A 'Mission: Impossible' Refresher Before 'Fallout'

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1996's 'Mission: Impossible'

The sixth installment of the Tom Cruise franchise requires a little more knowledge than usual going in.

In 1996, Tom Cruise chose to accept his first mission.

Since then, the Mission: Impossible series has grossed $2.7 billion worldwide and has become known as one of the most ambitious action franchises around. Part of the series' draw has been Cruise's insistence on performing his own stunts, as well as the way each mission rarely requires knowledge about the previous installments. But reviews for Mission: Impossible – Fallout have revealed that there are more connective threads and callbacks to the other films than in any of the previous five movies. Here is a quick synopsis of what's happened so far in Ethan Hunt's Mission: Impossible life in case you need a refresher course on the plot.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Director: Brian De Palma

Cruise introduces the world to Ethan Hunt, a young hotshot agent in the IMF (Impossible Missions Force) a fictional U.S. government designed to carry out classified missions by a team of highly trained a capable agents. Hunt's entire team is wiped out during a routine mission. The deaths seemingly include Hunt's mentor, Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), but when the dust settles, the leader of his agency suspect Hunt was the culprit, and he is left on his own to avenge his team and clear his name, with help from series mainstay Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and after conning arms dealer Max (Vanessa Redgrave). Eventually, Hunt discovers Phelps staged his own death, set up his protege to take the fall, and was going to retire after stealing classified documents he planned to sell to the highest bidder. Hunt is able to kill Phelps, recover the list of classified agents, and clear his name in the process......

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