Rick and Morty: The Best Opening Credit Jokes (That Didn’t Make It Into the Season)

One of Rick and Morty’s enduring allure is its opening funds. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing the strange clips at the start of every year and theorizing which scenes are non-sequitur/false begin gags or exact moments from the episodes to occur. There has become more and more of a focus on obscure jokes each year. But ]… ]

The post Rick and Morty: The Best Opening Credit Jokes ( That Didn’t Make It Into the Season ) appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains some clues for Mission: Difficult &#8211, The Last Remarkable.

In the most new and supposedly last Mission: Impossible video, Ethan Hunt receives his lecture on a VHS tape tape. The MacGuffin may be something as lovely as a celebrated floppy disc total of names, since the era in which this franchise began&#8212, when action movies found their next attractive life inside VCRs, was a wonderful wink. The earth has certainly changed since 1996 &#8217, s Mission: Difficult, but these films have remained constantly at the peak of superior movie cinema.

And through it all remains Tom Cruise, running, fighting, and smoldering with his different, lush hairstyle. In fact, the earliest M: I film was even Cruise’s debut as a producer, produced by Cruise/Wagner works. Maybe for that reason, he has stayed committed to what was once viewed as merely a &#8220, tv adaptation. It may have started out as Television IP, but in Cruise’s hands it has evolved into one of the most brilliant and pleasant spectacles ever made in the Hollywood program.

The last decade of the line &#8217, run in special has been groundbreaking. After five films with five quite different directors, appearance, and tastes, Christopher McQuarrie stuck around &#8212, alongside acrobatic representative Wade Eastwood. Along with Cruise, they transformed the series into an conventional, in-camera spectacle that dates back to the very beginning of film. In the process, Cruise has added another book to his profession, that of an onscreen hero like Harold Lloyd or Douglas Fairbanks. It’s been a fantastic run, and to be honest, it’s a little subjective to calculate it using any sort of rating. But if we were going to do such a thing, here is how it really go&#8230,

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8. Mission: Impossible II ( 2000 )

John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II is almost controversial at the end of the scales. From its abundance of slow-mo action—complete with Woo’s signature flying doves—to its use of Limp Bizkit, and even that absurd plot about artificial viruses that still doesn’t think fast on the other side of 2020, MI: -2 is a relic of later’ 90s Hollywood excess. On the one hand, it’s kind of wonderful that Cruise allowed the Hong Kong director’s own image to completely remake and remake a successful franchise-starter. On the other, it’s perhaps telling of where Cruise’s ego was at that time since Woo used this opportunity to transform the original all-American Ethan Hunt into a god of celluloid marble.

And make no mistake, there is something godlike to how Woo’s camera fetishizes Cruise’s sunglasses and new, luxuriant mane of jet black hair during Hunt’s big introduction where he is seen free-climbing across a rock face without rope. The rest of the film would serve as a metaphor for how Ethan, despite ostensibly being the team’s leader, mostly goes it alone as he engages in ridiculous behavior, such as a medieval fight with his evil doppelgänger ( Dougray Scott ), is now riding motorcycles as opposed to horses. The onscreen team, meanwhile, stares slack-jawed as Ethan finds his inner-Arnold Schwarzenegger and massacres entire scores of faceless mercenaries in multiple shootouts.

The Mission: Impossible movies work best when the characters use their wits ( and the stunt team’s ingenuity ) to escape elaborate, challenging situations, despite gunplay having always been a feature of contemporary spy thrillers. So there’s something banal about the way M: I-2 resembles any other late ‘ 90s and early’ 00s actioner that might’ve starred Nicolas Cage or Bruce Willis. Technically the plot, which involves Ethan’s reluctance to send new flame Nyah Hall ( Thandiwe Newton ) into the lion’s den as an informant, has classical pedigree. The film only changes the name of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film Notorious. However, the movie is so in love with its movie star deity that even the supposedly central romance is cast in ambivalent shadow.

7. Mission: Impossible &#8211, The Final Reckoning ( 2025 )

Yes, we admit to also being surprised that what is allegedly intended to be the last Mission: Impossible movie is finishing near the very bottom of this list. Which is not to say that The Final Reckoning is a bad movie. It&#8217, s just a messy one&#8212, and disappointing too. Perhaps the expectations for a movie with a title like” “ final&#8221″ were too high. Also its reportedly eye-popping$ 400 million only fueled the hype. But whereas the three previous Mission films directed by Christopher McQuarrie, including Dead Reckoning, had a light playfulness about them, The Final Reckoning gets lost in its own self-importance and grandiosity.

Once more, we have a Mission movie that is determined to deify Ethan Hunt with McQuarrie, S. S. S. S. S. S. A. M. R. Now the AI fate of the world lies in his literal hands. This approach results in a number of lengthy expository scenes where the characters blather endlessly about an abstract artificial intelligence’s motivations. Meanwhile far too little time is spent on the sweet spot for this series: Cruise&#8217, s chemistry with co-stars when he is n&#8217, t hanging from some death-defying height. In fact, Ethan goes it pretty much alone in this one, staring down generals, submarine captains, and American presidents &#8212, fools all to think for one instance Ethan is n&#8217, t the guy sent to redeem them for their sins.

