Paramount Pictures and Skydance The eighth installment starring Tom Cruise,Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningis in theaters now Cruise's Ethan Hunt sets out to save the planet one more time in what's believed to be his final outing in the role Costar Simon Pegg has called the film "an end of sorts" but the door is open for future adventures Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningis finally here. Tom Cruisereturns to theaters as Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt in the sequel to 2023'sDead Reckoningon May 23, with an ensemble cast that includesAngela Bassett,Ving Rhames,Simon Pegg,Hayley Atwell,Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny,Hannah Waddingham,Tramell Tillman,Nick Offermanand more to support him in his next mission. The highly anticipated sequel marks the eighth movie in Cruise'sMission: Impossiblefranchise, which began in 1996. The new movie takes great care to wind story details from films throughout the franchise into its storyline as Ethan and his team fight to prevent villainous hands from gaining control over the artificial intelligence known as the Entity and potentially destroying the world in the process. AsThe Final Reckoning's title suggests, the outing could be Cruise's last as Ethan Hunt, though he's stilldeclining to share any information regarding the franchise's future. However, his costar Pegg told PEOPLE at a special screening ofThe Final Reckoning, "Never say never." "Tom was really keen that we not leave the film in a way that people would walk out and go, 'Oh, God. He's dead,' " Pegg said of Cruise's insistence that Ethan survive the movie. "We talked about James Bondand what they did in the last one. And [Cruise] said, 'I never want the audience to leave the cinema not feeling like there could be more.' Because finality can be a little depressing. So this is an end of sorts, it's an end to that chapter from the start in 1996. But who knows? I think it would be foolish to say we're never going to do another one." So, how doesMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningend? Here's everything to know about the final moments of the nail-biting action movie. Warning: This story contains spoilers for the latestMission: Impossiblemovie, in theaters now. Paramount Pictures and Skydance The Final Reckoningpicks up some two months after the events of 2023'sDead Reckoning, which left Ethan and his team in possession of thecruciform keyrequired to gain access to chamber inside a sunken Russian submarine, which in turn holds the Entity's source code. In the latest installment, Ethan, Benji, Luther and the rest of their IMF team regroup in London as they prepare to find the sunken submarine in question, which they do with the help of U.S. naval forces. Ethan dives into the depths of the Arctic ocean to locate the submarine and extract the Entity's source code. He relies on the rest of his team to help pull him out of the ocean at the exact right place at the exact right time before he freezes to death in the water. Amid all of this, Hunt is also trying to stave off U.S. President Erika Sloane (Bassett) and her advisors from conducting preemptive nuclear strikes on nations whose nuclear arsenals have been compromised and taken over by the Entity. In the end, a dual mission plays out: Atwell's Grace and Pegg's Benji — plus William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), a character briefly included in 1996's originalMission: Impossiblewho returns for a key role — set out to capture the Entity's source code in a thumb drive-type device while Ethan chases down villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) when he tries to escape in a biplane. Grace, an expert pickpocket, removes the thumb drive at the exact millisecond the Entity is trapped inside, allowing for the artificial intelligence's capture without triggering a nuclear war or destruction of cyberspace across Earth. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Ethan Hunt survives an impossible mission for the eighth (and potentially final) time inThe Final Reckoning. After Hunt's team successfully completes their mission and Atwell's character Grace traps the Entity in a thumb-type drive, eliminating its influence over the entire world, the movie ends as Hunt's entire IMF team meets for one last time in London. While it's unclear exactly how and where Hunt plans to spend his time after defeating Gabriel and the Entity, Grace hands over the drive containing the artificial intelligence — whichThe Final Reckoningreveals Hunt accidentally let out into the world in the first place — back to the IMF's top agent, effectively making him the most powerful man on the planet and the only person who won't use that power. Ethan, Benji, Grace and Paris each part ways again, until (or unless) another mission calls them back to work together once more. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningdoes contain a few notable deaths. Longtime fans of the action franchise will mourn Rhames' character Luther, who dies in the movie's first act. Luther is shown struggling with a sickness early in the movie. He manages to save Ethan's life one last time in London when Gabriel traps him in a cell with a nuclear bomb and forces Ethan to choose between saving his friend and saving millions of people in the city. Luther sacrifices himself in order to disarm the bomb enough so that it does not activate the nuclear device, but an explosion still occurs as Ethan escapes, killing the longtime IMF agent in the process. Other notable deaths inThe Final Reckoninginclude its principal villain, Gabriel, whom Ethan defeats for good after a lengthy and climactic aerial chase sequence that involves Ethan jumping from one biplane to another while the rest of his team puts the pieces together to defeat the Entity. Offerman's character, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also shot and killed during the movie's climax when he foils an attempt on President Sloane's life. Read the original article onPeople
