Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is meant to be a culminating chapter in Tom Cruise’s franchise, but its strangely ignoring two of the sequels so far. The arrival of the new Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning trailer means a lot of fresh footage and details about a film that could be the last in the long-running series. Paramount is playing up the potential finality that comes with the film by utilizing Ethan Hunt’s “one last time” quote to end each trailer. But, it’s also made a habit of including footage and callbacks to earlier films too.

The franchise connections woven into Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning first became apparent in the initial teaser trailer. It included footage pulled directly from 1996’s Mission: Impossible and brought back the knife Ethan lost. There was even footage of a new sequence involving Mission: Impossible III‘s Rabbit’s Foot. Considering The Final Reckoning was designed as a part two of Mission: Impossible – ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning, some franchise overlap was always expected. There are even more references in the new trailer. The oddity is that two sequels are still being ignored.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’s Trailer References Every Movie Except M:I 2 & Rogue Nation

Ethan Hunt’s Past Adventures Are Seen

The official Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning trailer includes no shortage of references to past installments. This begins early on as Ethan Hunt’s file is read and his involvement in the Langley break in, Kremlin bombing, and gᴀssing of secret intelligence members allows footage from Mission: Impossible 1996, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and Mission: Impossible – ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning to play of each event.

We also see Ethan screaming after the fake Julia death in Mission: Impossible III. There’s even an additional sH๏τ featuring the Rabbit’s Foot, which still references the third film, even if its a newly filmed sequence. The Burj Khalifa jump in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is also featured later on, as are Ethan’s fall from the helicopter and rooftop jump in Mission: Impossible – Fallout and the bike jump from ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning. This means the first, third, fourth, sixth, and seventh installments are all referenced in The Final Reckoning‘s trailer.

Conversely, that leaves only Mission: Impossible II and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation as the only franchise installments not referenced in the marketing so far. There has yet to be a single frame from either film or reference to a major event from them directly featured.

Mission: Impossible 2 & Rogue Nation’s Absences From The Final Reckoning’s Trailer Is Strange

Or Are They Hiding Spoilers?

It is incredibly odd that The Final Reckoning is ignoring two of the previous seven films to this point in the marketing campaign. The film clearly wants to be viewed as a franchise culminating event, so it’d make sense to tie in every prior Mission: Impossible movie. Ignoring Mission: Impossible 2 and Rogue Nation makes them almost seem less necessary to the franchise. It’s all the more strange considering Rogue Nation was Christopher McQuarrie’s directorial debut with the series.

There is an alternative option to consider, though. Perhaps they are purposefully being left out of the marketing. If Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a story about all of Ethan’s past decisions, it’s possible that how Mission: Impossible II and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation factor in is too spoilery to tease. Whether its returning characters or direct connections to The Enтιтy’s endgame, not setting up those connections could help preserve some surprises. If that’s not the case, ignoring both movies will become a bit worse.