Impossible took four films to fully establish its franchise must-have: the ever more blurred lines between its death-defying, stunt-loving star, Tom Cruise, and the superspy he plays. For more than a decade,

As I pointed out in our Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning review, that sort of reverence is also present in director Christopher McQuarrie’s current box office hit. Short of watching all of the prior films with a Paramount+ subscription, this is one of the best sequels to use as an introductory point to new fans.

In the new installment of Tom Cruise’s action film series, “ Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning ,” a godlike AI called the Entity has the world on the brink of a nuclear apocalypse, and a doomsday cult is rooting for the AI. (Spoiler alert: Cruise saves everyone.)

Prime Video includes the first four films alongside the seventh in your subscription: Mission: Impossible, MI 2, MI III, Ghost Protocol and Dead Reckoning. The other two films require a rental or purchase fee. Hulu subscribers can stream the first five movies: Mission: Impossible, MI 2, MI III, Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation.

At the end of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Cruise manages to wrestle the AI key from Gabriel while the pair fight in the cockpit of a biplane. Gabriel falls from the plane, hitting his head on the tail and plummeting to the Earth (the fall will have killed him, but we don't actually see him die).

Creating Tom Cruise’s pivotal scene for “The Final Reckoning,” required months of grit, G-force training and a little hypothermia.

Angela Bassett made history as the first woman to ever deliver a mission briefing in the "Mission: Impossible" film franchise with her scene in "The Final Reckoning" "That came to me late," Bassett, who plays President Erika Sloane,