Sure, Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning is a loud, blockbuster-y popcorn movie. But that doesn’t mean it’s empty. In fact, there’s a lot to talk about—if you know how to look.
Abstraction: A Secret Weapon For Understanding Movies
Final Reckoning gives us an opportunity to talk about abstraction. It might sound academic, but abstraction is one of the best tools for making sense of what a movie is really doing.
Abstraction, in this case, means zooming out to see things in broader terms. Ethan, Grace, Benji, etc. are trying to stop Gabriel and the Entity. Okay. Zoom out. Heroes are trying to stop villains. That’s too far out. Zoom in a tad more. The primary antagonist is trying to destroy the world through digital misinformation. The secondary antagonist wants to control the world by harnessing digital misinformation. The protagonist is trying to stop the source of misinformation.
What Mission Impossible—The Final Reckoning Is Really About
As big, blockbuster-y, and popcorn-y as Final Reckoning is, through abstraction it suddenly doesn’t feel so superficial, does it? Instead, it’s an incredibly relevant commentary on the way digital misinformation has sent the world into the early stages of chaos.
Because of the Internet, misinformation and conspiracy theories abound. Final Reckoning’s subplot about the doomsday cult that wants to help the Entity carry out its goal of human annihilation resonates strongly with movements like QAnon that brainwash members into worldviews that have them acting against their own self-interest. Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, the platform has been a hotbed for right-wing extremism, giving rise to a pro-Nazi subculture that’s emboldened every day nothing’s done to stop it.
Obviously, in movies, things are dramatized and escalate in unrealistic ways. There is no Entity (yet). But. We are seeing this extremist digital hive mind that’s growing every day. It’s far less eventful and much slower than what happens in Final Reckoning, but it’s a similar concept. Gabriel is essentially any politician, pundit, influencer, etc. who is leaning into these talking points and benefitting from them. Gabriel is Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Elon, Trump.
Is Final Reckoning About Politics Or Cinema? Yes.
If you don’t like the political angle, you could look at Final Reckoning as more about cinema. The almighty “algorithm” determines so much, now. Netflix greenlights a show. It premiers. It doesn’t hit the metrics the algorithm says are necessary for a hit show. Netflix cancels the show immediately. Gone are the days where shows had time to find their footing. Where filmmakers could make mid-budget statement pieces. There was a story a few months ago about how producers were demanding Instagram-follower thresholds for casting.
Tom Cruise believes in the beating heart of cinema. Not this data-driven, algorithmic agenda to maximize the bottom line by cutting out said-heart. This concern for movies is why the movie opens with Cruise himself thanking people for watching Mission Impossible in the theater.
That’s the power of abstraction: it recontextualizes what might seem like surface-level spectacle into something meaningful and timely.. Most films are saying something rather than nothing. And abstraction can help you sort through the noise of a nearly-3-hour picture to get at some of the core concepts.
Nothing Is Written: Fight Against Fate
There’s also a big thematic emphasis on fate and the rejection of fate. Final Reckoning tells us over and over again that Ethan’s to blame for the Entity existing in its current state. Instead of wallowing in the guilt, Ethan’s motivated to do something about it. People keep telling Ethan there’s nothing he can do about it, that it is “written” and he rejects the premise. He says “Nothing is written.” Luther’s final message repeats that, verbatim.
Ultimately, Final Reckoning wants people to stop being passive, to stop letting others destroy what’s been built. Whether that’s in politics or in cinema, The only way to make it better is to fight for the future we want. That doesn’t mean literally going out there and fighting. You’re not a secret agent. But you can do small things: like going to the theater a few more times a year. Or voting.
Another Abstraction Example: Cloverfield
If you want another quick example of abstraction, let’s look at Cloverfield. Really, the story is about these two young adults who love each other but life’s pulling them apart. Realistically, that’s the job offer that would take the guy across the world. It not only threatens the guy’s relationship with the girl but also with his brother, his friends, etc. The story then takes the intangible concept of life events changing relationships and gives it physical form in the shape of a destructive kaiju. Instead of losing touch with his brother and friends over the course of years, the monster’s actions cause the deaths of those people. And as much as he fights to maintain connection with the woman he loves, that ends too. The city itself is annihilated.
When you zoom out and abstract that, it’s someone getting ready to move to a new country, then everything he had known gets obliterated. Through that frame, Cloverfield becomes less about a kaiju attack and more about the loss of identity that occurs when we make life-changing choices. Think about who you were in high school versus who you were in college versus who you were in your 20s versus who you were in your 30s. Each time we move to a new chapter, we lose people, we lose places, we lose things, we lose pieces and parts of ourselves.
Suddenly Cloverfield seems far more interesting and relevant, doesn’t it? That’s abstraction in action! Abstraction doesn’t just make movies more interesting—it reveals how much they’re actually saying.
