A Lot Of Mission: Impossible Fans Think The Final Reckoning Ending Is Open-Ended, I Need To Loudly Disagree

Warning: spoilers for Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning are in play. All IMF operatives who haven’t been properly debriefed are warned.

We’ve finally arrived at Ethan Hunt’s final reckoning, after almost 30 years of seeing Tom Cruise’s espionage hero in action. The 2025 movie schedule has been marketed as the end of the Mission: Impossible series - at least for Cruise, anyway.

While some may feel that the eighth entry is far from final, this door is firmly closed - and for really good reason. Spoilers abound from this point on, folks; so those who want to remain unsullied can read our review on Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. For everyone else, please unseal your files, and let’s begin.

Yes, Ethan Hunt Lives At The End Of His Mission: Impossible Swan Song

Want to know how to defeat The Entity? Just ask Ethan Hunt...if you can find him. When last we saw The Final Reckoning hero, he was standing in a crowded London setting, taking a final wordless meeting with Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), and Paris (Pom Klemantiff).

Grace hands Ethan the item that’s crucial to this ending’s finality - a storage device that contains The Entity, and after that point, our hero puts his hood up and walks away. Let’s hope he has a Paramount+ subscription to pass all of the time he’ll be spending in solitude.

Paramount Plus: from $7.99 a month/$79.99 a year
You don't need The Entity to see all of Ethan Hunt's past exploits - you just need a Paramount+ subscription. For as little as $7.99 a month (with an option to upgrade to ad-free/Showtime inclusive streaming for $12.99 a month) you can run through every Mission: Impossible movie without leaving the couch. And when you've accomplished that mission, there's still plenty of entertainment you can choose to accept at your leisure.

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Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Mike, Ethan isn’t shown as dying. Do you really think he’s never going to come back?” Well, Reader, I’ll say this: there may be a slim margin of error, but even with that severely narrow window in existence, you’d better hope a potential Mission: Impossible 9 doesn’t bring Mr. Hunt back to the playing field. Which leads to the loudest part of my dissenting argument.

For The Entity To Remain In Check, The Final Reckoning Needs To Stay That Way

Ethan and The Entity are made for each other. Not literally, but rather metaphorically, because the man himself is the only meat-based life form this rogue A.I. is afraid of. Which means that The Final Reckoning’s digital demon probably saw Cruise’s sick wing walking stunt, and the resulting on-screen deaths that came from them.

By showing Ethan its plan, The Entity gives its human foe the way to defeat it. Who better to take a plan to the edge, risking the lives of the entire planet, in order to vanquish a foe once and for all? For this digital genie to be kept in its bottle, it needs a minder, as Ethan is the only person who isn’t swayed by its powers of persuasion.

Which also means that when and if he ever pops up again, all parties who want to possess The Entity will be pursuing him to the ends of the earth. We saw that dance skirt the edge of nuclear armageddon in The Final Reckoning, so I don't think anyone wants to return to that state of play.

If you want The Entity to stay put, Ethan will have to totally swear himself to that IMF Oath - living in the shadows, to save those that he’ll never meet. Perhaps Dead Reckoning’s ending, and the plot that came before it, was good for something after all.

There are still more stunts and secrets to discover in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, as it debuts at a theater near you. Especially if, somehow, you want to loudly counter my disagreement with what you see as cold hard fact. This message will self-destruct in five seconds…so you can use the smoke as an excuse for any potential tears you may be shedding.