Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Blindsided Me With Two Of My Biggest Fears, And Now I'm Spiraling

As someone who grew up in the years immediately following the end of the Cold War, as well as a resident of a town across the river from an Air Force base, I’ve always been scared of nuclear war. Over the years, I’ve also been something of an AI alarmist, probably from watching too many great sci-fi movies where machines take over. Well, I recently watched Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning a few months after it dropped on the 2025 movie schedule, and now I’m spiraling…

It's no surprise, right? I mean, the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise manages to take two fears I’ve long thought to be somewhat irrational and unrealistic and make my anxiety seem totally plausible. It was a fun action movie with Tom Cruise going to hell and back to defeat the Entity before it destroyed the world, but it had me shook.

I Went Into Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Expecting A Fun And Epic Sendoff To Ethan Hunt And The Franchise

As someone who loves watching Tom Cruise run like there’s no tomorrow, pull off some outrageous stunts, and save the world all in a couple of hours, I went into Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning thinking it was going to be a fun capper on one of the biggest franchises of all time. For the most part, that ended up being true.

The movie, which is admittedly a bit overstuffed, paid homage to nearly all of its predecessors, brought back multiple characters from the very first movie, tied other characters to one another, and provided a new perspective on some of the biggest moments from the previous seven films. In that regard, it was a great sendoff for both Ethan Hunt and the franchise as a whole. Watching Christopher McQuarrie, Tom Cruise and company pull out all the stops to wrap up a story 30 years in the making was an awesome achievement, and a cinematic experience I won’t soon forget.

So, what about these fears? Well, about that…

The Movie Made My Irrational Fears About Nuclear War And An AI Takeover Seem Plausible

As mentioned above, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’s race against time to prevent a rogue artificial intelligence in control of the world’s nuclear arsenal from launching thousands of warheads had me spiraling, and I mean both during and after the movie. If Ethan Hunt and his IMF team were one second late, it would be all she wrote, and there’s no way Tom Cruise could outrun a nuclear bomb, let alone thousands of them.

Scenarios of nuclear war and AI takeovers have been used countless times over the years, both in sci-fi movies and some of the best action films ever made. However, none seemed as realistic, rational, or plausible as the one that unfolds in the eighth and possibly final M:I movie. With the world feeling more and more like a powder keg by the day, and AI technology advancing at an exponential rate, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before something like this, or close to it, happens in real life. I hope this irrational fear is just that: irrational.

Again, don’t let my fear of nuclear winter or a life under the control of an all-powerful artificial intelligence make it seem like I didn’t like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. While I don’t think it’s the best the franchise has to offer, it was a fun, albeit anxiety-inducing experience.