Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has landed, launching Ethan Hunt back onto our screens for his latest, and possibly last, adventure.
The Mission: Impossible franchise might have kicked off over 25 years ago with Brian De Palma's 1996 original, but it remains one of the most critically acclaimed action series.
And the latest dramatic instalment in the franchise arguably sees Cruise pull off his craziest stunt yet.
But what actually happens at the end of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning? And is this really the end for the action franchise? Read on for everything you need to know.
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Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ending explained – full spoilers
In the early sections, we learn that to control the Entity, Ethan and his IMF colleagues will need to use the two-part key they successfully gathered in the previous film to access its source code, which is on a module contained within the sunk Sevastopol submarine. (The module is revealed to be Rabbit's Foot, a previously unexplained device that long-term fans will remember as the driving force of Mission: Impossible 3).
Meanwhile, with help from his colleagues and former CIA analyst William Donloe, who appeared in a memorable scene in the very first film, Ethan is able to find the coordinates of the Sevastopol wreck, and dramatically dives into the ocean to retrieve the module. After a narrow escape and a brush with death, he is successful and reunites with the rest of his team.
The plan is now to reclaim the Poison Pill and use it to isolate and trap the Entity on a physical drive, but these impossible missions are never simple, and we find out that for it to work, they will need to trap it at exactly the right time – within 100 milliseconds – meaning that Grace's excellent timing as a pickpocket will come in very handy indeed.
Ethan does so, but at that moment, CIA boss Eugene Kittridge – who still wants the Entity for the US – arrives at the scene and a fight breaks out during which the bomb's countdown is activated and Gabriel escapes with the module, with Ethan in pursuit.
Anyway, after one of the most astonishing sequences in Mission: Impossible history, which sees Ethan literally climb onto Gabriel's plane, he is successful, and Gabriel is killed when he tries to parachute off the plane after he makes contact with the rudder.
He then unites the module and the Poison Pill, and – with guidance from an increasingly passed-out Benji – Grace is able to successfully complete the upload within the required time frame, trapping the Entity once and for all. Sometime later, we see the team reunite in London in celebratory fashion – with Grace handing the trapped Entity to Ethan – before they each go their separate ways.
Who lives and who dies in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning?
He does have arguably his closest encounter with death yet when he loses consciousness while retrieving the module from the Sevastopol wreck deep in the ocean, but he is revived by Grace once he surfaces and therefore fights to live another day.
Ethan's long-term ally, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) – the only other character to appear in all eight films – sacrifices himself early in the film as he disarms a nuclear weapon. A heroic end for a beloved character.
Meanwhile, the villainous Gabriel (Esai Morales) meets his maker during the airborne clash with Ethan at the film's climax.
Is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning really the end of the film series?
While the film has an air of finality about it, both with the title and the fact that it brings the franchise full circle with various references and callbacks, the fact that Ethan Hunt survives means the door is potentially always open for more impossible missions.
But for the time being it looks like those action films will be outside this franchise. Cruise has insisted that "It’s the final! It’s not called ‘final’ for nothing", while during an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, he added: 'Enjoy this and know everything is the culmination [that[ has come to this moment right now."
It, therefore, does look like this will draw a line under the series for now, but you never know if the door might swing back open again at some point in the future.
So it's very possible they could flip-flop again, especially given Cruise is (perhaps optimistically) still envisaging himself making action films for another 40 years. And it certainly wouldn't be the first time that a franchise entry is billed as the final film only for it to be revived again in the future, so we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for any further updates!
Does The Final Reckoning have a post-credits scene?
However, this won’t come as a huge surprise to fans given that there has never been a credits scene in a Mission: Impossible movie.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now showing in UK cinemas.
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