This Friday, July 31st, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation hits theaters as Tom Cruise reprises his role as superspy Ethan Hunt for the fifth time. The trailers have looked so good that it’s easy to forget that Cruise has been doing Mission: Impossible movies for almost 20 years!
The first Mission: Impossible movie was helmed by Brian De Palma in 1996, and it was one of the rare TV-to-movie adaptations to actually spawn a franchise. Mission: Impossible II was one of the few Hollywood films directed by John Woo, while J.J. Abrams made his directorial feature debut on Mission: Impossible III. Beloved animation director Brad Bird’s live-action directorial debut was the well-received Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, and Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie helmed Rogue Nation.
That’s a very impressive pedigree, and the Mission: Impossible movies tend to be pretty good action flicks. This isn’t to say that they don’t have some imperfections. That’s where the Honest Trailers team comes in. In the latest installment, all of the Mission: Impossible movies are taken to task for their various plot holes, nebulous MacGuffins, and the weird Scooby-Doo-style masks seen throughout the franchise.
Amazingly, this Honest Trailer actually missed a few easy targets. It doesn’t even mention that the first movie tarnished the reputation of Jim Phelps, the lead character of both of the Mission: Impossible TV series. Nor did it mention that the first Mission: Impossible spoiled the ending of the film’s major action sequence in its trailer!
Nerdist readers, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to leave a comment below and let us know what you thought about the latest edition of Honest Trailers!
