Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One: The best Easter eggs (spoilers)

The action franchise takes a look back at its past

Roxy Simons
·4-min read
A still from the teaser for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part One. (Paramount Pictures)
Rebecca Ferguson and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part One. (Paramount Pictures)

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is in UK cinemas and IMAX, bringing Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt back to the forefront of public minds.

The new film sees the IMF agent be tasked with finding two interlocking keys which will help with a rogue AI programme known as The Entity, which threatens to change life as we know it.

Hunt makes it his mission to find the keys and make sure they don't get into the wrong hands.

Read more: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One review: Tom Cruise's action franchise still has spark

It is the seventh movie in the critically-acclaimed action franchise, and so it makes references to a number of big moments from its history.

Here are all the references we picked up, but be warned this article contains spoilers.

A fight on a train

Esai Morales and Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One. (Paramount)
Esai Morales and Tom Cruise shooting a fight scene on a train in Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One. (Paramount)

Let it not be said that Mission: Impossible isn't without its habits. Dead Reckoning Part One ends with an epic fight between Hunt and Gabriel (Esai Morales) on top of a moving train.

The scene saw the actors really fight on a purpose-built steam train, which was later destroyed for real for the production, but it isn't the first time that Hunt (or James Bond, or Indiana Jones, or Wallace and Gromit for that matter) has chosen the top of a train for a battle.

The film's climax is a reference to the very first Mission: Impossible movie from 1996, in which Cruise also shot scenes on top of a train, while attached to a helicopter.

A death on the bridge

Jon Voight Film: Mission: Impossible (USA 1996) Characters: Jim Phelps Director: Brian De Palma 22 May 1996 **WARNING** This Photograph is for editorial use only and is the copyright of PARAMOUNT PICTURES and/or the Photographer assigned by the Film or Production Company and can only be reproduced by publications in conjunction with the promotion of the above Film. A Mandatory Credit To PARAMOUNT PICTURES is required. The Photographer should also be credited when known. No commercial use can be granted without written authority from the Film Company.
Jon Voight as Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible in which his character is seen dying on a bridge (Alamy)

The first Mission: Impossible movie saw Ethan and his crew of IMF agents carry out a mission in Prague, only for everything to go wrong and for everyone but Cruise's character get killed.

In the shocking opening scene, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) is seemingly killed on a bridge and falls off it and into the water, before Ethan can get to him.

Dead Reckoning features a similar scene in which Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust and Hayley Atwell's Grace go head-to-head with Gabriel.

In the end both are bested, and Ilsa is stabbed before the villain gets away, Ethan arrives too late in a mirroring of the first time audiences were introduced to him.

Ilsa is apparently dead, but given Jim returned in Mission: Impossible perhaps Ilsa faked her death too? Part Two will reveal all.

Want to see a magic trick?

Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt with one half of the key they need in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, where he uses sleight of hand magic to make it disappear (Paramount Pictures)
Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt with one half of the key they need in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, where he uses sleight of hand magic to make it disappear (Paramount Pictures)

Dead Reckoning Part One features several moments in which Ethan uses sleight of hand tricks to hide the key that the IMF agents are searching for, which is a skill he has perfected throughout the franchise it seems.

This is a reference to the original Mission: Impossible, where Ethan performs a sleight of hand magic trick with the NOC list drive when speaking with Franz Krieger (Jean Reno).

Ethan Hunt's love life

RELEASE DATE: July 27, 2018 TITLE: Mission: Impossible - Fallout STUDIO: Paramount Pictures DIRECTOR: Christopher McQuarrie PLOT: Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong. STARRING: TOM CRUISE as Ethan Hunt, VANESSA KIRBY as The White Widow. (Credit Image: © Paramount Pictures/Entertainment Pictures)
Tom Cruise and Vanessa Kirby in Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Paramount Pictures)

Ethan was once a bit of a ladies' man, it's true. The IMF agent appears to have the charm to captivate every woman who comes into his orbit and Ilsa references Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby) and how she doesn't know what happened between them.

Read more: Tom Cruise did over 500 skydives for biggest stunt yet

This is a reference to Mission: Impossible - Fallout, where the two first met after Ethan pretended to be extremist John Lark so they could meet, and he later saves her life from various assailants.

Though they have a lot of chemistry, nothing happened between the pair.

Going analogue

USA. Ving Rhames in a scene from (C)Paramount Pictures film: Mission: Impossible (1996). Plot: An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization. Ref: LMK110-J7062-280421 Supplied by LMKMEDIA. Editorial Only. Landmark Media is not the copyright owner of these Film or TV stills but provides a service only for recognised Media outlets. pictures@lmkmedia.com
Ving Rhames in 1996's Mission: Impossible. (Paramount/Alamy)

In Dead Reckoning, the issue that arises with The Entity is that it is an AI programme that is able to infiltrate any digital space, and so in order to find a way to beat it, the team's hacker Luther (Ving Rhames) decides to go underground and use only analogue systems to figure out how to stop it.

Though not an obvious reference, this seems to suggest the franchise will harken back to its first film once more where the crew's technology included floppy disks and huge computers.

With Luther going off-the-grid maybe we'll see him back with his trusty laptop from the first film?

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is out in cinemas and IMAX now.

Watch: How the Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One train stunt was done

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