At long last, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt swan song, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, is now out in theaters globally, and, after having experienced the film for ourselves, we've compiled a list of every single major Easter egg and reference we spotted throughout the course of the nearly three-hour blockbuster.
While the most obvious callbacks are sure to delight fans of all ages, especially that one major reveal, there were also a few deep cut items that we spotted and wanted to bring to everyone's attention, including a few fun, slightly obscure, callbacks to previous films.
In our review, we said, "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is the action movie blockbuster event of the summer! Tom Cruise has delivered the epic finale we’ve been waiting for, bringing Ethan Hunt’s legendary IMF saga to an action-packed and (largely) emotionally satisfying close. Filled with heart, humor, and all the death-defying, heart-stopping action your heart desires, this is Mission: Impossible at its finest, albeit also its most indulgent. Whether this is truly the end remains to be seen, but, for now, let's all just enjoy the moment and celebrate one of the greatest movie franchises of all-time. "
Check out all of the awesome Easter eggs and references we spotted by clicking on the "Next"/"View List" buttons below!
The Entity Speaks
We'll start with an easy one as the the film opens with The Entity utilizing the voices of different characters from previous films to issue an ominous threat to Ethan Hunt (and the audience). This isn't typically a series that has too many callbacks, but with this being the last one, McQ does his best to pay homage to some of the series' biggest and best dialogues.
Mission: Impossible II - Knife Fight & Long Hair
Later in the film, when Ethan boards the USS Ohio, he's almost taken out by an acolyte of The Entity, who believes Ethan shouldn't stop the Entity from carrying out its plan. They engage in a close quarter knife fight, which reminded us a bit of the knife fight between Ethan and Sean Ambrose in Mission: Impossible II,.
While he's had long hair in multiple installments, including Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, Cruise first sported the long hair in the second film, and it has since become synonymous with the franchise. When Grace points out that she prefers the longer hair, it seems to be a wink at the audience for Ethan's ever-changing hairstyles as well as his most iconic look.
Jim Phelps Jr.
One of the biggest early reveals comes when Ethan finds himself face to face with Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham), who we've come to understand has some sort of grudge against our favorite IMF agent. Hunt himself then reveals that Briggs' real name is actually James Phelps Jr., meaning he's the son of Ethan's original team leader Jim Phelps! And, it seems as though he has some questions about his father and Ethan's role in his demise.
While there's some tension between them early on, not much else comes from this revelation and the pair mend fences after Ethan's daredevil exploits to save the world.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - Torture Chamber Fight Scene
Among the fight scenes, this is probably the most obvious callback. It happens when Ethan and Grace are captured by Gabriel and find themselves in a torture chamber very similar to the one used by the Bone Doctor in Rogue Nation.
While neither Ethan nor Grace are required to show off their core strength to escape this time around, Ethan still manages to pull off a wild escape and fight off a number of goons, thoroughly impressing his latest leading lady.
Ethan's "plans" or... lack thereof
While Benji is team leader for a spell, everyone still looks to Ethan for a plan and well... he's working on it. Having rewatched all seven of the previous films, this is a recurring theme throughout as Ethan often races into action with a half-baked idea rather than anything fully realized. So, it was definitely fun to see the world look to him for a plan and him doing his best to figure something out on the fly, one last time.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - Nuclear Apocalypse
The Entity's plan for a nuclear apocalyse seems relatively similar to the plan once hatched by Kurt Hendricks in Ghost Protocol, although the Entity makes one minor change. Instead of using nuclear war to strengthen the remnants of humanity, the Entity just wants to destroy all humankind. Neat!
William Donloe and the Sevastopol
William Donloe returns and plays a critical role in locating the Sevastopol, having memorized its coordinates during his icy exile. While many would imagine he'd be bitter after being given relegated to the Bering Sea, it's heartwarming to learn that he's happy Ethan did what he did. Else, he wouldn't have met the love of his life Tapeesa and discovered what he was meant to do.
Ethan's Knife
He also returns Ethan's knife to him - you know, the knife Ethan dropped after breaking into the CIA vault to steal the NOC list so many years ago. It seems like this is really the end.
Phineas Phreak
Following an emotional farewell with Ethan, Luther sacrifices himself in the film's most emotional moment, and last words are a direct callback to his previous life as a world-class hacker: "No one is safe from Phineas Phreak" - Rest in peace, brother!
Mission: Impossible - Fallout - Advanced Nuclear Bombs
Speaking of his sacrifice, the nuclear bomb he's seen diffusing seems to be an advanced version of the plutonium-core bombs he successfully deactivated during the finale of Mission: Impossible - Fallout. While he is, again, able to thwart a nuclear explosion, this time it costs him his life.
May 22, 1996
President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) and Rear Admiral Neely (Hannah Waddingham) exchange a note with the following date on it: May 22, 1996. In the film, it's an important date where Sloane and Neely both lost someone they loved, but in terms of the franchise, it's the US theatrical release date for the original Mission: Impossible.
Minority Report
This one may actually be hard to spot in the film (via @JakesTakes), but in Donloe's home, there are a ton of VHS tapes lined up against the wall - one of which is Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, an acclaimed sci-fi film from 2002 that starred none other than Tom Cruise!
That would mean Tom Cruise himself exists within the Mission: Impossible universe, which is pretty meta to say the least, and makes us wonder whether anyone has ever pointed out to Ethan Hunt that he kind of looks like the actor Tom Cruise.
Also, coincidentally, Minority Report opened the same weekend as the original animated Lilo & Stitch, and now, Cruise finds himself squaring off with the blue alien again as The Final Reckoning opened opposite the new live-action Lilo & Stitch. Bring on Stitch-possible!
The Rabbit's Foot / The Anti-God
Well, they finally did it.
After twenty years, we finally know what the Rabbit's Foot is and it was well worth the wait. After capturing Ethan and Grace, Gabriel reveals that the "Rabbit's Foot" is actually the core module for the Entity, which, if obtained, would give its possessor control of the Entity's source code.
In MI3, when asked about the Rabbit's Foot, Benji says, "It's interesting - I used to have this professor at Oxford, okay? Doctor Wickham, his name was and he was, like, this massive fat guy, you know? Huge, big guy. We used to call him - you know, well, I won't tell you what we used to call him, but he taught biomolecular kinetics and cellular dynamics. And he used to sort of scare the underclassmen with this story about how the world would eventually be eviscerated by technology.
You see, it was inevitable that a compound would be created which he referred to as the 'Anti-God'. It was like an accelerated mutator or sort of, you know, like a, an unstoppable force of destructive power, that would just lay waste to everything - to buildings and parks and streets and children and ice cream parlors, you know? So whenever I see, like, a rogue organization willing to spend this amount of money on a mystery tech, I always assume... it's the Anti-God. End-of-the-world kinda stuff, you know... But no, I don't have any idea what it is. I was just speculating."
Ethan remembers this, directly referring to it as the Anti-God, and bringing the franchise around full circle. This raises even more questions: is Ethan the reason the Entity ultimately broke loose, is he the architect of the world's destruction? Or would everything have played out the same, even if he hadn't stolen the Rabbit's Foot? Also, having defeated the Anti-God by the time the credits roll, is Ethan Hunt the new God?
Come on Tom, give us Mission: Impossible 9!