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paragraph_text: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a 2025 action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. It is the direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and is the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The film stars Tom Cruise in his final portrayal of Ethan Hunt, alongside an ensemble cast including Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett. In the film, Hunt and his Impossible Mission Force team work to prevent the Entity, a rogue AI, from unleashing global destruction against humanity.
  
  In January 2019, Cruise announced that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films would be shot back to back with McQuarrie co-writing and directing both films. Plans for the eighth film later changed in February 2021. Returning and new cast members were announced soon after, including Lorne Balfe, who composed the score for two other films in the series: Balfe was later replaced by Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey. Principal photography began in March 2022 but was halted in July 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Production resumed in March 2024 and concluded that November, with filming locations including England, Malta, South Africa and Norway. The film, originally titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, dropped its subtitle in October 2023, and the new subtitle was announced in November 2024. With an estimated budget as high as $400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.
  
  The Final Reckoning had its world premiere in Tokyo on May 5, 2025, was screened out of competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 14, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 23 by Paramount Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $514 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2025, in addition to having the largest opening weekend of the franchise.
  
  Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a 2025 action spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. It is the direct sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and is the eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The film stars Tom Cruise in his final portrayal of Ethan Hunt, alongside an ensemble cast including Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett. In the film, Hunt and his Impossible Mission Force team work to prevent the Entity, a rogue AI, from unleashing global destruction against humanity.
  
  In January 2019, Cruise announced that the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films would be shot back to back with McQuarrie co-writing and directing both films. Plans for the eighth film later changed in February 2021. Returning and new cast members were announced soon after, including Lorne Balfe, who composed the score for two other films in the series: Balfe was later replaced by Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey. Principal photography began in March 2022 but was halted in July 2023 due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Production resumed in March 2024 and concluded that November, with filming locations including England, Malta, South Africa and Norway. The film, originally titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, dropped its subtitle in October 2023, and the new subtitle was announced in November 2024. With an estimated budget as high as $400 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.
  
  The Final Reckoning had its world premiere in Tokyo on May 5, 2025, was screened out of competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on May 14, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 23 by Paramount Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $514 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2025, in addition to having the largest opening weekend of the franchise.