Tom Cruise's MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE is one of the longest-running movie series in terms of time from debut to the latest installment. The first movie — which was also Cruise's first film as a producer — came out in 1996. Cruise and his on-screen avatar, Ethan Hunt, keep running into ever-more dangerous and thrilling situations. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, which opens on July 12, ups the ante in terms of both action and tension.
The MISSION movies started out as somewhat loosely-connected standalone stories. But since the fourth movie, GHOST PROTOCOL, the narrative threads have drawn a bit more tight between episodes. The good news is that you can still watch any of the MISSION movies without seeing the others. Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie are very good about clearly establishing important info at the beginning of each movie. You do not need to revisit a dozen movies to understand who's who.
That said, DEAD RECKONING PART ONE will certainly draw on prior movies in the series. Here's a brief MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie series recap, and a more detailed look at the two most important chapters.
A Quick Mission: Impossible Recap
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is an agent for the Impossible Mission Force, a clandestine United States government agency which undertakes difficult missions that fall outside the scope of rival agencies such as the CIA. Early in his career Hunt is framed and betrayed by his mentor, friend and superior officer. Getting out of that mess led Hunt to work with disavowed former IMF agent Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), who has been Hunt's right-hand man ever since.
Hunt retires from field duty several years later, but still works as an instructor for new agents. When one of those agents, Lindsey Ferris (Keri Russell), is killed by Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Hunt is pulled back to active service. Problem is, Ethan has just married a nurse, Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan), who becomes an easy target for Davian.
Getting out of *that* mess saw Hunt working with technician Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), who is soon promoted to field work. He's the next longest-running character in the series after Hunt and Stickell.
The M:I Recap Part Two - The Syndicate
Additional missions bring Hunt into conflict with the Syndicate, a group of disgraced intelligence operatives who plan to tear down the global power structure. The Syndicate was briefly introduced at the end of the fourth movie, GHOST PROTOCOL, and stood as the primary villain set in the next two movies, ROGUE NATION and FALLOUT.
While these three movies aren't an official trilogy, they might as well be. Ethan and his team face off against Syndicate leader Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) and then other forces trying to profit from the Syndicate's actions. These chapters introduce Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), an MI6 agent looking to get back into her agency's good graces. Ilsa is one of the series' best characters, and she's a part of DEAD RECKONING, too.
Finally, the Syndicate plot ties back to the third movie. Ethan Hunt's connection to his former wife, Julia, become a vulnerability that the Syndicate tries to exploit. FALLOUT fully brings Julia back into the fold, and also resolves that part of the story, seemingly for good.
The Best Movies to Revisit Before Dead Reckoning
This isn't meant to be homework — it's a lot easier, and a lot more fun. Because the key M:I movies when it comes to DEAD RECKONING are the two best movies in the series: The 1996 original and the most recent movie, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT.
The 1996 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE featured the great Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, the IMF director who was suspicious of Ethan Hunt. Many other actors have taken on the role of IMF director, from Anthony Hopkins to Laurence Fishburne and Alec Baldwin. Now Czerny is back as Kittridge, bringing the entire series back to its starting point. There are some other "starting point" elements to DEAD RECKONING PART ONE that we won't spoil, but even a glimpse at the trailer will reveal that the movie's visual style calls back directly to the first movie.
And then there's FALLOUT, which could easily be argued as the series' high point prior to DEAD RECKONING. That film does a good job of summarizing any important plot threads that were left unresolved in prior movies. As a solid endpoint to the story that was put in motion in M:I III, it's the quickest way to catch up on everything that has gone before. And since DEAD RECKONING PART ONE is stylistically very different from FALLOUT, there won't be any sense of repetition. And besides, there's no other way to enjoy Henry Cavill's M:I outing, which is also one of his best screen roles.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE opens on July 12.
All images courtesy of Paramount Pictures.