THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

When I started my Mission: Impossible journey about four months ago, I had no idea that I would become as huge a fan of the franchise as I’ve become. Tom Cruise’s formula for an action spy movie has worked on me time and time again, and The Final Reckoning was the perfect finale for an amazing franchise, aided immensely by my viewing of it in a theater (a first for this franchise for me!).

While The Final Reckoning admittedly was half of the story, it was a damn good half, executing to near-perfection everything that makes a Mission: Impossible movie great: dynamic and incredible action sequences with impossible stunts, smooth cinematography that understands how to frame such impressive moments, and a perfect balance of heart and humor supplied by a cast with great chemistry.

While I was sad to see that Ilsa’s death wasn’t fake, I grew to like the added characters from Dead Reckoning more in this film, especially Hayley Atwell’s Grace, who had a lot more to do and felt more connected to the main agents. I also loved the new characters specific to this film and the star actors they brought in: Angela Bassett, Trammell Tillman, Nick Offerman, and Hannah Waddingham? Apple TV+ was very happy to see this film, I bet. I also loved the return of Donloe, who reintegrated seamlessly and got a really nice redemption arc.

The Final Reckoning did a really great job of completing arcs for characters, too, and Luther’s had to be the best (and saddest) of the lot. His conversation with Ethan in the tunnels—and his recorded monologue at the end of the movie—were both eloquently delivered and centered squarely on the franchises’ themes (“we live and die in the shadows, for those we hold close and those we never meet”).

The action sequences in this film stack up with the very best of the franchise, and the dogfight was easily the cream of the crop. Tom Cruise keeps stretching his limits, and it’s a darn shame that the Achievement in Stunt Work Oscar won’t be awarded until after these films have all come out. I also really enjoyed the underwater scene—its length, silence, and constantly rotating set was incredible, easily outplaying the underwater scene from Rogue Nation. The second half of the movie was almost perfect cinema, in my opinion—an opinion that was aided by being in the theater and seeing this film at such a large scale—and left the franchise in a lovely place. Also, thank you to Christopher McQuarrie for not killing off Benji; I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: if you kill him, I riot.

There were a couple blips in my otherwise amazing experience; the first half of the film was pretty slow and self-glorifying with all of its cutbacks to previous films. Did I really mind it? Honestly, no, but when compared to the second half of the movie that ditches those ideas pretty swiftly, the first half doesn’t quite stack up. The runtime was also insane, and while I surprisingly didn’t have to pee at any point, the three-hour runtime was kind of tough. Also, while Tom Cruise said he’d be visiting theaters in DFW, he somehow didn’t come to my little Regal in Fort Worth, so that was a huge bummer.

Regardless, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was amazing, doing so much right and only a little wrong (I still miss you, Ilsa) and ending the franchise on the highest (and most death-defying) of notes. Ethan Hunt, I salute you, and thank you for introducing me to one of my new favorite film franchises (especially if we’re starting at Ghost Protocol—we’ll keep the first one, too).