WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

Since Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning was meant to be the climactic finale of Ethan Hunt's cinematic adventures, the filmmakers sought to make it more successful than what came before it. Specifically, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie aimed to rectify the perceived mistakes made in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, which had led to the film's box office disappointment. This goal led to significant changes to the story of 2025's The Final Reckoning.

For one thing, McQuarrie chose to make The Final Reckoning a standalone movie rather than the second part of Dead Reckoning. Thus, the film went through multiple iterations, with scenes being added and significant storylines from Dead Reckoning left behind. While all these changes were meant to fix the previous movie's shortcomings and satisfy more audiences, they arguably left The Final Reckoning's story feeling less satisfying than it could have been.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning's Box Office Forced Tom Cruise & Christopher McQuarrie To Re-Evaluate The Final Reckoning

The Creators Of The Final Reckoning Tried To Make Up For Dead Reckoning's Underperformance

Even though the Mission: Impossible movies are a mega-popular franchise led by Tom Cruise, one of the biggest actors in the world, Dead Reckoning didn't perform as well as some had hoped when it was released in 2023. Despite receiving rave reviews and grossing a reported $571.1 million in theaters, the movie was still considered a box office disappointment, as the production reportedly cost a whopping $291 million (via Box Office Mojo).

In an interview with Happy Sad Confused, McQuarrie said it was easy to blame Dead Reckoning's underwhelming performance on the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon that urged people to watch Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig's new movies, Oppenheimer and Barbie, respectively, instead. However, he instead chose to listen to the public's on the film and improve on where Dead Reckoning supposedly failed, hoping not to risk failing at the box office a second time with his planned sequel.

The Final Reckoning Changed Drastically To Try & Help Audiences

Dead Reckoning's Performance Led To A Major Change In Plans For The Sequel

McQuarrie revealed that The Final Reckoning was originally intended to have a non-linear narrative, presenting crucial scenes earlier in the film. This original plan even had the opening scene be Ethan's meeting with the U.S. President at Mount Weather, with McQuarrie arguing that's when the protagonist's journey really "kicks off." However, the director realized that the story didn't work that way.

McQuarrie then followed Cruise's suggestion and presented the film in chronological order, but that didn't work either because the first scenes discussed the Entity without revealing what it was. As a result, McQuarrie added a cold opening to the film, featuring the President's message to Ethan to reintroduce the Entity and make the story clearer for audiences. The director also added the scene where Ethan talks directly to the Entity two days before he "locked [the] picture" to lay out the story even more and help viewers understand it better.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Cut Several Major Storylines To Streamline The Narrative

The Final Reckoning Abandoned Huge Subplots Involving Ethan, Gabriel, And Marie

To make The Final Reckoning's story tighter and more enjoyable after Dead Reckoning, McQuarrie tried to make it shorter than originally planned. Though The Final Reckoning ended up with a longer runtime than its predecessor, the film still left some intended scenes on the cutting room floor. While the changes made to The Final Reckoning's story may have smoothed things over with Ethan's conflict with the Entity, it also steered clear of other major subplots that began in Dead Reckoning.

For instance, the sequel all but abandoned the background story with Ethan and the villain Gabriel (Esai Morales), which showed the latter killing Marie (Mariela Garriga) and framing Ethan for the murder in the past. Since Gabriel's killing of Marie was the reason Ethan ended up becoming an IMF agent, his role in working for the Entity in a quest to control the world made Ethan's conflict with him especially personal.

Likewise, The Final Reckoning didn't expand on Marie's identity, what kind of relationship she had with Ethan, and why Gabriel even killed her. McQuarrie did film a scene exploring more of Ethan's past with Marie and Gabriel, but he ultimately chose to exclude it from the final film, arguing that their backstory was always going to be left with some ambiguity, no matter how he presented it.

The Final Reckoning Was Meant To Work As A Standalone Mission: Impossible Movie, Not A Part 2

The Final Reckoning Became A Different Story During Production

Overall, the drastic changes made to The Final Reckoning's story were meant to make it function as its own movie. While the film continued Ethan's quest to stop The Entity, the narrative was meant to feel more like a singular story rather than the second part of another. Thus, the film went from being called Dead Reckoning - Part 2 to The Final Reckoning.

While this move may seem questionable, McQuarrie claimed that, had The Final Reckoning been released the summer following Dead Reckoning's premiere, it would have remained the second part of the initial installment. In the end, McQuarrie argued that the extended amount of time between the two movies, caused by the strikes in Hollywood, allowed him and his team to "let Dead Reckoning go" and turn The Final Reckoning into a standalone film.

Did Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning's Changes Help Or Hurt The Movie?

While The Final Reckoning Was Exciting, It Could've Been More Satisfying

The way that The Final Reckoning was presented in theaters, Ethan and his IMF pals went out on a thrilling and emotional last adventure as they raced to stop the Entity from wiping out humanity in a nuclear apocalypse. Unfortunately, however, the film still failed to reach the heights it could have soared to because it left behind the subplots set up in the previous movie.

Specifically, by failing to expand upon Ethan and Gabriel's relationship after it was teased in Dead Reckoning, the sequel made the latter character far less compelling than he should have been. Gabriel ended up feeling more like an obstacle Ethan had to overcome rather than a fully developed character.

On a similar note, by not elaborating on Marie's character and her connection to Ethan and Gabriel, both her and Gabriel's characters were left appearing one-dimensional. This was especially jarring given their significant roles in Ethan's origin story. In leaving Ethan's history with both of these crucial characters so ambiguous, the film risked leaving audiences wanting to learn more, unsatisfied with this movie as Ethan's final mission.

McQuarrie was wise to acknowledge the from his audience after Dead Reckoning's commercial disappointment. Nevertheless, the director and his team went too far trying to step away from the film's alleged flaws when developing Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. By abandoning the subplots involving Marie and Gabriel, the filmmakers deprived The Final Reckoning of some of the emotion and closure it should have had as Ethan's last journey on the big screen.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Happy Sad Confused