‘Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning’ Nods to the Best 'Star Trek' Films

Of course, tropes can transcend genre, and there’s no reason to assume that there can’t be shared character and story overlap between a science fiction space soap and a super spy action franchise. But you might be surprised to hear that the latest installment in the Tom Cruise led action franchise, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning feels a lot like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (and by extension, Star Trek Into Darkness).

Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) confusing ethos has always made him a bit of a Kirk and Spock hybrid, which was ripe material in his later films. In Wrath of Khan, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) notoriously speaks of how “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” This is often mistakenly attributed to the logician, but it is an essential tenet of the philosophy of Utilitarianism. Essentially, that the correct actions are the ones that benefit the majority. Hunt often faces ethical dilemmas, forcing him to contend with utilitarianism. He will avoid casualties, when possible, even if that means making his missions more impossible (for instance, choosing to enter through a briefly opened ceiling to capture the rabbit’s foot instead of risking the lives of the guards), or risks himself to protect beat cops instead of catching his baddies. It’s a notion he’s often challenged on, when perhaps letting that baddie go could risk more casualties, but worse so when he has the opportunity to protect someone he cares about to the detriment of others. Hunt might be the guy known for quietly saving the world over and over, but he’s mostly the Captain Kirk who tends to leap without looking.

So it makes sense that this propensity to confuse the utilitarian approach to his world saving, combined with his “weakness” for those he cares about, would be explored in a film noted to be a “final” reckoning. If Hunt is Kirk, then Luther (Ving Rames) is his Spock— his long-standing number two and trusted confidant willing to do what he has to in order to save the world. Early on, when the audience catches up with Luther who’s been holed up tinkering with a way to stop the entity, he explains to Ethan that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. It’s a sentiment later explored by President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) when she has to consider blowing up an American city of her choosing in order to save the rest of the country (and maybe the world). Throughout the movie, everything Ethan does and has done forces him to decide if saving the “many” is worth it while also deciding the best possible fate for his crew, something Kirk is forced to tackle in our two Star Trek films.

Though not the finale of this film like it is in Star Trek, there are big moments for Mission: Impossible’s resident Kirk and Spock. *Those fleeing spoilers, look away.*

After Gabiel (Esai Morales) infiltrates Luther’s tunnel hideout and steals his “poison pill” (a device Luther created to foil the movies big bad, “The Entity”), he leaves behind a bomb with multiple detonators. Sensing this outcome from his “mind meld” with The Entity, Ethan runs to Luther to hope to save him. Stuck on the other side of a locked gate, Ethan sees Luther plucking away at the bomb’s wires. Luther lets him know that he can stop the bomb from detonating and leveling the city, but to do so, he has to be present while setting off a detonator which will collapse the tunnels. Like Spock (and Into Darkness’s Kirk) before him, Luthor is separated from his friend by a locked gate, working to save as many people as he can knowing it will guarantee his demise. For Luther, it is the “logical” thing to do- to save as many as he can and send Ethan off to save even more. The two have their Kirk and Spock moment which launches Ethan into warp-speed to continue on to save the world.

So, yes, groups of world-saving heroes might have trope and philosophies that transcend franchise and even genre, it feels extra magical how much Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning has in common with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The same eagle eye viewers who squealed when 2013’s Spock (Zachary Quinto) mentioned “the needs of the many,” were perhaps justified in having a similar reaction to Luther’s utterances in the last Mission: Impossible installment. If Hunt is Kirk, then Luther is Spock… so I guess that makes Simon Pegg Scotty again.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is in theaters