The Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Trailer Brings Every Movie Together (And Gives Ethan Hunt An Aircraft Carrier)

Is there a more apt name for a franchise than "Mission: Impossible?" While there are numerous film properties that are (impressively) still going after nearly 30 years or more, there are far fewer that've maintained a consistent level of overall quality during that period, let alone kept a single star at the helm with each installment. This longevity can be chalked up to several factors: the template set by the original Bruce Geller 1966-1973 TV series (which established that, though the Impossible Mission Force members may remain the same, each episode would be a different mission), the various directors who've been invited to play in the films' sandbox, and most of all, the tenacity of Tom Cruise, who's proven his dedication to the franchise time and again, demonstrating his craft and risking his life with each successive entry.

Up until recently, however, the "Mission: Impossible" films have enjoyed a rather loose continuity, with a one-shot structure not only mimicking the original TV show but also best serving the revolving door of directors and cast members on the property. That all began to change with 2011's "Ghost Protocol," the fourth movie in the franchise and the first to involve characters and events from previous films. 2018's "Fallout" continued this further, especially as that was the first entry to feature a returning co-writer and director in the shape of Christopher McQuarrie. 

Then, in 2023, the "Mission: Impossible" property seemed to embrace today's cinematic universe and continuity-heavy mindset with "Dead Reckoning: Part One," following in the footsteps of other multi-part films like "Dune" and "Horizon." While that movie has since lost its "Part One" label, and this year's installment is simply called "The Final Reckoning," it's highly intriguing and exciting to see the "Mission: Impossible" movies have their first direct sequel nearly 30 years into their run. As this latest trailer for "The Final Reckoning" demonstrates, all bets are well and truly off.

Perhaps the biggest question us "Mission: Impossible" fans have going into "The Final Reckoning" is whether or not we need to prepare ourselves for some tragedy. Ever since the teaser for the latest "Mission: Impossible" movie dropped, we've known that we'll be in for some high-stakes (and high-flying) stuntwork, a quality the "Final Reckoning" Super Bowl TV spot further confirmed. Even so, seeing Cruise and company get themselves into dangerous circumstances has become par for the course for this franchise; it's much more rare to see the team fail to get out of them. Which is ironic, given the fact the original "Mission: Impossible" film from 1996 begins with Cruise's Ethan Hunt losing his entire team!

Maybe it's just our love for these characters which makes their potential demise seem, well, impossible. After all, some fans (like myself) remain hopeful that Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust might be revealed as still alive after she appeared to perish during "Dead Reckoning." Despite McQuarrie and Ferguson herself insisting up and down that Ilsa's time has come, it seems some people want to believe in the (sorry, I'm gonna use it again) impossible. The truth is, given the plethora of fake-outs and twists and feats of derring-do that have occurred over the prior seven films in the franchise, anything could happen. McQuarrie and Cruise have hinted before that, despite this movie's ominous title, this may not be the end of the property, even if it is the end of Hunt and/or his team. Can these movies pull off the impossible one more time (or is it one last time)? We'll have to wait until May 23, 2025, to find out for ourselves.