Although the action scenes are still jaw-dropping when they finally end, and it’s always nice to see Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, and an all too briefly used Ving Rhames again, this feels less like a finale than a breaking point. If Mission does come back, it will have to be as something wildly different ( and presumably less expensive ).

6. Mission: Impossible III ( 2006 )

Before he transformed Star Trek and Star Wars into remarkably similar franchises, writer-director J. J. Abrams made his big screen debut by doing much the same to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Abrams remade the M: I franchise in the style of his TV shows, particularly Alias, with an emphasis on extreme close-ups, heavy expository dialogue dumps, and intentionally vague motivations for his villains that seem to always have something to do with the War on Terror. This included turning Woo’s Übermensch from the last movie into the kind of suburban everyman who scores well with the Nielsen ratings and who has a sweet girl-next-door fiancée ( Michelle Monaghan ).

With this approach, your mileage may vary, but for our purposes M: I-3 was too much of a piece with mid-2000s television and lacking in some film magic. With that said, the movie has two fantastic aces up its sleeve. The first and most significant is a deliciously boorish performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as the franchise’s scariest villain. When Hoffman cuts through Cruise’s matinee heroics like a knife and unsettles the audience with an unwavering declaration of indifference, Abrams ‘ signature monologues have never been more chilling. Perhaps more impressively, during one of the franchise’s famed “mask” sequences where Ethan disguises himself as Hoffman’s baddie, the character actor subtly and convincingly mimics Cruise’s leading man charisma.

That, plus Simon Pegg‘s return as Benji in a little more than a cameo, makes the film worthwhile to watch if not for a repeat.

5. Mission: Impossible &#8211, Dead Reckoning ( 2023 )

The then-newest installment in the series, in the opinion of more than a few critics, was also the best one in 2023. I respectfully disagree. The Dead Reckoning epic, written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise, is undoubtedly just as ambitious and visually stunning as the two collaborations that came before it, even though it once appeared to be the franchise’s grand finale. The much marketed stunt where Cruise drives a motorcycle off a mountain is as astonishing as promised, and there is an absolutely crackerjack chase sequence in Rome where a handcuffed Cruise and franchise newcomer Hayley Atwell battle for control of a disintegrating Fiat.

In terms of old school spectacle and breakneck pacing, Dead Reckoning is easily the most entertaining action movie of summer 2023’s offerings. Dead Reckoning, however, falls short in terms of the quality of the best M: I films. While McQuarrie’s counterintuitive instinct to script the scenes after designing the set pieces, and essentially make it up as they went along, paid off in dividends in Fallout, the narrative of Dead Reckoning‘s first half is shaggy and muddled. When the movie arrives in Venice, the second act becomes particularly disjointed, and the actors ‘ opinions of what exactly the film’s nefarious A.I. villain, codenamed” The Entity,” are.

That this is the portion of the film which also thanklessly kills off fan favorite Ilsa Faust ( Rebecca Ferguson ) does the movie no favors. Elsewhere in the film, Hayley Atwell proves a fantastic addition in her own right as Grace—essentially a civilian and audience surrogate who gets wrapped up in the M: I series’ craziness long enough to stare at Cruise in incredulity—but the inference that she is here to simply interchangeably replace Ilsa gives the film a sour subtext. Even though the rest of the ensemble feels underutilized, seeing the team back together makes this a good time, while Henry Czerny’s unexpected comeback as Eugene Kittridge is downright fantastic.

4. Ghost Protocol ( 2011 ) and Mission: Impossible &#8211,

There are many fans who will tell you that the Mission: Impossible franchise as we know it really started with this Brad Bird entry at the beginning of the 2010s, and it’s easy to see why. As the first installment made with a newly chastened Cruise&#8212, who Paramount Pictures had just spent years trying to fire from the series &#8212, it’s also the installment where the movie star remade his persona as a modern day Douglas Fairbanks. Here, he turns into the person you can count on to pull the most outrageous stunts for entertainment. What a mensch.

Nothing in the series can match the second act of the film, where Cruise is asked to play the role of a real-life Spider-Man and swing and skip along the world’s tallest building, the Dubai Burj Khalifa. It’s a genuine showstopper that looms over the rest of the movie. Not that there isn’t a lot to enjoy elsewhere as Bird brings a slightly more sci-fi and cartoonish cheek to the proceedings with amusing gadgets like those aforementioned “blue means glue” Spidey gloves. The damn things never seem to work properly, which is even more amusing.

This is also the first Mission: Impossible movie where the whole team feels vital to the success of the adventure, including a now proper sidekick in the returning Pegg and some solid support from Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner. For a certain type of fan, this is the best, but we would argue that there were some weak spots in later films with more than one stunning set piece.

3. Mission: Impossible ( 1996 )

The series ‘ final four seasons have been so good that it’s become common for people to overlook Brian De Palma’s endlessly stylish Mission: Impossible, the movie that started it all. That’s a shame since there&#8217, s something admirably blasphemous to this day about a movie that would take an ancient pop culture property and throw the fundamentals out the window. In this instance, it meant completely rewriting the rulebook about what the meaning of” Mission: Impossible” is and turning the original show’s hero, Jim Phelps ( played by Jon Voight here ).

