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One of last year’s best action films is now ready for home viewing on Paramount+

A spectacular action movie sequel featuring an A-list Hollywood star has finally landed on Paramount+ at no additional cost to subscribers.

Potentially the final instalment in one of cinema’s most legendary franchises, the highly anticipated sequel left audiences stunned when it hit cinemas last year.

Following nearly 12 months of anticipation, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, marking Tom Cruise’s concluding performance as daring IMF agent Ethan Hunt, was added to Paramount+ on Sunday, 1st February.

Serving as a direct continuation of the seventh film in the franchise, Dead Reckoning, this thrilling spy adventure sees Ethan reuniting with Grace (played by Hayley Atwell), Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and various others to prevent Gabriel Martinelli (Esai Morales) from executing his plan to dominate the world’s population using a sinister AI called ‘the Entity’.

Anticipate plenty more gravity-defying stunts, intense espionage and a spectacular final confrontation in this essential action film that concludes an era with a monumental flourish, reports the Express.

Enthusiasts of the film have been singing its praises since its theatrical debut, so ensure Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning goes straight to the top of your streaming queue this week.

One IMDb user’s 10/10 review confessed: “There are no words which can describe this masterpiece.

“It has one of the most incredibly dynamic underwater and aerial stunts, edge of the seat moments. It was a sad, beautiful but hopeful goodbye to Tom as Hunt.

“One of the most powerful finale movies in the world. Cried throughout the movie. Real fans will love it.”

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Another viewer raved: “Honestly, this is one of the best films I’ve watched in a long time. From start to finish, it had me completely hooked – I was on the edge of my seat, heart pounding, palms sweating during the intense action sequences, and at other times, completely overwhelmed with emotion.

“The storyline was gripping and well-paced, with just the right balance of suspense, drama, and character development. The cinematography was stunning, capturing both the beauty of the locations and the intensity of the action in a way that pulled me deeper into the experience.”

The praise continued flowing on Letterboxd, where one user proclaimed: “The last fifty minutes of this and easily the best content of Mission: Impossible I have ever seen and it’s not even a debate.”

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“The plane sequence is not only the best stunt Tom Cruise has ever done, but it’s definitely the best in the series!!!! I was truly on the edge of my seat and my heart kept racing really hard.”

A final admirer concluded: “A truly awesome and epic finale to the franchise. Tom Cruise was born to be Ethan Hunt.

“I love everything about this final chapter in the Mission Impossible series. The stakes are higher, more developed characters, and more awesome action! The Final Reckoning has two of the most intense scenes in the whole franchise.”

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now streaming on Paramount+.

This year’s Sundance felt marked by great uncertainty. Personally, I was never quite sure how to feel, as the many unknowns of next year’s move to Boulder meant that it was unclear how much this year was supposed to feel like the end of something or the start of a new beginning. I didn’t know just how mournful to be, though, as the festival marched along, it became clear there was a space for nostalgic reflections.

The first movie I ever saw at Sundance was Andrew Fleming’s comedy “Hamlet 2” in the Library Center Theatre. Which means it was 2008 and I was then an intrepid freelancer who talked my way into sleeping on a recliner at a condo rented by The Times until staffers trickled out and I eventually had the place to myself because of the vagaries of an extended rental agreement. Which is how I found myself, entirely unexpectedly, in a room interviewing all of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who were in town for their tour documentary “CSNY/Déjà Vu.”

That sense of surprise and discovery — and in-person interactions that likely wouldn’t happen anywhere else — are what have brought me back to the festival every year I could manage since. It’s exactly why I have been a huge fan of the festival’s NEXT section, made up of films that don’t quite fit elsewhere in the program. A standout this year was Georgia Bernstein’s debut feature, “Night Nurse,” a film of assured poise about a young woman (a compelling Cemre Paskoy) who takes a job at a retirement home only to find herself drawn into a series of phone scams, erotic role play and psychosexual transference with one the clients. Recommending the film to colleagues feels a little like an HR violation, but the kinky undercurrents and unsettling emotions are worth it.

