Mission: Impossible 8 is coming to cinemas next year (hopefully) which is lucky as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One left all fans with questions.
The new movie – officially titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, of course – will bring back Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt for potentially his final mission, although writer/director Chris McQuarrie isn’t so sure this is the end.
What we do know if that whether or not this is the end of the series, Mission: Impossible 8 will wrap up the epic two-part story started in Dead Reckoning Part One. Will Ethan and the IMF team save the world? We reckon it’s likely.
As we wait to find out how the story ends, here’s everything you need to know about the next Mission: Impossible movie. Be warned, major spoilers are ahead.
Dead Reckoning 2 release date: When can we expect Mission Impossible 8?
After a few shifts, Mission: Impossible 8 is set to be released in cinemas on June 28, 2024, assuming there are no delays.
Dead Reckoning Part Two has moved every time that the previous movie did, but at least the next movie has already started filming. A production break was taken for promotion on the current Mission: Impossible movie and filming was set to restart in late summer.
However, given that the actors have joined the writers on strike, it means that filming won’t be able to resume until the strikes end. Depending on how long that takes, it could affect the release date.
Let’s hope not though.
Dead Reckoning 2 cast: Who’s coming back in Mission Impossible 8?
Tom Cruise will, of course, be back as Ethan Hunt, but Mission: Impossible 7 wasn’t without its casualties so here’s a final warning for spoilers after the photo.
Ethan’s long-running IMF cohorts Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) will be back, but Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust was killed by Gabriel (Esai Morales) so won’t be returning.
There’s always a possibility that Ilsa isn’t actually dead, but she seemed like a goner to us so if Ferguson does return, it might only be in flashbacks.
Hayley Atwell will be back as Grace, who at the end of Mission: Impossible 7, accepts the choice to join the IMF, while Vanessa Kirby’s Alanna Mitsopolis, aka the White Widow, will continue causing havoc for Ethan.
It looked as though Pom Klementieff’s Paris would not survive after being stabbed by Gabriel, but she’s still breathing at the end after saving Ethan and Grace so expect her to return and be on the side of the goodies next time.
Henry Czerny’s Kittridge, Shea Whigham’s Jasper Briggs and Greg Tarzan Davis’s Degas will all be back as well. Cary Elwes won’t return though as Denlinger as Gabriel killed him after finding out where the Sevastapol was buried (more on that in a bit).
We’re welcoming back an old face in Mission: Impossible 8 too, as Rolf Saxon reprises his role as CIA analyst William Donloe from the first movie. He was transferred to Alaska which, fortunately, is near where the Sevastapol sub is buried under the ice.
Newcomers to the series in the next movie are Mark Gatiss, Charles Parnell, Janet McTeer, Hannah Waddingham and Lucy Tulugarjuk, but we don’t yet know who they’re playing and how big a role any of them will have.
We do know though that Mindhunter star Holt McCallany is playing Secretary of Defense Bernstein in the next instalment, while Nick Offerman is playing somebody called Sydney, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Dead Reckoning 2 plot: What can we expect from Mission Impossible 8?
We don’t have an official synopsis yet for Mission: Impossible 8, but we can gather at least how the next movie will begin.
While Gabriel is the villain of Dead Reckoning, it’s fair to say he’s not the true antagonist as it’s actually an all-powerful AI, often called the “entity”. Whoever controls the entity can basically control the world as it has the power to distort digital data and has already hacked into the world’s intelligence network.
The entity was the creation of the US government and they tested it out on a Russian sub called the Sevastopol, merely to see if it could show them where the stealth sub was. Unsurprisingly, the entity went rogue and destroyed the sub.
It’s on the Sevastapol that the entity’s source code is stored and the only way to access it is with a cruciform key. Luckily, Ethan has said key and at the end of Mission: Impossible 7, he’s told by Paris that he needs to find the Sevastopol.
Ethan doesn’t know where it is, but intends to find it to destroy the entity which can only be done at its source. Aiming to stop him will be Gabriel who is doing the entity’s bidding and, obviously, the entity doesn’t want to be destroyed.
This battle between Ethan and Gabriel will form the basis of Mission: Impossible 8 as Ethan knows that Gabriel knows where the Sevastopol is. We imagine there will be a lot more spycraft going on too, but this is where the next movie will start at least.
It explains why Donloe comes back into the series as he’s stationed in Alaska, near where the sub is buried in the Bering Sea. Ethan better hope that he doesn’t hold a grudge though as it was his fault Donloe is in Alaska in the first place…
Dead Reckoning 2 trailer: Any Mission Impossible 8 footage yet?
Even though Mission: Impossible 8 has started filming, we don’t have any footage yet and might not get any until later this year assuming that production has started back up.
For more Mission: Impossible 7 coverage, check out:
• Mission: Impossible 7 review
• How long is Mission: Impossible 7?
• Does Mission: Impossible 7 have a post-credit scene?
• Who was Kittridge, again?
• Is Jeremy Renner in Mission: Impossible 7?
• How to watch Mission: Impossible 7 right now
• Mission: Impossible 7 resolves mystery about White Widow
• Mission: Impossible 7 ending explained
• Mission: Impossible 7 fails Ilsa Faust
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is released in cinemas on June 28, 2024.