Is Mission: Impossible 8 Ethan Hunt’s Final Reckoning? ‘You Gotta See The Movie’ Says Tom Cruise

There’s an air of finality circling Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. And not just because the eighth film in the IMF franchise is set to conclude the events that began in 2023’s Dead Reckoning. For one, it has the word ‘final’ in the title; the official synopsis simply (and ominously) reads, “Our lives are the sum of our choices”; plus, the trailer features Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt asking someone to trust him “one last time”. Could it really be time to say goodbye to cinema’s other greatest secret agent? (Hell, even Bond carked it at the end of No Time To Die.)

Rumour is rife, then, that The Final Reckoning will in fact be the final Mission: Impossible – but for now, Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie are playing their cards close to their chests. “You gotta see the movie,” laughs Cruise, when Empire tries to get an answer out of him. “It’s a hard thing for me to discuss at the moment, because it really is something that you have to experience.” It is, though, he says, “an epic, emotional journey of the entire franchise,” an odyssey of sorts. “It’s Homeric,” he promises.

McQuarrie is similarly hesitant to confirm, but also promises a film that encompasses Cruise’s entire tenure as Ethan Hunt. “It is, I hope, the satisfying conclusion to a 30-year story arc,” he says. “I’m pretty confident that people are going to feel that the title was appropriate.” Place your bets now on whether it really is Ethan’s final reckoning.

Read Empire’s full Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning cover story – going on set with Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, and speaking to Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff, Hayley Atwell and more – in the April 2025 issue, on sale Thursday 13 February. Pre-order a copy online here. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning comes to UK cinemas on 21 May.