Commentary: The Weird Similarities Between ‘Mission: Impossible’ and ‘Fast & Furious’

It’s no surprise that Hollywood loves big budget blockbuster action franchises. These are huge money makers with some of the biggest stars that have an absurd amount of sequels. Two that immediately come to mind are The Fast and The Furious movies as well as Tom Cruise‘s Mission: Impossible franchise. On the surface there’s a lot to compare as both movies have an abundance of entries while also specializing in stunts that are completely ridiculous and out of the realm of possibility. The movies don’t make any attempt to ground their stunts in realism. But their similarities actually go a little deeper and dive into the ways both franchises found longevity through storytelling.

Mission: Impossible mainly centers around Ethan Hunt (Cruise). He works for a secret fictional agency that tries to stop terrorist attacks. Initially, each film had what was more or less a standalone story. But eventually, a rival fictional agency was created that caused some plot lines and character arcs to continue on through the sequels. Meanwhile, The Fast and The Furious focuses primarily on Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his close-knit group of friends (aka, his “family”) as they get wrapped into the world of crime and street racing.

Besides the presence of international terrorism, each franchise’s story is completely different. But there is a pattern to the way their sequels unfold. The first Mission: Impossible films had no connection to one another. The first several Fast and The Furious films are much the same way. Diesel wasn’t even in the second movie, nor was Paul Walker in the third. But eventually, the storyline solidified into a continuous narrative the same way that Mission: Impossible did. It’s interesting how these different action franchises followed such a similar path in their more recent entries compared to how they began.

Mission: Impossible is now streaming on Paramount+.