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Seventy-two hours here, 20 minutes there, milliseconds somewhere else. Designed to underscore the “impossible” aspect of the job, the timelines don’t really mean anything to the actual events, particularly since star Tom Cruise is going where he hasn’t been before. If it takes another millisecond, so be it.

A sequel to “Dead Reckoning Part One,” it’s still on the trail of something called The Entity, an artificial intelligence force that wants to destroy Earth. Why, we don’t know, but the first film had so many potential villains it was hard to get a handle on who to hate. In this edition, it’s much more streamlined and The Entity doesn’t have a battery of baddies behind it to press forward.

Instead, nuclear warheads could go off if someone doesn’t diffuse a host of plugs, wires and switches in those given time limits.

To extend the film (which it didn’t need), director Christopher McQuarrie has added flashbacks to the earlier films and given a few key players a curtain call. It’s a nice touch, but when the film runs nearly three hours, it isn’t exactly searching for filler. What it serves to do is show us the kind of stunts Cruise did in his early days.

Now in his 60s, he’s still running but also wing-walking (don’t ask), dropping to the bottom of the ocean and leading his team into more trouble than a red wire.

Esai Morales returns as The Entity’s biggest promoter, but he doesn’t get into the action until he’s up in the air and Cruise has to slip into his biplane, rough him up and get safely to land. The mere idea that insurance agents would allow this stunt is the biggest surprise, but Cruise loves to toy with audience members and get them to fight with him. At one point, he even strips to his underwear, suggesting a Calvin Klein for seniors ad could be coming soon.

Back on land, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Hayley Atwell handle the mechanical duties (which also have time limits) and fight off villains who could cut into their “seek-and-destroy” mission. Cruise and Atwell have a couple of intimate moments, but there’s no time for that in a film like this. Instead, they must learn new tricks, drive sled dogs to specific coordinates and tend to their own injuries when, yes, they occur.

McQuarrie has a couple of callbacks that are pleasing and lets Angela Bassett play the president in a world that doesn’t seem to communicate.

Because the last film made a big deal about artificial intelligence and its threat to the world, much of that has been left on the table when nuclear warheads enter the picture.

Oddly, the United States has one of those “war rooms” that figured into dozens of World War II films. There are even big maps that employees use to locate enemies (why this isn’t done on a computer is anyone’s guess). There’s even a gym-like time clock that counts down the time the “good” guys have until all hell breaks loose. Perhaps if “Final Reckoning” wasn’t built on the threat of computers it might not seem so retro. Still, that gives McQuarrie something to cut to when Cruise isn’t running to his next deadline.

The film holds up, but it also affords viewers time to run to the bathroom when that large drink starts taking effect. When Cruise isn’t trying to get somewhere quickly, take that as your cue to dash out the door.

Somehow, our “mission: impossible” is quite different than his.