Naming sequels isn’t something a lot of major Hollywood franchises put too much effort into, when it’s the name of the brand itself that sells tickets rather than the addendum that comes afterwards. That being said, the Mission: Impossible series is coming in for plenty of praise online after it was confirmed that the upcoming two-parter would be going by the title Dead Reckoning.
Whether it’s simply adding numbers, the standard comic book formula of largely abiding by Superhero Name: Insert Subtitle Here, or whatever the hell Fast & Furious has been doing for the last two decades, giving additional installments in popular properties a bespoke title is fast becoming something of a lost art.
Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt isn’t one to take things easy as we’ve seen on half a dozen occasions already, with fans coming out to praise the long-running espionage saga for the way the IMF has been evolving its nomenclature.
Of course, we should point out that the second and third chapters took the easy way out with a numerical suffix, but Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, Fallout, and Dead Reckoning have seen Mission: Impossible up the ante significantly. They’re just vague enough to create mystery while still nodding towards the various plot and story machinations that define the running time, making it one of the rare franchises where folks will actually refer to the M:I sequels by name and not number.
Dead Reckoning – Part 1 and its successor are still one and two years away respectively from coming to theaters, but at least we know longtime supporters are on board with what they’re called.