack on all bases where The Entity has taken hold, including sacrificing a US city. At the last minute, she takes all power offline instead, meaning The Entity physically can’t get hold of it. At the vault entrance, Ethan and the team encounter Gabriel, who reveals a bomb in its center.
Gabriel wants Ethan to give the Podkova over, with Ethan’s original plan to have Gabriel fuse the two together during his escape so the team could do what they needed with the drive. Both wanting different things from the other, neither gets very far – Kittridge arrives and tries to take the Podkova himself. Gunfire breaks out, with Gabriel fleeing. Ethan gives chase, with Kittridge not too far behind. Donloe, Tapeesa, and Degas offer to diffuse the bomb, while Grace deals with the drive. Paris takes care of Benji, who’s been shot in the crossfire, while telling Grace what to do.
In the entrance, Donloe works out none of them would survive the blast, but if he cuts three wires at the same time, they’ve got a ten-second window to run to the vault door. Inside the vault, Paris operates on Benji while he commands Grace, staying conscious until they are ready for Ethan. Gabriel takes off in a small plane, with Ethan managing to cling to one following him, which means he can follow Gabriel.
Does Ethan Hunt die?
Thankfully, no. Ethan lives to see another day after successfully fusing the Podkova with the poisoned pill while jumping out of an airplane crash.
Paramount PicturesIn true Mission: Impossible fashion, a battle breaks out in the skies, with Ethan eventually climbing onto Gabriel’s plane. The two fight, with Ethan managing to break the pill from Gabriel’s neck at the last minute. The plane malfunctions as Gabriel tries to flee with a parachute, but impales his own head on the wing as he tries to jump to safety. Ethan is left to try and steer, finding a second parachute in the front seat.
It isn’t until he jumps that Ethan endeavours to fuse the Podkova and pill together, with his parachute catching fire as the plane behind blows up. He falls, trying to use the safety parachute. We cut to Grace, who sees a green light come up on the control reader – Ethan’s managed it. She pulls the drive out, with The Entity successfully glowing inside. At the same moment, Donloe, Tapeesa, and Degas appear, having made the ten-second dash after the bomb countdown.
Ethan has safely managed to land his parachute, giving over the now-burned-out Podkova and pill to Kittridge. Briggs is with him, and the two appear to make amends.
Once the international security threat has been contained – and no nuclear weapons have been detonated – Ethan meets the team one last time in Trafalgar Square, London. Grace gives him the drive containing The Entity, and they all go their separate ways.
Is there a post-credits scene?
There are no post-credits scenes for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Paramount PicturesThis should be unsurprising for fans, as the franchise isn’t known for having any post-credits scenes at all.
As direct tributes to the previous films have played out at several different points in Mission: Impossible 8, there’s no further tribute or scenes while the credits run, either.
Will there be a Mission: Impossible 9?
What happens after Ethan’s final reckoning is a complete unknown. There’s no indication that any of Ethan’s team worked together again, with Grace not ending up as a typical love interest for Ethan either. It’s assumed Ethan retires after this point, but who knows with the man?
Paramount PicturesTalking about the franchise’s end during the Cannes premiere of Final Reckoning, Cruise said [via The Hollywood Reporter], “I’d rather just people see it and enjoy. I just put everything into it, and it’s joyous doing it. I can honestly say there’s not a day that I didn’t try.”
Cruise also told director Christopher McQuarrie at the event, “It’s been a real privilege and a pleasure. I look forward to making a bunch of other kinds of movies with you. I can’t wait.”
What we can assume is that this will definitely be the final film for Tom Cruise, but there’s nothing to suggest the franchise itself won’t return after a few years. If this does happen, it’s likely to be spearheaded by a completely fresh face.
A safe bet for picking up the mantle would be Glen Powell, who’s already on Cruise’s radar after his stint in Top Gun: Maverick. Powell has gone on to star in movies including Hit Man and Twisters, serving as a producer on the former, much like Cruise himself.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is in theaters from May 21, 2025 in the UK and May 23, 2025 in the US. Check out our list of the best Mission: Impossible movies ranked, best spy movies and the best action movies ever made. You can also keep tabs on what’s coming out this year with our 2025 movie calendar.
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