Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Revealed a Surprising Character’s Connection to the Original Movie

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning introduced Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, an enforcer for the U.S. Intelligence Community tasked with capturing Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and retrieving the key to the Sevastopol submarine. His mission, which he eagerly accepted, was to ensure the United States would be the only nation capable of retrieving the Entity’s source code from the sunk submarine, controlling the AI to impose their will upon the world. Ethan, believing that no one should have access to the Entity, goes rogue in a race to destroy the AI, which explains his conflict with Jasper Briggs. However, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning adds another layer to the two men’s dispute, linking Jasper to a key character from the franchise’s first movie.

Warning: Spoilers below for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

While some antagonistic characters of Dead Reckoning believe Ethan to be misguided in his decision to destroy the Entity, Jasper is convinced that the agent is dirty all along. There’s some logic behind Jasper’s beliefs, as Ethan has gone rogue in every movie in the franchise, with no exceptions. So, in Jasper’s mind, Ethan can pose as the good guy, but he has been playing the world’s biggest intelligence agencies for over three decades, which is not entirely untrue. Due to his uncompromising standards, Ethan often works outside legal boundaries, which makes him incredibly dangerous to the United States’ sovereignty. However, Jasper’s relentless pursuit of Ethan is anchored in a personal connection with the hero. As Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning reveals, Jasper Briggs’ real name is Jim Phelps Jr., the son of the 1996 Mission: Impossible villain played by Jon Voight.

Jasper Briggs’ Family History Explains His Hatred for Ethan Hunt

In the 1996 film Mission: Impossible, the esteemed IMF team leader Jim Phelps spearheads a mission in Prague to prevent an American diplomat from stealing the CIA’s non-official cover (NOC) list, which contains the identities of covert agents in Eastern Europe. However, the operation goes disastrously wrong: the list is apparently stolen, and the entire team, including Phelps, appears to be systematically eliminated, leaving Ethan Hunt as the sole survivor. Ethan is then implicated by IMF Director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) as the mole behind the setup. To clear his name and expose the true traitor, Ethan escapes, assembling a new team that includes disavowed IMF agent (and Jim’s grieving widow) Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Béart), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) to steal the real NOC list from CIA headquarters in Langley, intending to use it as bait.

The shocking revelation of the film is that Jim Phelps himself is the actual mole. He faked his death in Prague and orchestrated the entire scheme to steal and sell the NOC list to an arms dealer named Max (Vanessa Redgrave) for a substantial sum, motivated by disillusionment after years of Cold War service. His wife, Claire, was his accomplice from the beginning, playing a double agent role within Ethan’s team. Krieger was also complicit, having been part of the original betrayal in Prague. Phelps’s plan was to let Ethan take the fall, but Ethan uncovers the conspiracy during a tense confrontation aboard a TGV train bound for Paris, leading to Phelps’ death.

[RELATED: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Review: A Sporadically Spectacular and Self-Serious Sequel]

It’s easy for fans to know Jim Phelps was a villain, as we have all watched the movie. But inside the Mission: Impossible universe, many of Ethan’s incredible feats are only backed by his word and the evidence his team collects, often illegally. So, since Ethan painted the original Jim Phelps as a greedy evildoer, it’s not a stretch for his son to assume his father is innocent and took the blame for everything because he was no longer alive to defend his honor. In Jasper’s mind, Ethan is the real guilty party of the whole affair, which has been reiterated by his increasingly erratic behaviour over the years, including the theft of the Rabbit’s Foot and the Kremlin’s explosion.

While Jasper holds a personal grudge against Ethan, he emphasizes in The Final Reckoning that he’s not motivated by revenge. Unlike Ethan, Jasper believes in following the chain of command and doing what he’s told. That also explains why Jasper took so long to appear in the Mission: Impossible franchise. While he has always been convinced Ethan is a rotten apple, Jasper would never act on his own initiative. He only embraced the opportunity once hunting Ethan down became an official order.

Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning also offers Jasper the opportunity to make his peace with the past. After Ethan sacrifices everything to stop Gabriel (Esai Morales) and the Entity, Jasper becomes a first-hand witness to the hero’s efforts to save the world. After that, Jasper realizes Ethan has been honest all along, and his father, Jim Phelps, was truly guilty. In a heartfelt moment, Jasper offers to shake Ethan’s hand, a silent gesture representing the two men’s reconciliation.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is currently available in theaters.

Do you think Jasper Briggs’ connection to Jim Phelps improves Shea Whigham’s Mission: Impossible character? Join the discussion in the comments!