After Forgetting Everything About Dead Reckoning, I Was So Grateful For One Thing In Mission: Impossible

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3 days ago

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Beware, there are light spoilers in this story, nothing that should ruin the story of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, but I am going to talk about the first 20 minutes of the movie.
The Mission: Impossible franchise drops its 'final' movie, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, this week, and it's one of the most anticipated releases on the 2025 movie schedule. It also comes with a long runtime - over two hours and forty minutes! I'll be honest, as fun as the M:I movies are, I wasn't thrilled to see it was going to take that kind of time commitment.
The good news is that the movie doesn't feel long. It's paced well and there are a ton of great stunts and action scenes (as you'd expect from any film in the franchise), and the movie barrels along at a great clip. The first 20 minutes or so of the film are also very helpful, at least for people like me, who had forgotten everything about the previous installment – the first part of the two-part story to end the long-running Tom Cruise-led juggernaut, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, which came out in 2023.
The Mission: Impossible brand started as a TV show in the 1960s, so it's only fitting that The Final Reckoning starts with a recap of not only the last movie, but all seven of the previous films in the franchise. It might not be the most elegant way to remind people like me who just completely forgot what went on, but I was very grateful for it.
The thing about Mission: Impossible movies for me is that I tend to just let them wash over me. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about them, even in the moment. I see them as a great way to chomp on some buttery popcorn, have some laughs, and go for the thrill ride. So when pesky things like dialog, or, say, a plot, get in the way, I just dismiss them. Or, more to the point, I don't dwell on them. It's another reason I don't rank the Mission: Impossible movies, as they are all equally fun for me, if not thought-provoking.
I've seen every Mission: Impossible movie in theaters, going all the way back to the first movie in 1996. There have been a lot of missions, a lot of characters, both good guys and bad, and a ton of awesome stunts. Last month, before the final installment came out, I decided I would use my Paramount+ subscription to rewatch all seven of the previous entries. I made it through the first one, and then other stuff got in the way. There were new movies to watch, TV shows to binge, life to live, work to do, so I never went back to them.
Paramount Plus: from $7.99 a month/$79.99 a yearCatch up with the entire Mission: Impossible franchise with Paramount Plus. All seven of the previous movies are now available on the streaming service, but you get CBS TV shows and a whole bunch of other Paramount movies. Opt for its Essential plan or go ad-free and get double the catalog with Showtime through the Premium plan from $12.99 a month. Alternatively, get 12 months for the price of 10 with its annual plan.View Deal
Before I saw Final Reckoning, I quickly scanned Wikipedia for a refresher, so when I sat down with my big bucket o' corn and settled in for a nearly 3-hour tour, I was ready. Then, the recap came, and I was actually excited. It's much better to be reminded on the big screen of all the amazing stunts over the years, and put faces to names again. It made the next 2-plus hours so much more enjoyable.
So, if you're like me and you've forgotten some of the major plot points of either the last Mission: Impossible movie or all of them, don't worry. It's still really easy to enjoy the final mission with Ethan Hunt and company without doing any homework.