Tom Cruise Is Absolutely About to Die in First Trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Hollywood’s most hilariously gonzo action stunt spectacular franchise will not go gentle into that good night, judging from the just-released first trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The Tom Cruise-starring follow-up to 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One looks to raise the bar on its pulse-pounding stunts and over-the-top action setpieces once again, subjecting its longtime cast to incredible dangers–none more so than the rock solid anchor of Cruise, whose 62-year-old body has somehow withstood the most ridiculous collection of stunts that any A-lister has ever undergone in a Hollywood career. This entry, with its “final” in the title, clearly teases a farewell to the character, though both Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have been coy about whether they’ll ever actually hang up the Mission: Impossible series. You just know they want to squeeze in an ninth installment in 2026, something along the lines of Mission: Impossible – The Hunt Awakens.

The Final Reckoning, on the other hand, is a direct follow-up to Dead Reckoning Part One, and as the names of both would imply, it was originally meant to be titled Dead Reckoning Part Two. That name was tweaked following the seventh film being seen as a modest box office disappointment in 2023, particularly in the wake of the summer of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Presumably, Paramount was looking for a bit of conceptual breathing room between the two this time around, even though Final Reckoning seems to directly pick up where Dead Reckoning left off. All the prominent, surviving Mission: Impossible cast members look to be returning as one would expect, including Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff and Esai Morales, along with a returning Angela Bassett as CIA director Erika Sloane.

As for the trailer itself, well, what isn’t on display in this hyperkinetic collection of punches, shattering glass and death-defying stuntwork? The most obviously mouth-dropping bit is Cruise hanging from the wing of an old-fashioned biplane–how much do you want to bet he ends up jumping from one plane to the other in mid-air? There’s also plenty of rolling around, thrusting knives at each other’s throats, and Cruise sprinting directly toward the audience in his trademark fashion, supported by what sounds like yet another rousing score from composer Lorne Balfe. The whole thing certainly feels like a proper ending for Ethan Hunt and co., even though it’s the box office receipts that will eventually decide such a thing. Regardless, check out the absurdly bombastic Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning trailer below.