It’s amazing that Mission: Impossible has lasted this long as a franchise. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is the eighth movie and is billed to be the final film in the franchise. Two immediate questions will pop up in the heads of fans who are familiar with the franchise.
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Is this really the finale for Mission: Impossible, and will Tom Cruise die at the end? Those are both good questions, one of which can be answered without spoilers. When it comes to Hollywood, if a franchise is successful enough, a sequel is always on the table. That said, let’s look at some other pressing questions from Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
6
Where Are The Rest Of Ethan’s Team?
Not Quite THE Sendoff
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning try to make these two movies into a big sendoff for the series by bringing characters back and tying up loose ends. For example, it didn’t need to happen, but William Donloe returns from the first movie. He was the analyst watching the room Ethan was lowered into with the tightrope, which is an all-time classic scene in action movies.
It was fun to see Donloe return, even though he was never part of Ethan’s team. That just makes fans wonder what Ethan’s past teammates were doing during the events of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. Zhen Lei from Mission: Impossible 3 and Jane Carter from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol were both alive at the end of those movies, so why didn’t they return? It’s a bit odd that the movie left so many fan favorites out, and these are just two examples.
5
What Of The Entity’s Cult?
When One Dies, Another Rises
One plot point that was brushed past rather quickly in the opening explainer was that a cult popped up since the end of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which began worshiping The Entity. It’s also warned that anyone in high-ranking positions could infiltrate and make the will of The Entity known. This comes to pass twice in the movie.
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First, Ethan is almost killed in the submarine by a soldier who never really says what he wants. Then, a soldier tries to kill President Sloane after she decides not to send nukes out. It can be presumed that these two were assassins sent by The Entity, but it is unknown officially. It’s also doubtful that a cult would just taper off if their “god” was destroyed, which means someone could be seeking revenge.
4
Will Ethan Return?
No Good Spy Retires
When a franchise comes to a close, it is typical for the hero to be sent off gloriously. A sacrificial death, for example, would be a noble way for Ethan to go out in the Mission: Impossible franchise. It appeared as though Ethan would die after his parachute caught on fire upon leaping out of the biplane, but he somehow survived.
He can also be seen with everyone else in a village square before they all disappear, meaning that they were all pardoned by the government. Before departing, though, Grace gives Ethan The Entity because she still believes he can make good use of it. Will Ethan return in another movie, and will he indeed use The Entity for good, or will he put it in a warehouse for “top men” to look after, like in Raiders of the Lost Ark?
3
The Fallout Of The Entity Scare
Did This Bring About World Peace?
The Entity was a global threat that presumably brought the world together after it was disarmed. It was thanks to an American team that it was stopped. The world should be happy, but as was demonstrated with the Russian team that Benji’s crew met, trust is hard to come by in a world of spies.
Other countries could think the U.S. gained The Entity for themselves, or other nations could be working on creating an AI device of their own. Either way, it’s hard to imagine the world truly being at peace after almost becoming a nuclear apocalypse in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. This could be a good setup for the next movie if it were ever to happen.
2
Did A Part Of The Entity Survive?
A Real Ultron Situation
Here’s the big question that no one decided to check after capturing The Entity on the hard drive. Is it really in there? There is seemingly no way for anyone to check unless they connect it to a computer. If that were to happen, then The Entity could escape, so it’s kind of like Schtodinger’s cat. Even if The Entity is in there, Ethan and his team forget that it is a smart AI system.
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It could have thought of a contingency plan, as in it could have cloned itself or at least made a copy elsewhere. It could have even transmitted its consciousness to a robot. Now THAT would be a twist for Ethan to face in a future movie. It sounds like the plot of an MCU film, specifically Avengers: Age of Ultron, which sounds silly, but this is the series that has featured impossible stunts that should have killed Ethan a hundred times over.
1
The Simulation Theory
Things Went Too Well
This idea can break minds, and probably isn’t true, but it is a question now. Toward the beginning of the movie, Ethan connects his consciousness with a VR helmet to communicate with The Entity. It’s never said how long he is there for, but after an exchange of ideas, he’s pulled out by his team. Ethan asks them if he is real and if he is out of the simulation, which they tell Ethan he is. However, according to simulation theory, no one really knows if they are in or out of it.
That’s the point. Some weird things happen in the film after this, like Grace asking several times to keep The Entity alive and to let Ethan hang onto it. Also, the team comes closer to death more times than they can count in the movie, which happens a lot in the franchise, but never to this degree. So, did most of the events transpire through Ethan’s mind in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, or is this just some wild theory?
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
- Release Date
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May 23, 2025
- Runtime
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169 Minutes
- Director
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Christopher McQuarrie
- Writers
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Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen
- Prequel(s)
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Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible 2, Mission: Impossible III, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
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Ving Rhames
Luther Stickell
