Over almost 30 years, Tom Cruise has starred as Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible series. It’s been a wild ride. With each film building upon the last, we hit the crescendo with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. And reckoning they do.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning picks up shortly after the last Mission: Impossible film, Dead Reckoning: Part 1. The Final Reckoning is the long-awaited part two to this climactic two-parter.
In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, we find Ethan Hunt in the crosshairs of governmental agencies and the vile Gabriel (Esai Morales). Ethan’s team of expertise returns along with a few new faces. We get to revisit:
- Grace (Hayley Atwell)
- Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames)
- Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg)
- Paris (Pom Klementieff)
The team of globe-trotting, threat-stopping adventurers sure brings the excitement, action, and intrigue we’ve all come to expect in a Mission: Impossible film. In this go-around, Ethan and the team have to continue trying to stop the Entity, a computer intelligence infiltrating global intelligence systems worldwide. The Entity has one thing in mind: the mutual destruction of the human race.
Will the team be able to complete the task? Will all IMF agents walk away unharmed? Will there be a sequel? Will there be leadership lessons galore?
Continue reading to find the answers to some of these questions and discover the hidden leadership lessons in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
1. Great leaders reach out:
Ethan puts in a VHS tape (remember those?!?) and there’s a voice. It is President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett). She’s reaching out to him with a very important mission. To save the world once more.
But why did President Sloane reach out to Ethan? Ethan wouldn’t respond to anyone else. They’d tried. He rejected them. Sloane had a feeling she wouldn’t be rejected like the others.
Great leaders know they have to reach out to those they need. They must also continue to reach out, even if ignored. Eventually, you’ll get a response.
If you feel ignored or rejected, don’t give up. Continue the outreach. You may be able to catch them at just the right time to get the response you desire.
2. You don’t have to follow orders to get the right results:
In her message, President Sloane said something impactful. She told Ethan that he had never followed orders. However, that didn’t mean he let the IMF down. In fact, Ethan had never let the organization down.
We can get caught up in rules, regulations, and processes that prevent us from making progress. That wasn’t Ethan’s MO. He was willing to go outside of the orders to get results.
What do you need to do to get results? You may have to break a few rules. However, let me remind you not to break any ethical boundaries.
3. Scared leaders or team members are ineffective:
Ethan and Benji rescue Paris from prison guards. She had been Gabriel’s henchwoman. However, she had a change of heart and began to work with the IMF team.
During the breakout, Benji and Ethan tell Dega (Greg Tarzan Davis) that the Entity wants them scared. He wants them to fear what’s coming.
They also encourage him not to call in the breakout. They needed her to help with the latest mission.
Why did the Entity want the IMF and government organizations to be scared? The computer AI knew that scared, fearful people are ineffective.
When you begin working on something important, fear will often creep in. You’ll hear whispers in your mind that you can’t do it, you’re not good enough, or no one will follow.
That’s fear speaking to you.
Don’t listen! Don’t let fear stop you. It’s trying to make you ineffective.
4. Know when to pull a fake out:
Gabriel captures Grace and Ethan. He chains them up inside his dungeon-like lair. Gabriel knows Ethan cares for Grace. He also knows Ethan has felt the pain of loss before.
As Gabriel tells Ethan he will hurt Grace, Ethan shows a loose tooth between his lips. He begins to tell Gabriel it is a cyanide capsule. If they’re not released, he will bite down on it and release the toxins into his body.
Gabriel doesn’t believe him at first. Then Ethan bites down and his mouth begins to foam. He’s dead…
Or is he?
Ethan pulled a fake out. He had a phony cyanide capsule that would make it look as if he was foaming at the mouth and dying. It was all a ploy. A fake-out for Ethan to get free and save the day.
We may think of fake outs as deceitful or unethical. They can be. However, they can also be extremely useful and appropriate.
You may need to pull a fake out when releasing a new product no one can know about. You release incorrect details so no one knows what’s coming. Or you’re planning to surprise your team. You may need to fake them out so they don’t know you will reward them.
Use the fake out well.
5. Leaders will have to live with inconvenient truths:
Briggs (Shea Whigham) captures Ethan. He begins to lay into him. Briggs believed Ethan had framed his father, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight). That wasn’t the truth.
Phelps was a traitor. He’d been recruited into the IMF after he ran into trouble. It was his way out. But it wasn’t.
