The highly anticipated Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will officially release in the United States this week and it’s likely going to be a wild ride. However, unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Mission movies have often prided themselves on being as standalone as they can be in a 30-year-long franchise. There are connections between movies, such as Ethan’s wife briefly appearing in a few and even his recurring crew, but each story is generally pretty self-contained. However, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has been teasing callbacks to other movies in the series since its very first trailer way back November 2024.
We’ve seen not only glimpses at other movies, but seemingly new scenes from those older movies created specifically for The Final Reckoning. The new Mission: Impossible movie has also been advertising itself as a culmination of everything thus far which may come as a surprise to some fans. It’s not just another Tom Cruise stunt extravaganza, it seems like there’s a lot of plot in this new movie, and The Final Reckoning is going to pay off a lot of hanging threads from previous entries in the series.
As a result, there may be some required viewings of other “Mission” movies before you watch The Final Reckoning. It’s worth noting that the new movie is pretty heavy on exposition, something people have criticized The Final Reckoning for, and does its best to visually remind fans of things. To have the full context though, a full franchise rewatch isn’t needed, but here are the most important Mission: Impossible movies to watch before The Final Reckoning.
1) Mission: Impossible (1996)
Mission: Impossible is the foundation of this series. Not only does it brilliantly establish why Ethan Hunt is the way he is by highlighting the trauma that shapes him, but it will also have moments that pay off in The Final Reckoning. As the trailers have shown, the knife that Franz drops during the Langley heist is shown to play a role in this new movie. What role an otherwise seemingly unsuspecting blade could have remains to be seen, but it will be accompanied by the return of the character that discovered it, CIA analyst William Donloe.
We have yet to see how all of these things will fit into this story, but it’s worth revisiting the first Mission: Impossible so you can properly have the context for who Donloe is and what his involvement may be here.
2) Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
Mission: Impossible 3 has repeatedly proven to be a pretty important Mission movie throughout the franchise. It seems Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have a soft spot for this entry as they have repeatedly brought back Ethan’s wife, Julia (Michelle Monaghan). It’s not out of the question that she’ll make an appearance in the latest entry with it being billed as the last movie in the series (at least, for now), but the far more important thing is that the Rabbit’s Foot is a key player in The Final Reckoning.
The mysterious device is referred to as an “anti-God” in the third film and is of extremely high importance as the ramifications could be devastating. However, the movie never actually explains what the Rabbit’s Foot is. It’s just positioned as a very dangerous weapon. The device was recovered by Ethan Hunt, but we haven’t seen it since then and have no idea if it’s still secure, or…what it even does.
It’s likely we will finally find out what the Rabbit’s Foot actually is now and some have theorized it is The Entity itself, the AI that serves as the antagonist of this new film.
3) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning was officially subtitled Dead Reckoning Part One when it released in July 2023. However, not too long after it was released, it was confirmed that the next movie would not be Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two. Nevertheless, this seems to mostly be a marketing thing and not a reflection of the movie itself as The Entity and Gabriel will return as antagonists along with other key plot points from the prior movie. If you watch/re-watch any Mission: Impossible movie before The Final Reckoning, this will likely be the most essential one since the latest movie is a direct sequel to Dead Reckoning.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will release on May 23rd.
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