Cemre Paksoy and Bruce McKenzie in the movie “Night Nurse.”

(Lidia Nikonova / Sundance Institute)

Many conversations around the festival seemed to firmly center on “The Invite” and “Josephine,” but another film people consistently brought up was “Wicker.” Written and directed by Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer, adapting a short story by Ursula Wills-Jones, the film takes place in an unspecified time and place: a sort of medieval-ish middle European village of the mind, in which an unmarried woman (Olivia Colman) asks a local basket weaver (Peter Dinklage) to make her a husband. That he comes out looking like Alexander Skarsgård sets the whole town into a tizzy. Nimble and inventive, with convincing special effects work, the film is a charming parable that continually finds ways to reset itself.

It is unclear just how planned it was, but there could have been no better film than “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” to be the final fiction feature to debut in the Eccles Theatre, one of the festival’s most storied venues. Character actor Noah Segan’s directorial debut, the movie is a warmly elegiac portrait of the city and the pain of recognizing when your time has passed. Led by a quietly commanding lead performance by John Turturro, the film also features Steve Buscemi and Giancarlo Esposito in supporting roles.

As the trio took the stage with Segan and other cast members after the film, it quickly became apparent how special it was to have those three actors there in that moment. Buscemi rattled off a quietly astounding number of films he has appeared in with “New York” in the title — “New York Stories,” “Slaves of New York,” “King of New York” — while Turturro spoke movingly about his relationship with Robert Redford, whose absence hung heavy over the entire festival.

John Turturro in the move “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.”

(MRC II Distribution Co. L.P. / Sundance Institute)

As Esposito began talking about what Sundance has meant to him over the years, his words took on a fierce momentum. He recalled when he first came to the festival in the ’90s, he was “ecstatic because it gave a voice to those who didn’t have a voice. … We didn’t come to sell a film to a big studio. We came to share our small movie with human beings that could really see themselves in a mirror on the screen.”

Of Redford, he added, “His vision is priceless. It’s the gem that we all hope for. It’s the juice of why we live. It’s the connection of why this movie works. It’s the love of what we do. This, to me, will stick with me for the rest of my life. My interactions with this man who started this festival will always be a beacon of light in my creative process.”

It was a beautiful and inspiring way to leave that theater for the last time and, in turn, leave Park City behind for a future that, while full of unknowns, will for now also hold the promise of new discoveries to come.

As if they’d leave “Clueless” off the list.

Cher Horowitz fans, rejoice: Amy Heckerling’s 1995 teen comedy is one of 25 classic movies chosen this year by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry.

And if “Clueless” wasn’t your jam — whatever! — maybe this will send you deep into your dreams: Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending “Inception” is in the mix. Other films chosen for preservation include “The Karate Kid,” “Glory,” “Philadelphia,” “Before Sunrise,” “The Incredibles” and “Frida.” There are four documentaries, including “Brooklyn Bridge” by Ken Burns. From old Hollywood, there’s the 1954 musical “White Christmas,” and the 1956 “High Society,” Grace Kelly’s last movie before marrying into royalty.

Since 1988, the Library of Congress has selected 25 movies each year for preservation due to their “cultural, historic or aesthetic importance.” The films must be at least 10 years old.

The oldest of the 2025 picks dates from 1896, filmmaker William Selig’s “The Tramp and the Dog.” The newest of the group is from 2014: Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which, the registry noted, involved “meticulous historical research at the Library of Congress to create visually striking scenery.”

Turner Classic Movies will host a TV special March 19 to screen a selection of the films.

A closer look at some of this year’s selections:

“The Tramp and the Dog” (1896): Once deemed lost, but discovered in 2021 at the National Library of Norway, Selig’s silent film tells the story of a tramp who tries to steal a pie from a backyard windowsill — and is foiled by a dog. The registry notes it’s an early example of “pants humor” — “where a character loses (or almost loses) its pants during an altercation.”

