Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Ending Explained: Are More Mission: Impossible Movies Coming or Not?

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, is the final installment in the saga starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The film revolves around the Entity’s threat, an artificial intelligence stemming from a failed experiment with matter known as Anti-God. This AI has the power to manipulate global networks and bring the world to the brink of a nuclear apocalypse. The only way to stop her is to catch her on a 5D optical device using a transmitter called the Poison Pill, designed by Luther. The Final Reckoning is, of course, the ‘sequel’ and/or ‘second part’ of Dead Reckoning, so the story begins a few months after the events of the 2023 film: the Entity has now taken full possession of cyberspace and has started to control the nuclear arsenals of the major superpowers, with few countries like China, Russia, Great Britain and the United States still resisting… but having hours counted.

We are not summarizing the entire complicated plot relating to the Entity and the strategies designed to defeat it, but just know one thing: everything revolves around the feud between Gabriel and Ethan Hunt, the first who wants to control the Entity and the second who wants to destroy it. Both used the Entity (Ethan uses it in the very first minutes of the film) and therefore, having seen the many possible future scenarios, they know the moves to be made and they know that their paths will eventually cross in South Africa, where there is the only refuge in the world (an indestructible super-caveau database in which all the intellectual treasures of the human race are preserved) in which the Entity can continue to exist in peace after it has swept away humanity.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: Does Ethan Manage to Stop the Entity?

The film culminates in a suicide operation: Ethan must deliver the Podkova device, which contains part of the Entity’s code, to the South African bunker known as Doomsday Vault. There, he meets Gabriel, the villain who has a detonator with a nuclear bomb and the Poison Pill around his neck. The CIA, led by Kittridge and Jim, breaks in hoping to capture everyone. But chaos breaks out when Gabriel’s minion activates the bomb. While Benji is wounded and Grace must prepare the server to catch the Entity, Ethan chases Gabriel on a biplane. In mid-flight, Ethan gets the Poison Pill and connects both devices just before his parachute burns. In a heart attack scene, Ethan manages to make the connection in the air and activate the trap. Grace, in the last millisecond, extracts the optical device and locks up the Entity forever.

We know what you are wondering, because that’s what all fans of the saga have been wondering for months: Ethan Hunt eventually dies in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning? The answer is … no: unlike Daniel Craig’s James Bond in No time to die, Ethan manages to complete his last impossible mission without having to sacrifice himself. Indeed, as a true Savior of humanity, it will also purify Briggs’ heart: we learn that the character of Shea Whigham, the Interpool agent who chases him from Dead Reckoning, is the son of James Phelps, the villain of the first film starring Jon Voight, and hates Ethan for what happened to his father … but in the end he too surrenders to the evidence, in one of the last beautiful scenes of the film, when he could shoot him and get his revenge and instead he decides to shake his hand (which had rejected him in a previous scene).

Mission: Impossible 8 ends with Luther’s last words, who died during the adventure, which addresses Ethan through a moving recorded message: after which, the IMF ‘family’ finds itself in London, among the living and pulsating crowd (‘those we will never know’, a leitmotiv of history), for a last greeting made of looks of mutual affection. The individual characters each go their own way, and the last to disappear among the Londoners is Ethan Hunt … who escapes our gaze, giving way to the notes of the iconic soundtrack of the saga.

Donloe’s Sacrifice and the Bomb Deactivated

Donloe, a character who had been ridiculed in the first movie, has a moment of redemption. Along with his wife Tapeesa and Degas, they manage to defuse the nuclear bomb at the last second, protecting themselves in the blast wave bunker. This act allows the Entity to be captured without everything flying through the air.

Erika’s Decision and the Fate of Humanity

Meanwhile, in the US, President Erika must decide whether or not to launch nuclear missiles. A part of his team tries to falsify an attack to justify retaliation, but Erika refuses and chooses to deactivate her arsenal. One of her generals dies saving her from an assassination attempt. Thanks to this decision and Ethan’s action, a global nuclear war was avoided.

Ethan Hunt’s Last Mission

After achieving his goal, Ethan lands with the burned Podkova, reproducing a final message from Luther that self-destructs. Kittridge is angry that he cannot access the Entity code, but Jim, the son of the villain of the first installment, recognizes Ethan’s heroism and reaches out to him.

Epilogue: What About the Entity?

Ethan meets his team in London: Benji, Grace, Paris, and Degas. Grace hands him the optical device with the Entity trapped. Although he could destroy it, Ethan decides to keep it. Not because you trust her, but because you know that a new danger could arise, and having an advantage from the start can make a difference. As always, he prefers analog, but understands that he cannot fight the future without tools.