Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) tries to retrieve one half of a key that, in its complete state, has the ability to control a dangerous new AI called ”the Entity”.

The seventh and eighth chapters are one epic story, depicting a timely global threat, reconnecting with the original Mission: Impossible (1996) in the shape of the unreliable Kittridge’s (Henry Czerny) return, and introducing a new feisty partner for Hunt, a clever thief (Hayley Atwell) who has no idea what she’s getting herself into.

Needlessly bloated, with a midsection that drags at times, but always punctuated by riveting action scenes; one of the franchise’s best has to be that stunning, climactic train sequence.

2023-U.S. 163 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Screenplay: Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen. Cast: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Hayley Atwell (Grace), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust), Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Cary Elwes… Rob Delaney. 

Trivia: Most of the filming of seventh and eighth films took place in 2020 and 2021. Nicholas Hoult and Angela Bassett were initially cast in roles.  

Last word: “Probably the earliest conversations about this were in 2018/2019, and we were looking for the villain, the next threat in Mission. We’ve done nuclear threats, we’ve done chemical threats, biological threats, you did the Rabbit’s Foot, and God knows what threat that was. In trying to keep it fresh, we were looking outward, and the big conversation I had with Tom [Cruise] very early on was about technology, information technology, and what, now, everyone is talking about is AI. […] I felt, in the zeitgeist, this anxiety about technology and what and how technology was beginning to influence our lives, and how do we take that anxiety that the audience is bringing to the movie and give them a release?” (McQuarrie, Collider)