Despite my lukewarm feelings for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, I’ve been waiting for any details I can get about the upcoming 2025 movie that picks up where the previous film’s story left off. Sure enough the whispers were true, as the first look at Tom Cruise’s next potential blockbuster has finally debuted to the world, and we finally have a proper title for Mission: Impossible 8.
But on top of learning that his next picture is officially titled Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, there are two really huge franchise callbacks that have officially blown my mind. So take a look at that trailer above, and then let’s jump into the details the IMF definitely wants us to discuss.
Angela Bassett Is Back As President Erika Sloane?
One shot that really excited me was the fact that we now know that Angela Bassett will be in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. While Bassett's original Dead Reckoning role never happened, it looks like that theory about that Mission: Impossible 7 easter egg was absolutely true. As you can see in the photo below, Erika Sloane is not the head of the CIA as co-writer/director Christopher McQuarrie planned.
She’s now officially the President of the United States, and we can all hail to the chief in the photo grabbed from The Final Reckoning's big teaser, shown below:
Whether that puts her on the side of Ethan Hunt and his team is still to be determined though, as Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning taught us a thing or two about loyalty in the trenches. That was a point best demonstrated with the turncoat status of Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), Ethan’s former foe from Mission: Impossible. The man you thought would have been an even bigger Boy Scout than Tom Cruise’s franchise lead broke pretty bad in this last picture.
And that seems to signal that IMF leadership, as well as that of the United States Government, may be pro-acquisition when it comes to The Entity. We still have time to learn the truth, but I’ll just leave with this one last question for you die hard fans out there: do you really think Erika Sloane didn’t know that her former right hand man August Walker (Henry Cavill) wasn’t dirty?
My theory about Ethan Hunt fighting The Syndicate for his entire career may have just gotten a boost from these developments. And I'm further convinced this is the case when looking further into the next huge callback we've now seen.
The Rabbit’s Foot Returns For Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Unless my memory of the official IMF record is foggy, I believe we’ve seen this dastardly device from Mission: Impossible III make its franchise return. Seeing as we still don’t know what the Rabbit’s Foot actually does, this could be the answer to one of the greatest questions that have been lingering in the air.
Of course, there’s another question nestled in the center of this topic, as you can see that the screen shot above is one that looks like it’s from the J.J. Abrams directed entry in Ethan Hunt’s Mission: Impossible journey. As you can see above, this shot looks like it was taken from when Ethan procured the mysterious MacGuffin in his 2006 released caper.
The thing is, I didn't clearly remember whether or not we actually saw Ethan pull it from storage. And as seen in how the Rabbit's Foot extraction played out in Mission:Impossible III, it appears we never saw that moment pictured above. Here's the clip of that particular scene in question:
The photo at the head of above might be another new flashback to Ethan’s previous mission, much like we saw with Dead Reckoning’s pre-Mission: Impossible flashback where he lost former partner Marie (Mariela Garriga) to current arch-nemesis Gabriel (Esai Morales). And as we’ve seen in this teaser trailer’s callback to that infamous knife Tom Cruise’s superspy used to put together the first movie’s labyrinthian plot, the ghosts of IMF past are definitely being invoked.
So does this mean we're finally going to learn what The Rabbit's Foot does, and where it went after Agent Hunt recovered it? Or, could we finally see Maggie Q's long overdue Mission return finally happening? It's just like Christopher McQuarrie said about a potential Henry Cavill resurrection, unavailability is the ultimate decider in these sorts of matters.
That sort of behavior is par for the course with McQuarrie, who's crafted the ultimate franchise love letter in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning. for what might look like Mr. Hunt’s last waltz with danger. Which, of course, could just lead to a clever way for Ethan to “die,” but be revealed to be setting off for a life outside of the spy game, a la The Dark Knight Rises.
Pulling out stops like these, I’m starting to think that maybe this is an adventure that lives up to its name. But then again, Ghost Protocol was gassing us all up for Tom Cruise’s potential departure, only for some last minute edits to nix that story entirely.
So while I choose to accept this mission, I'm choosing to disavow yet another potential retirement fake out. At least not for now. We’ll see what happens when Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s release date arrives, as we’re currently being asked to trust Ethan Hunt one last time, on May 23, 2025.
But if you're like me and want to return to the IMF archives, before The Entity has a chance to corrupt them for good, you can watch both Mission: Impossible III and Mission: Impossible - Fallout through access to a Paramount+ subscription. This trailer will self destruct in five seconds...unless you click onto another one of our many Mission: Impossible articles. Good luck, readers.
