What the Hell Is Going on in the New ‘Mission Impossible’ Trailer?

A common complaint about modern movie trailers is that they give away too much of the film. Look at the trailer for the sequel to M3GAN and you will see exactly what I’m talking about. Some studios have tried to avoid this by creating clever marketing campaigns around how little they show in their trailers (oh, hey, Barbarian). Others, like Disney, have created fake footage to insert into trailers to throw people off the scent. Occasionally, a trailer will just be a pivotal scene from a film. There are many different options because trailers are hard.

Abigail is an example of a recent movie with a trailer that potentially gave away too much. The movie is about a girl who is kidnapped and turns out to be a vampire. That information is given away in the trailers and promotions but played as a twist in the movie. The snag is I don’t know if you get people to see the film if you don’t reveal that the girl is undead beforehand. Trailers require a delicate balance. You have to reveal enough of the picture without showing too much, something the Mission Impossible franchise has gotten quite good at.

I’ve enjoyed Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies and have seen them several times (except for one). The exception is the most recent, Dead Reckoning. I remember very little about it. It was funny, if I recall. Something was going on with A.I.? Like, the villain was an A.I.? But also a person? There was a black-and-white flashback with Cruise. Shea Whigham. And I think it was the one where Cruise jumped a motorcycle off a cliff. I want to get my lack of recollection out of the way before I explain that I have no idea what the new film is about based on the trailer.

Part of the advantage the Mission: Impossible movies have is that they’ve promoted recent entries by focusing on Cruise’s stunts. They can keep details scarce that way. Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning highlights new stunts from the movie and stunts of the past. Also, Cruise goes into the internet maybe? He’s definitely going underwater. Tramell Tillman. There’s a knife. More Shea Whigham. A lot is going on in the trailer and it gives away very little. It’s kind of impressive.

Will the trailer get butts in seats? Who knows. Dead Reckoning underperformed, but it also stubbornly released a week and a half before Barbenheimer. The newest film’s biggest competition will be the live-action Lilo & Stitch remake. If the Snow White remake is any indication, Stitch may not fare well against Ethan Hunt. Regardless, both will likely be beaten by Minecraft, which I assume will be eclipsing Avatar by that point (I don’t know that for sure, I just want to be on the right side of cinema history so I’m hedging my bets).