Let's make this simple: You want to know if there are any post- or mid-credits scenes in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. The answer is no, there aren't. The seventh Mission: Impossible movie has no extra scenes after the credits start rolling.
Full spoilers follow for the film beyond this point!
A new Mission: Impossible movie has hit theaters, which means more death-defying stunts, more globetrotting adventure and more high-stakes missions with the fate of the world in the balance. But there’s one big difference this time - Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is just the first half of the story.
As we wait for Part Two to make its way to theaters in 2024, let’s break down what happens in the latest Mission: Impossible movie and how it sets the stage for the sequel. Have Ethan Hunt and his team finally found a mission too impossible to accomplish? Let’s find out.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Ending Explained
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One introduces us to two grave new threats for the IMF, one of them with a very personal connection to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. Gabriel (Esai Morales) is a terrorist connected to Ethan’s mysterious, pre-IMF past, as we learn via flashbacks that Gabriel killed a woman close to Ethan. Gabriel is now seeking to harness the power of The Entity, a rogue AI with the power to infiltrate any computer network and distort the truth to its whims.
Gabriel twists the knife again (both literally and figuratively) when he kills Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust in Venice, leaving Ethan to mourn another loved one he couldn’t save in time. But the upside is that he gains a new ally in Hayley Atwell’s Grace, a thief with a heart of gold who discovers she fits right in with the other misfits of the IMF.
The climax of Dead Reckoning sees Grace board a train disguised as Vanessa Kirby’s arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis (a returning face from 2018’s Mission: Impossible - Fallout). Grace’s mission is to find the buyer looking to assemble both halves of the mysterious key that drives so much of the conflict in this movie. Ethan’s mission is to make it onboard the train in the most outlandish manner possible, cueing up the death-defying motorcycle stunt that’s been marketed so heavily in Dead Reckoning’s trailers.
It turns out that buyer is none other than Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge (last seen way back in the original Mission: Impossible), working on behalf of the US government and his boss, Derlinger (Cary Elwes). Grace is sorely tempted to sell the key and pocket the $100 million price tag, but she ultimately chooses to cancel the sale and abscond with both halves of the key.
Further complicating matters is the arrival of Gabriel, who kills the conductor and sends the train hurtling toward a booby-trapped bridge. Gabriel meets with Derlinger and learns the true significance of the key. It unlocks the chamber housing on the Sevastopol submarine’s computer, which is still home to an early version of the Entity AI originally planted by the US government. In effect, the key unlocks the only method of either destroying or taking control of the Entity. Gabriel then kills Derlinger and wounds his right-hand woman Paris (Pom Klementieff), as the Entity warned him she would betray him at a crucial moment.
Gabriel reacquires the key, and he and Ethan duke it out atop the train. Ethan ultimately gains the upper hand and nearly kills his old foe before remembering Luther’s (Ving Rhames) warning not to kill Gabriel before they know what the key unlocks. Gabriel is able to slip away when Agent Jasper Briggs shows up to arrest Ethan, but not before Ethan secretly pickpockets the key.
The train reaches the booby-trapped bridge, and Ethan convinces Briggs to help the passengers rather than focusing on arresting him. After leaping through several falling train cars, and with a little help from Paris (hey, the Entity was right about her), Ethan and Grace narrowly survive and learn the truth about the Sevastopol. Ethan makes his escape, while Grace is confronted by Kittridge and opts to join the IMF. Like Ethan before her, she’s ready to put her checkered past behind her and find a new purpose in carrying out impossible missions.
The key is finally in safe hands. The question is how Ethan and his team expect to unlock a computer deep inside a sunken submarine in the Arctic. And even if they manage that, do they have a hope of stopping a rogue AI that can go anywhere and do just about anything it wants? Those are questions we’re left to wonder as the credits roll.
Does Dead Reckoning Have a Post-Credits Scene?
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One has no post-credits scenes. In that regard, it’s just like every other film in the franchise. Most blockbuster franchises may be following the Marvel Studios approach these days, but Mission: Impossible continues marching to the beat of its own drum.
