Simon and Jim wrap up The Impossipod series with a discussion about the overall trajectory of the Mission: Impossible franchise, what the directors of these films went on to do, the politics of these films, their rankings of every film in the franchise, and some thoughts about how this ties into their wider thoughts on blockbuster franchise filmmaking.

Our Letterboxd rankings for Mission: Impossible are available at https://boxd.it/nUsNA and https://boxd.it/EIfj2$bq018RHfaf81ior5

Content warnings: sexual abuse in the context of Harvey Weinstein; American neo-fascism and militarism; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; misogyny.

Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop (https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Simon and Jim reach the end of the Mission: Impossible franchise with 2025's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING. They discuss the film's shockingly shoddy first half, the disconnect between the dialogue's apocalyptic exposition and what we're actually shown on screen of the world, how the film continues DEAD RECKONING's attempt to grapple with themes around AI and post-truth but never manages to do so successfully, what a shame it is that they separate Ethan Hunt from the rest of the team for such long stretches of the film, the emotional core that emerges towards the middle of the film from a surprising source, and how the film builds to a decent climax but unfortunately it's the same climax they already did in FALLOUT.

Content warnings: the COVID-19 pandemic; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; violent deaths including murder and assassination; terrorist bombings and nuclear weaponry; submersibles and drowning; aviation disasters and parachuting.

Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop (https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/FUI8ZJF4

Simon and Jim discuss Christopher McQuarrie's third Mission: Impossible film, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE, the first of a two-parter that will cap off this franchise (for now). They discuss the film's troublesome title (again), the reconfiguration of the IMF from an intelligence agency to a weird cult with echoes of Tom Cruise's own religion, how the film is in dialogue with more traditional political thrillers like those of Tom Clancy and Brian de Palma, the nebulousness of the AI antagonist and what it misses about human-computer interaction, the issues created by the film's flabby and repetitive script, and then their minds are broken upon discovering which derided English film director has an inexplicable knighthood.

Content warnings: the COVID-19 pandemic; verbal abuse and workplace harassment; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; violent deaths including murder and assassination; nuclear weaponry; public transport disasters including a train crash.

Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop (https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/4UGZV7LG