Do You Need to Watch Mission: Impossible 1-6 Before Seeing Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One?

The Mission: Impossible franchise has been around since 1996, meaning we’ve seen Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Mission Force complete, well, impossible missions for almost three decades. Over these three decades, there have been six Mission: Impossible films, but not all of them are necessary to watch if you haven’t seen them before, especially if you are trying to watch them before seeing Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One in theaters.

What Do You Need to Watch Before Seeing Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One?

You should watch Mission: Impossible (1996), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), and Mission: Impossible: Fallout (2018) before seeing Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. I recommend watching these three movies for multiple reasons, like understanding Ethan’s history and the characters that play pivotal roles in the upcoming films. You will save time and money by only watching these three franchise films since they all have long runtimes.

Related: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review

As mentioned above, there are multiple reasons why I recommend you only watch those three films of the franchise. First, the original Mission: Impossible film is a must-watch because it details the details behind Ethan’s life before joining the Impossible Mission Force and how he got his start as our favorite spy. Plus, it is a great spy thriller flick that took heavily from the original series. Second, Rogue Nation is when Christopher McQuarrie took over the directorial duties, and he brought the film franchise back on track, with Fallout and Dead Reckoning Part One being the two best in the franchise. Finally, essential characters, like Ilsa Faust and the White Widow, from Rogue Nation and Fallout, respectively, will appear in both parts of Dead Reckoning.

You can watch all six Mission: Impossible movies (plus the original 1960s series if you are curious) with a Paramount Plus subscription. However, if you don’t have a Paramount Plus subscription, you can rent the Mission: Impossible films on YouTube or Amazon Prime Video for a small fee.