This article contains spoilers for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningstands out from the franchise’s best films for how it revisits Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) previous adventures. As Ethan and his team try to prevent the evil “Entity” from starting a nuclear war,the protagonist is also forced to confront his past and his mistakes to save the worldin what seems to be his final mission on the big screen. This meant digging into the lore established in movies as far back as the original from 1996.
ManyMission: Impossiblemoviesachieved great success as standalone films, refraining from relying on pre-established lore that audiences had to know ahead of watching them. Nevertheless,The Final Reckoningneeded to connect to previous films, not just as a sequel toDead Reckoning, but also as the finale for Ethan’s story in theMission: Impossiblefranchise.
Image via Paramount Pictures
In terms of franchise lore,The Final Reckoningis the franchise’s densest film yet, as it features several returning characters and plot points from past movies. This begins in the first act ofThe Final Reckoningwhen Gabriel recounts how Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) forced Ethan to steal the mysterious"Rabbit’s Foot" inMission: Impossible III. Gabriel then reveals thatthe Rabbit’s Foot actually held the source code that was used to create the Entity, making Ethan partially responsible for the AI’s reign of terror.
Likewise, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff spend a scene going through Ethan’s most notable missions in previous films, mentioning the CIA Black Vault heist, the Kremlin bombing, and his gassing of a security briefing inDead Reckoning.The Final Reckoningalso spends considerable time exploring Ethan’s conflict with Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and his famous Black Vault heist from the first film, as they came back around in the form of Jim Phelps Jr. (Shea Whigham) and William Donloe (Rolf Saxon).
The Best Mission: Impossible Movies Don’t Rely On Audiences Knowing The Other Films
Many Great Mission: Impossible Movies Stand Tall On Their Own
ManyMission: Impossiblemovies beforeThe Final Reckoningfeel like self-contained stories.They don’t require audiences to know everything that came beforethem to enjoy them. For example,Mission: Impossible -Falloutfeatured the return of Ethan’s ex-wife, Julia (Michelle Monaghan), as well as Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) fromRogue Nation.However,the movie didn’t have to do much to help audiences follow the story enough for them to have a good time watching it.
Audiences also didn’t need to watch severalMission: Impossiblemovies to understand the characters enough to get invested in them in just one movie, particularly since some brief exposition is provided. While watching prior films makes it a little easier to understand the plot and characters,much of theMission: Impossiblefranchise doesn’t require a lot of research to enjoy the films individually. The story and characters are usually focused more on the task at hand rather than whatever came before it.
SinceThe Final Reckoningwas Part Two ofDead Reckoning’s story, the former film’s narrative had to be directly connected to the one that came before it. However, sinceThe Final Reckoningwill likely be the last film in theMission: Impossiblefranchise for Ethan, it had to be the culmination of everything that came before it.
This meant that the movie had to connect to Ethan’s previous adventures in a way that proves that everything he’s done has led to his final battle with the Entity. This is done by making the Rabbit’s Footthe source of the Entityand having Ethan reunite with Donloe, asit forces him to face the consequences of his actions. This makes for a compelling climax to his multi-film arc as he tries to prevent his past actions from destroying the entire world and everyone he cares about.
In the end,Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningrequired that audiences be familiar with the plots of some of the franchise’s previous films, particularlyDead Reckoning. While multiple films in the franchise didn’t need this kind of prior knowledge,The Final Reckoning’s story is very different. If this iconic action franchise was going to wrap up Ethan’s decades-long journey on a high note, it had to revisit the past and show how his actions built up to this last film.
