Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Trailer Showcases AI Threat and Spectacular Stunts

The gang's back to wrap up a mission in MI: Final Reckoning trailer

After giving CinemaCon attendees a sneak peek last week, Paramount Pictures has publicly released the trailer for Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, the eighth installment of the blockbuster spy franchise starring Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, and a sequel to the events that played out in 2023's Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning. This may, or may not, end up being Cruise's last film in the franchise; everyone's being pretty cagey about that question. But the trailer certainly gives us everything we've come to expect from the Mission Impossible films: high stakes, global political intrigue, and of course, lots and lots of spectacular stunt work, including Cruise hanging precariously mid-air from a 1930s Boeing Stearman biplane. (Spoilers for Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning below.) For those whose memory of Dead Reckoning's plot is dim, Hunt and his team became embroiled in a global chase to find the two keys capable of controlling a rogue sentient AI dubbed The Entity. Both were needed to unlock a chamber aboard a Russian stealth submarine that contained The Entity's source code, so the possessor of those keys would be able to control or (preferably) destroy the AI. Hunt managed to acquire the two keys and fled by paraglider, reuniting with his BFF and fellow field agent Benji (Simon Pegg), intending to complete the mission and shut down The Entity. Given that Final Reckoning is a continuation of that film, naturally Cruise and Pegg aren't the only returning cast members. Also reprising their roles are Ving Rhames as IMF computer technician Luther Stickell; Hayley Atwell as thief-turned-IMF agent Grace; Vanessa Kirby as black market arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (aka the White Widow); Esai Morales as Gabriel, an assassin who serves as The Entity's liaison; Pom Klementieff as Gabriel's fellow assassin who joined forces with Hunt after Gabriel betrayed her; Angela Bassett as former CIA director and now US President Erika Sloane; Henry Czerny as former IMF director Eugene Kittridge, who now heads the CIA; and Rolf Saxon as CIA analyst William Donloe. Mark Gatiss and Indira Varma also return as the heads of the NSA and DIA, respectively. Additions to the cast include Mariela Garriga as a woman from Ethan's past; Nick Offerman as the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis as US intelligence agents Jasper Briggs and Degas, respectively; Frederick Schmidt as Alanna's brother Zola; and Holt McCallany as the secretary of Defense. Janet McTeer and Hannah Waddingham will also appear in as-yet-undisclosed roles. Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning hits theaters on May 23, 2025. It's one of the most expensive films ever made, with an estimated budget of about $400 million, so Paramount needs a big box office take to turn a profit. Dead Reckoning, despite critical raves and a global box office of $571 million, was deemed a disappointment, so that gives you an idea of just how high the bar to profitability could be. Then again, Final Reckoning won't be going up against the "Barbenheimer" juggernaut that dominated the industry in the summer of 2023. Here's hoping Hunt and his IMF team are up to the task.

Tom Cruise gears up to save us from AI in the latest Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning trailer

To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. With the last Mission: Impossible film, Dead Reckoning, the long-running franchise officially entered science fiction territory by making intelligent AI its villain. We've seen Tom Cruise's Ethan hunt jump off of buildings and hang from the side of planes, but how can he fight a computer program? The latest trailer for the series' next film, and potentially the last to feature Hunt, doesn't answer that question, but clearly it will involve even more death-defying stunts (like hanging on to a flipping bi-plane!), geeky gadgets and Tom Cruise running inhumanly fast. As I wrote in my review of Deck Reckoning: "As much as I love other action film franchises - like John Wick's increasingly elaborate choreography, or the sheer ridiculousness of the Fast and the Furious - Mission: Impossible remains uniquely enjoyable. It's committed to delivering astonishing practical stunt work. It's self-aware just enough to poke fun at itself. And a part of me hopes that somehow, a team of geeks can also fight back against the excesses of AI."

New Mission Impossible trailer shows off Tom Cruise's latest stunts in the final chapter of Paramount's action spy series

Tom Cruise meets Mr Milchick in this explosive final installment The official trailer for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has dropped, and it's packed full of action - as well as featuring Mr Milchick from Severance. Will Ethan Hunt choose 'Defiant Jazz' in this final Mission: Impossible movie like we saw in one of the best Apple TV+ shows? As much as I'd love to see Tramell Tillman reprise his Choreography and Merriment spectacle from Severance season 2 [spoilers], he's here as a more serious character while Tom Cruise runs here, there and everywhere doing what he so loves to do: putting himself in mortal danger by swinging from a 1930s biplane, jumping off a fighter jet, and getting into deep trouble in deep water. The trailer, which was first shown during CinemaCon 2025, looks like an absolute hoot and you don't have long to wait to see the movie: it hits theaters in May. We left the last Mission: Impossible movie with an unresolved mission: stopping 'The Entity', a powerful AI, from unleashing havoc on the entire world. And it's not certain that this second instalment - the eighth and apparently final film in the Mission: Impossible franchise - is going to have a happy ending. Could this be the end of Ethan Hunt's run in life, as well as the end of the line for the movie franchise? It certainly looks that way, with the trailer strongly suggesting that Hunt's luck is about to run out. But given the billions that the Mission: Impossible movies have made, somehow I doubt the studio will want this mission to end without at least the possibility of a future resurrection. According to director Christopher McQuarrie, the stunts in this movie "will melt your brain" - and one stunt in particular will be more anxiety-inducing than anything you've seen in the series before. "I truly want to puke thinking about the stress," McQuarrie told Empire magazine. "It was intense."