Ethan Hunt is back to save the world again – and this time it really needs saving. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the eighth and biggest Mission movie yet, sees Tom Cruise’s agent pushing at the boundaries of gravity and physics once again in an attempt to foil the megalomaniac plans of evil AI The Entity and its human handmaiden Gabriel (Esai Morales).
Luckily, Ethan has back-up in the equally mad/daring form of Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff) and new guy Theo (Greg Tarzan Davis). The action, as our review will testify, is on another scale and the stakes are even higher. Fans of the franchise will not be shortchanged.
Behind the scenes, the film’s production story was not a lot less bananas, with the film’s shoot overlapping with that of previous instalment Dead Reckoning, Hollywood strikes and about a bajillion moving parts for director Christopher McQuarrie and his stuntman star Cruise to corral into place. Here’s how – and where – they did it, and how to visit the movie’s incredible locations.
Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning filming locations
Trafalgar Square, London
If there’s one thing the Mission: Impossible franchise loves even more than self-destructing messages and fast-burning fuses, it’s the city of London. From Brian De Palma’s opening entry back in 1996, which had a key scene inside Liverpool Street Station, to Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which featured a nutso foot chase across the city’s rooftops, Ethan Hunt has been parking his tanks on 007’s lawn for years.
Liberties, however, have been taken. Hunt’s sprint across Westminster Bridge under the shadow of Big Ben is strictly by the A-to-Z, but Final Reckoning also cheekily invents an entirely new Tube station. The film opens with Hunt and his team emerging from ‘Trafalgar Square Station’ and into the eye of a storm. Good luck with that IRL. Nearby Charing Cross Station’s agent will be having words.
Travel tip: London needs little introduction but visitors looking to push the boat out and get close to the Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning action should check into the opulent Corinthia Hotel a short spring away from Trafalgar Square. It even has an espionage past of its own. A wander through Trafalgar Square will take you to The National Gallery and the historic St Martin-in-the-Field church. For extra Cruise heritage, it’s here that the star hopped off that chopper in Edge of Tomorrow.
Middleton Mine, Derbyshire
Derbyshire hasn’t had too much airtime on the big screen but this Mission: Impossible two-parter has been busy putting that right. Dead Reckoning’s climactic train crash was filmed in Darlton Quarry in the Peak District and Final Reckoning returned to the area in March 2024 to film a series of key tunnel sequences 15 miles away in Middleton Mine.
Travel tip: To visit Middleton Mine you probably need to be making a blockbuster of your own – the 26 miles of limestone tunnels are not open to the public – but the mines are situated in an area of outstanding beauty that’s still well worth a visit. The nearby town of Matlock, a Peak District oasis full of independent shops and restaurants, is a perfect base for walking the local limestone valleys.
Longcross Studios, Surrey
It’s not open to the public but England’s busy Longcross Studios plays a crucial role in the movie’s production. The underwater scenes involving Hunt boarding sunken Russian sub The Sevastopol were all filmed in the studio’s water tanks, with director Christopher McQuarrie donning scuba gear and diving in to join his star underwater.
Svalbard, Norway
The new Mission: Impossible also heads to the roof of the Earth for a key sequence involving a CIA listening station and that missing submarine. The scenes were filmed on the startlingly beautiful Norwegian island of Svalbard, a previously unfilmed location that brings a frostbitten isolation to the movie’s middle stretch. Temperature reached -40 and hairdryers were employed on set to keep hands from freezing. ‘It’s a very difficult landscape to shoot in,’ remembers Hayley Atwell. ‘That kind of adds to the suspense and the drama of it. The sense of risk and stakes just to be able to be there filming – I think it translates beautifully on camera.’
Travel tip: Far more hospitable in real life, Svalbard hosts the world’s most northerly food festival and an annual jazz fest. There are flights to the island from Oslo (three hours) and Tromsø (90 minutes), and it’ll take about seven hours from London. There are six hotels to pick from in the island’s main town of Longyearbyen. Head to the official Visit Svalbard website for the full low-down.
Blyde River Canyon, South Africa
The spectacular 26km-long river canyon, the third largest green canyon in the world, is the backdrop for Final Reckoning’s extraordinary aerial sequence in which Hunt and Gabriel grapple for control of a biplane – the only mode of transport that can’t be hacked by the busybody AI. ‘That sequence is almost like Top Gun meets Mission: Impossible – the best of both worlds,’ notes stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood stunt coordinator who first suggested the location.
Travel tip: The area is home turf for Eastwood – the movie’s legendary stunt coordinator hails from Durban – and he recommends Kapama River Lodge as a luxe base to strike out for the area. The lodge even has its own private aircraft and airstrip for high-altitude sightseeing, although wing-walking is not encouraged.
The Wild Coast, South Africa
The plane sequence actually uses a patchwork quilt of South African landscapes. Alongside Blyde River Canyon, where the scene opens, the Drakensberg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal Province form the backdrop for the middle stretch, before the two adversaries soar out over the Indian Ocean above the Wild Coast. Including prep time and hundreds of hours of rehearsals at England’s Duxford Airfield, the sequence took four and half months to film.
Travel tip: A 155-mile stretch of dunes, rocky cliffs and plunging waterfalls, the Wild Coast is a lesser-known gem on South Africa’s tourist map. Book into Mbotyi Lodge, an affordable, beachside family hotel right that’s a great base for visiting Waterfall Bluff, a stunning set of falls which appear in the movie. A more opulent alternative base is Umngazi hotel and spa.
When is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning in cinemas?
You can catch it in worldwide cinemas – and in IMAX – now. Watch the trailer below.
Read our review of the Tom Cruise blockbuster.
The greatest stunts in cinema history – as picked by the greatest stunt people.
