Is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning the last film in the series? Full spoilers

Over the years, the films – which are loosely based on the iconic TV show from the 1960s and 1970s – have seen Tom Cruise put himself through a number on increasingly extreme stunts, from scaling the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to skydiving off a cliff on a motorbike.

Now, a new film has been released in the franchise that sees Cruise pull off arguably his craziest stunt yet – and which has been positioned as being the last film in the series.

While it's never been 100% confirmed that this is definitely the closing chapter, most of the signs ahead of the release have pointed to that being the case, not least the film's subtitle: The Final Reckoning.

Meanwhile, the film also goes to great lengths to tie up several loose ends from earlier entries – bringing back some iconic characters and referring back to previous events – which further adds to the suspicions that this will be the end of the road for the IMF on the big screen.

But what actually happens at the end of the film? And what has Tom Cruise himself said about the future? Read on for everything you need to know.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ending explained – full spoilers

The film follows on directly from the events of the previous film, Dead Reckoning (which was originally titled Dead Reckoning Part 1) – with the sentient AI villain known as the Entity now in a position of even greater power – rapidly gaining access to the nuclear arsenals of every major power and threatening imminent armageddon.

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).

We also learn that the Entity relies upon a secure bunker in South Africa to survive, a detail that will prove vital later. Anyway, Ethan's long-term ally Luther Stickell has developed a malware that they will use to infect the Entity and stop it, but it is stolen from him by enemy and Entity liaison Gabriel, who also leaves a nuclear device – which Stickell sacrifices himself to disarm.

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 co-ordinates 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 in order 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.

When they arrive at the aforementioned South African bunker, Gabriel and his team are waiting for them with an unwelcome gift: a nuclear device that will go off in 20 minutes unless he gives them the module.

Ethan does so, but at that moment CIA Agent 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.

We then watch as three equally nail-biting scenes occur simultaneously: Ethan pursues Gabriel on a biplane desperate to retrieve the Poison Pill, Donloe attempts to shield the team from the imminent bomb explosion and Benji guides Grace through rebooting the systems of the Bunker which will allow them to trap the Entity – all while Paris performs emergency surgery on him due to a serious injury he picked up during the previous fight. It's all very tense.

Anyway, after one of the most astonishing sequences in Mission: Impossible history – which sees Ethan literally climb on to 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.

Does Ethan Hunt die in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning?

No – despite a few more brushes with death, Ethan survives the events of the film once again!

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.

Unfortunately, there is one major character who doesn't make it to the end of the film, though. 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 death. A heroic end for a beloved character.

Is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning the last film in the 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.

Recently, Tom Cruise revealed that he would like to keep making action films into his 100s, explaining to The Hollywood Reporter: "I said I’m going to make movies into my 80s; actually, I’m going to make them into my 100s. I will never stop. I will never stop doing action, I will never stop doing drama, comedy films — I’m excited."

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."

Meanwhile, director Christopher McQuarrie – who has helmed each of the last four instalments – previously told Empire: "It is, I hope, the satisfying conclusion to a 30-year story arc. I’m pretty confident that people are going to feel that the title was appropriate.”

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.

Back in 2023, McQuarrie had said there would be life in the franchise beyond this film, explaining to Fandango that it was "not the end" for the series and that they even have "ideas for what comes next."

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!

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now showing in UK cinemas.

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