Phelps turned on the IMF. He did them dirty.
Ethan knew this. He also had to report it. Briggs didn’t want to believe it. That didn’t make it untrue.
Even though Ethan knew the truth, he wishes it wasn’t true. The truth was inconvenient, hurtful, painful for those around him.
You’ll have to live with some inconvenient, uncomfortable, and painful truths. You’ll see and hear things you’re going to have a duty to report.
Don’t ignore your duty or the truth because it’s inconvenient. If it’s the truth, it’s the truth.
6. Luther Stickell:
Our lives are not defined by any one action. Our lives are the sum of our choices.
This is a great quote from Luther. He understands that our lives are not defined by a single choice. Our lives are made by the sum of our choices.
That’s what The Last Reckoning drove home throughout the film.
Ethan’s choices were revisited time and time again. He made decision after decision. Sometimes, without thought to his well-being. Sometimes those decisions hurt others. Many times, those decisions helped others.
You can’t live your life as if one choice will forever define your life, even if that one decision drastically changed your life. The sum total of your choices will be weighed against each individual choice.
7. Figure out the message:
William Donloe (Rolf Saxon) is a CIA agent stationed on St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea. He’d been banished there after Ethan stole a NOC (Non-Official Cover) list from the government in the very first Mission: Impossible film 35 years ago (movie timeline). As Ethan was trying to find his way to the final resting place of the Sevastopol submarine, he needed someone to transmit the coordinates to him.
Ethan’s team visited the station on St. Matthew Island to find William and his wife, Tapessa (Lucy Tulugarjuk). They’d been there for years, manning the station, listening for abnormalities.
It was soon revealed that Russian thugs had also visited the couple. They were, in fact, still there. William had noticed the explosion of the Sevastopol and noted the coordinates. He didn’t let the Russians know this, though.
When William went to transmit the coordinates, he sent them to Captain Bledsoe’s (Tramell Tillman) submarine. One thing he did was to transmit the coordinates exactly opposite of what they were. This was to throw off the Russians and give Hunt and his team a bit more time to get to the Sevastopol.
It took a minute to figure out the coded message but it worked.
Sometimes, you’re going to get messages that don’t make sense. You may think the person sharing the information with you is out of their mind…
But what if they’re actually sending you a coded message?
Evaluate the messages you receive. See if there’s something you need to figure out.
There may be a deeper meaning, a hidden message, or a cry for help. Figure out the message people are sending you.
8. Your actions will have consequences:
Ethan makes it to the Sevastopol. While in the sub, his actions have consequences.
Every time he moves or opens a door, the Sevastopol shifts on the ledge it was on. Ethan’s actions moved the ship. Eventually, the ship goes over the ledge on which it was resting.
Our actions have consequences. They ripple through our organizations and the lives of those we lead.
Be aware that your actions aren’t confined to a single time and place. They ripple throughout.
9. William Donloe:
It’s a matter of perspective.
Ethan didn’t know the consequences of stealing the NOC list. He didn’t know Donloe would be sent to some far-off island. He saw it as a job. Ethan was filled with remorse when he realized what had happened some 30-odd years later.
Ethan tells William he doesn’t know how to make amends for his actions 30 years ago. William responds with dignity and poise. He tells Ethan it is a matter of perspective.
Because of his banishment, William found a wonderful wife, a great community, and lived a wonderful life.
It’s a matter of perspective.
Having a 5, 10, or 30-year perspective in our lives is hard. We look at the day-to-day happenings and think in moments.
We need to think in decades or longer.
When we think in decades, we gain perspective. We see the grand picture.
Don’t focus on the moment. Focus on the big picture.
10. Being in the wrong seat will take away your controls:
Ethan had to hunt down Gabriel after he escaped. Gabriel found a plane, started it, and took off. Ethan saw another pilot coming up and gripped the wheel axle, holding on for dear life.
Ethan has to take out the pilot, eventually sending him out of the plane and falling to the ground. He hops into the seat in front of where the pilot had been. There were no proper controls for flying the plane. He would have to get to the right seat to fly it.
We tend to get ourselves into trouble when we get into the wrong seat on the plane we’re flying. We think there will be a better view of what’s happening if we get to the front seat. Then we realize we don’t understand the control system, can’t communicate well with our team, or no one listens.
We must find the right seat in the right area on the right plane. Then, and only then, will we have the right controls to get things done.