It’s the bold kind of creative move studios would never dare make now, but that’s what opened up the space to transform a novelty of ‘ 60s spymania TV into a ‘ 90s action classic, complete with heavy emphasis on techno espionage babble and post-Cold War politics. The movie can at times appear dated given the emphasis on floppy disks and AOL email accounts, but it’s also got a brisk energy that never goes out of style thanks to De Palma’s ability to frame a knotty script by David Koepp and Robert Towne ( the latter of whom penned Chinatown ) into a breathlessly paced thriller filled with paranoia, double crosses, femme fatales, and horrifying dream sequences. It’s a De Palma special, to put it another way!

The filmmaker and Cruise also craft a series of set pieces that would become the series ‘ defining trademark. The finale, which features a fistfight atop a speeding train beneath the English Channel, is excellent, but it is quiet as a church mouse midpoint where Cruise’s hero dangles over the pressure-sensitive floor of a CIA vault and has a drop of sweat dripping just out of reach. —is the stuff of popcorn myth. It’s how M: I also became as much a great heist series as shoot ‘ em up. Additionally, Luther Stickell, the stealth MVP hacker for Ving Rhames, was featured in this film.

2. Rogue Nation ( 2015 ) and Mission: Impossible &#8211

In retrospect there is something faintly low-key about Rogue Nation, as ludicrous as that might be to say about a movie that begins with its star literally clinging for dear life to the outside of a plane at take off. Yet given how grand newcomer director Christopher McQuarrie would take things in the following three Mission films, his more restrained first iteration seems charmingly small scale in comparison. Even so, it continues to be the series ‘ most well-balanced and balanced adventure as well as a standalone action marvel. It&#8217, s the one where the project of making Ethan Hunt a tangible character began.

In contrast to Rebecca Ferguson’s portrayal of Ethan as the series ‘ best supporting character, Rebecca Ferguson, McQuarrie spins a web where Hunt’s dicey lifestyle comes back to haunt him when faced with a villain who turns those showboat instincts in on themselves. There’s a reason Ferguson’s MI6 double ( triple, quadruple? ) agent was the first leading lady in the series to become a recurring character. She succeeds in her role as a woman who is incomparably Ethan’s equal while keeping both the audience and him on their toes.

She, alongside a returning Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, solidify the definitive Mission team, all while McQuarrie crafts elegant set pieces with classical flair, including a night at the opera that homages and one-ups Alfred Hitchcock’s influential sequence from The Man Who Knew Too Much ( 1956 ), as well as a Casablanca chase between Ethan and Ilsa that’s the best motorcycle sequence in the series ( if only they stopped by Rick’s ). In the end, McQuarrie’s script ultimately discovers who Ethan Hunt truly is by letting everyone around him realize he&#8217, s a madman. And Alec Baldwin&#8217, s Alan Hunley gets this gem of a line to sums the series up in total:

” Hunt is uniquely trained and highly motivated, a specialist without equal, immune to any countermeasures. He cannot extract any secrets, he cannot breach any security, and he cannot become anyone. He has most likely anticipated this very conversation and is waiting to strike in whatever direction we move. The living manifestation of destiny, Hunt has assigned you as his mission, sir.

1. Mission: Impossible &#8211, Fallout ( 2018 )

Without a doubt, it would be impossible to top Mission: Impossible &#8211, Fallout ( forgive the pun ), if one were to rank these movies solely based on set pieces and stunts. A virtuoso showcase in action movie bliss, there are too many giddy mic drop moments to list, but among our favorites are: Tom Cruise doing a real HALO jump out of a plane at 25, 000 feet and which was captured by camera operator CraigO’Brien, who had an IMAX camera strapped to his head, the extended fight sequence between Cruise, Henry Cavill, and Liam Yang in a bathroom where the music completely drops out so we can hear every punch, kick, and that surreal moment where Cavill needs to reload his biceps like they’re shotguns, and did you see Cruise&#8217, s ankle bend the wrong way in that building to building jump? !

For action junkies, there was no better adrenaline kick out of Hollywood in the 2010s than this flick, and that is in large part a credit to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. As the first filmmaker to helm more than one M: I movie, McQuarrie had the seemingly counterintuitive innovation to meticulously hammer out all of the above action sequences as well as others —such as a motorcycle chase across the cobblestones of Paris and a helicopter climax where Cruise is really flying his chopper at low altitudes—with stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood and Cruise, and then retroactively pen a surprisingly tight and satisfying screenplay that continues to deconstruct the Ethan Hunt archetype into a man of flesh and blood.

In a story that is as zippy and sharp as you would expect from the screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, but which allows each action sequence to unfold with all the pageantry of an old-fashioned Gene Kelly musical number, McQuarrie also brings together all the series ‘ best supporting actors, including Rhames, Pegg, and his own additions of Rebecca Ferguson as the ambiguous Ilsa Faust and Sean Harris as the dastardly Solomon Lane. Many will call this the best Mission: Impossible movie, and we won’t quibble the point.

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