What we know about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

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Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
Tom Cruise is back for one last mission in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. (Paramount Pictures)

If you thought Tom Cruise’s addiction to death-defying stunts was enjoying a bit of a breather after his last M:I outing debuted you’d be wrong as Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is very much on its way.

That’s right. Cinema’s post-COVID saviour will be putting his life on the line once more all in the name of big-screen entertainment and pricey popcorn to prove that no mission is too impossible for field agent Ethan Hunt.

That said, when you’re seven movies into a franchise that prides itself on edge-of-your-seat action, keeping audiences surprised no doubt becomes tricky. That’s why we’re sure that the concluding instalment of Mission: Impossible’s first two-parter is sure to up the ante considerably.

Read more: How does Dead Reckoning Part One set up Part Two?

When can you see it? Read on to get all the key details you need about Mission: Impossible 8, including its release date, plot details, cast and more.

Esai Morales and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
Esai Morales and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning. (Paramount)

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning will be released in UK cinemas on 23 May, 2025. This was delayed a whole year from its original release date of 28 June, 2024, due to the Hollywood strikes.

Read more: The best Easter eggs from Dead Reckoning

Much of The Final Reckoning was filmed simultaneously with Dead Reckoning. However, production on the blockbuster was halted in July 2023 due to the strikes. Cameras didn’t start rolling again until March 2024, when Cruise was spotted shooting scenes at a mine in the Peak District and at Londons Natural History Museum.

He drove a motorcycle into a dizzying freefall in Dead Reckoning, but what will Cruise do in The Final Reckoning? We got our first glimpse of the blockbuster — and of Cruise dangling from a plane — in a thrilling teaser trailer that landed in November 2024. Watch it below:

Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning. (Paramount)

Seen as this is the concluding part of a movie that’s already been released, the story is still very much still ongoing and will continue a plot that’s already been laid out by Cruise and his director Christopher McQuarrie.

In Dead Reckoning, we found Hunt tackling his most dangerous mission yet and attempting to stop a sinister artificial intelligence known as The Entity from causing world-altering damage. Working alongside this AI threat was a terrorist known as Gabriel who has mysterious links to Ethan’s pre-mission-busting past.

With both threats already wreaking painful damage on Hunt, his immediate circle and the world at large, we can probably expect good versus evil to come face-to-face in this nail-biting conclusion. The previous film ended with Ethan in possession of the key that will give him access to the deadly Entity. Now they just have to track down the sunken submarine Sevastopol.

Director Chris McQuarrie has teased an epic underwater sequence in the film as the filmmaker seeks to top the sub-aquatic scene from Rogue Nation.

Angela Bassett in Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Angela Bassett will reprise her role from Mission: Impossible - Fallout. (Paramount Pictured)

Tom Cruise is back once more as Ethan Hunt, with Captain America’s Hayley Atwell as thief-turned-friend Grace joining him to help beat The Entity.

Together, they’re joined by Hunt’s Impossible Mission crew including Simon Pegg’s Benji, Ving Rhames’ Luther and Henry Czerny as former IMF director Eugene Kittridge who first appeared in 1996’s original Mission: Impossible.

Read more: The story of Mission Impossible so far

Also returning as Esai Morales as Gabriel, Angela Bassett as CIA director Erika Sloane, Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas, Pom Klementieff’s assassin Paris as well as Shea Wingham’s intelligence agent Jasper Briggs. Mark Gatiss and Charles Parnell, who appeared briefly in Dead Reckoning, will both reprise their roles.

Original Mission: Impossible actor Rolph Saxon may also return as William Donloe, with Mariela Garriga as Marie, the mysterious woman from Ethan’s past who was glimpsed in Dead Reckoning via flashback.

Newcomers to the cast include Love Lies Bleeding breakout star Katy O’Brien, Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham and Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman. Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer and Lucy Tulugarjuk have also joined the cast of Hunt’s latest Mission.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning will be released on 23 May, 2025.