“The Maid of McMillan” (1916): This 15-minute “whimsical silent romance” shot by students at a drama club at Washington University in St. Louis tells the story of the track team captain, Jack, who’s in love with Myrtle, “a pretty coed,” according to the university’s library. It is known, the registry says, as the first student film on record.

“Ten Nights in a Barroom” (1926): A silent film featuring an all-Black cast, it’s based on a stage melodrama adapted from “Ten Nights in a Bar-room and What I Saw There,” an 1854 “temperance novel” written to discourage readers from drinking alcohol.

“High Society” (1956): In what the registry calls “the last great musical of the Golden Age of Hollywood,” Bing Crosby appeared with Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly, in her last movie before retiring and marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco. Louis Armstrong appeared with his band. Kelly wore her Cartier engagement ring during filming, the registry notes.

“Brooklyn Bridge” (1981): Ken Burns’ first documentary broadcast on PBS, in which the filmmaker recounted the building of the iconic landmark. “More than just a filmmaker, Burns has become a trusted public historian,” the registry says.

“The Big Chill” (1983): Lawrence Kasdan’s era-defining story of a group of friends reuniting after a suicide features Glenn Close, William Hurt, JoBeth Williams, Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum and Meg Tilly in an ensemble that “portrays American stereotypes of the time — the yuppie, the drug dealer, the TV star — and deftly humanizes them.”

“The Karate Kid (1984): The first film in the franchise, starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, is “as American as they come,” the registry says — “a hero’s journey, a sports movie and a teen movie — a feel-good movie, but not without grit.”

“Glory” (1989): Denzel Washington won an Oscar as Private Trip in this story of the 54th Regiment, a unit of Black soldiers who fought in the Civil War. The cast also included Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes and Andre Braugher.

“Philadelphia” (1993): Tom Hanks starred — and won an Oscar — in one of the first big studio movies to confront the HIV/AIDS crisis. The film is also known for Bruce Springsteen’s Oscar-winning song, “The Streets of Philadelphia.”

“Before Sunrise” (1995): The first film of Richard Linklater’s deeply romantic “Before” trilogy, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The registry notes Linklater’s “innovative use of time as a defining and recurring cinematic tool.”

“Clueless” (1995): Heckerling’s teen comedy, starring Alicia Silverstone, was a loose adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma” and forever enshrined the phrase “As if!” into popular culture. The registry hails “its peak-1990s colorful, high-energy, soundtrack-focused on-screen dynamism.”

“The Wrecking Crew” (2008): Danny Tedesco’s documentary — not to be confused with the 2026 buddy cop movie of the same name — looks at a group of Los Angeles studio musicians who played on hit songs of the ‘60s and ’70s such as “California Dreamin’” and “The Beat Goes On.”

“Inception” (2010): In a movie that asks whether it’s possible to influence a person’s thoughts by manipulating their dreams, Nolan “once again challenges audiences with multiple interconnected narrative layers while delivering thrilling action sequences and stunning visual effects.”

Noveck writes for the Associated Press.

Full chronological list of 2025 National Film Registry inductees

“The Tramp and the Dog” (1896)

“The Oath of the Sword” (1914)

“The Maid of McMillan” (1916)

“The Lady” (1925)

“Sparrows” (1926)

“Ten Nights in a Barroom” (1926)

“White Christmas” (1954)

“High Society” (1956)

“Brooklyn Bridge” (1981)

“Say Amen, Somebody” (1982)

“The Thing” (1982)

“The Big Chill” (1983)

“The Karate Kid” (1984)

“Glory” (1989)

“Philadelphia” (1993)

“Before Sunrise” (1995)

“Clueless” (1995)

“The Truman Show” (1998)

“Frida” (2002)

“The Hours” (2002)

“The Incredibles” (2004)

“The Wrecking Crew” (2008)

“Inception” (2010)

“The Loving Story” (2011)

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014)