Is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Kid Friendly? Parents Guide

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will get your adrenaline pumping, but don’t go for the plot. Tom Cruise once again provides a show for those wanting spectacular stunts and action. Is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning kid friendly? Here’s what parents need to know in this Mission Impossible 8 Parents Guide. 

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Parents Guide

Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt, and the story continues from Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning as Ethan has to save the world from a dangerous artificial intelligence system known as The Entity. The Entity essentially has the power to do most anything, including accessing all the world’s nuclear missiles and destroying life on earth. While Ethan and his team want to destroy The Entity, others want to control it, so they can have the power. It’s a race to see who will accomplish their impossible mission.

Mission: Impossible 8 Age Rating

Why is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning rated PG-13? For bloody images, action sequences, language and violence which means some content may not be suitable for kids under 13. 

Parents should know there is a lot of violence, but it’s typical for a Mission: Impossible film. 

Language

There is some profanity including a few uses of son of a b*tch, a**, sh*t, hell, and a use of d*ckhead and bastard.

Violence

Expect much of the same type of violence as in previous Mission: Impossible films. There are big action sequences including explosions, fighting, use of weapons, shootouts, and hand-to-hand combat. Characters are shown in peril and dead. There is some blood but nothing overly gruesome. A knife is shown in someone’s back. A character takes a cyanide pill and starts to convulse and foam at the mouth. Needles are shoved into a character’s neck. There are also scenes of characters having to say goodbye to loved ones.

Mature Content

There is no nudity or extreme sexual content in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. 

Two characters briefly kiss. 

Minimal alcohol consumption and no drug use. 

Mature themes of loss, sacrifice, grief, and the end of the world are addressed.

Is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Appropriate for Kids Under 12?

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is kid friendly for ages 13 and older due to violence and darker tones. There is more of a doomsday feel with the world at stake, but if your children have seen the other Mission: Impossible films, then you and they generally know what to expect. 

As an adult, I never felt the stakes. This film felt more about Tom Cruise than the mission or the team. The Mission: Impossible franchise has never had a ‘less is more’ mentality, and audiences have come to expect bigger and better. Instead of feeling satisfied, I found myself wanting more.  

The escapism I have come to enjoy felt more about the Ethan Hunt show and how this one man was tasked with saving the world…again. But this time felt different. In the Marvel world I have been able to excuse some over-the-top fantasy with super serum plots or god-like features. Mission: Impossible 8 was just too much – in plot, in Tom Cruise self-love, and in run time. 

More Benji, more Luther, and definitely more Tramell Tillman as Captain Bledsoe would have helped balanced it out. Perhaps Hunt has earned his accolades and adoration, but the montages were a bit much. 

Tom Cruise does deliver in action-packed sequences and death-defying stunts. He’s a master in entertainment and summer blockbusters. And for those looking for more of that, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will not disappoint.

Is this really the final chapter for Ethan Hunt? Allegedly so, but someone always manages to pull him back in. The finale didn’t quite feel final.