Still, even though this is par for the course for the M:I franchise, it is a little surprising there’s no mid-credits or end-credits scene aimed at teasing the next film. Dead Reckoning is the first film in the series to end on a cliffhanger, but even that isn’t enough to warrant an extra little stinger.
How Dead Reckoning Sets Up the Sequel
As you’d expect from the first part of a duology, Dead Reckoning Part One ends on a much more open-ended note than most Mission: Impossible movies. While there’s no dramatic cliffhanger leaving the fate of Cruise’s hero in doubt, nor have Ethan Hunt and his team managed to save the day just yet. They have the two halves of the key, but that’s just the first step in a much more dangerous and complicated mission to save the world from the Entity.
Presumably, one of the main sequences in Dead Reckoning Part Two will involve Ethan either diving down and entering the Sevastopol or somehow raising the sub to the surface (perhaps echoing Clive Cussler’s novel Raise the Titanic?). However he does it, Ethan has to make it to the ship’s computer and harness the critical code inside.
That impressive feat will surely result in another jaw-dropping stunt from Cruise in the sequel. Director Christopher McQuarrie has already teased that Cruise’s most dangerous stunt is still to come.
"It's coming," McQuarrie told IGN. "You haven't seen it yet. I mean, everything we do... In terms of this movie, definitely the motorcycle jump. But we have continued and we've pushed ourselves even further in Part Two, and you'll see. It's terrifying."
Part of the challenge for Ethan in Part Two is the fact that his team is now scattered and divided. Luther has gone completely off-grid in an attempt to design code that can stop the Entity in its tracks. Ethan may need to track down Luther and take possession of that code before he unlocks the Sevastopol’s computer. Grace, meanwhile, is now under the watchful eye of Kittridge at the IMF. She may be torn between her new boss and her loyalty to Ethan, who is still a global fugitive following the events of Dead Reckoning, Part One. But hey, at least Ethan still has the ever-helpful Benji (Simon Pegg) by his side.
Fans can expect Esai Morales to return as Gabriel again. Gabriel will no doubt be relying on the Entity to sow more chaos while also fighting tooth and nail to retrieve the key. We may see more glimpses of Ethan and Gabriel’s shared past and learn more about the tragic events that led to Ethan joining the IMF.
We’ll probably also see more of Paris, as Dead Reckoning Part One makes a point of revealing her to be unconscious, not dead, when last we see her. But having been betrayed by Gabriel, Paris may throw her lot in with Ethan and the IMF this time around.
It remains to be seen if Kirby will also return as Alanna. Dead Reckoning Part One delivers the revelation that Alanna is the daughter of Vanessa Kirby’s character Max from the original Mission: Impossible, so we may see the sequel dig deeper into her family history and forge more links to the previous films.
When Will Dead Reckoning Part Two Be Released?
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two is currently scheduled for release on June 28, 2024, just under a year after the release of Part One. Originally, the two sequels were expected to film back-to-back, but that changed after a pandemic-induced filming delay and Cruise’s own scheduling conflicts.
Fortunately, filming on Part Two did begin in March 2022, and work on the sequel is well underway as Part One hits theaters. Despite rumors to the contrary, production hasn’t been halted due to the WGA strike, but is only briefly on pause while Cruise participates in promotion for Part One. With any luck, Dead Reckoning Part Two will have no trouble meeting that June 2024 release date.
Is Dead Reckoning Part Two the Final Mission: Impossible Movie?
The shift to a two-part release has naturally led many Mission: Impossible fans to assume that Dead Reckoning will be the dramatic climax for the series, especially since that approach is being taken by the tenth and eleventh The Fast and the Furious movies.
Variety reported in February 2022 that a studio insider claimed Dead Reckoning Parts One and Two will serve as a “culmination” of the franchise and deliver a “sendoff” for Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. However, McQuarrie shot down that idea in May 2023, telling Fandango that ideas are already in the works for more sequels. As long as the series remains profitable and Cruise remains willing to put himself in harm’s way for the sake of our entertainment, Paramount will probably continue to pump out more Mission: Impossible sequels.
For more on the latest Mission: Impossible movie, check out IGN's review of Dead Reckoning and find out how and when to watch the sequel online.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
