Ethan Hunt Vs. Dom Toretto: The Impossibly Fast Franchise Crossover We Need

We live in an imperfect world — one where the possibilities of cinema are chopped up and divided along studio lines. Massive media corporations collect IPs like children in the late '90s collected Pokémon cards, hoarding them into streaming libraries for $12.99 per month. But what if we lived in a better world? One where such divisions were a thing of the past. One where Paramount and Universal put aside their petty rivalry and gave us the "Fast and Furious" and "Mission: Impossible" crossover that's crying out to be made.

It's been a meme for years. The two titans of dumb action blockbusting have been going at it at the box office for even longer, playing a constant game of one-upmanship. On the one side, you have practical stunts that defy all logic and a general love of Tom Clancy. On the other, you have family, Coronas, and a Pontiac Fiero that goes into space. As the years have gone by and the movies have kept coming, the two franchises have begun to resemble each other more and more. It's as if they started on opposite sides of a great movie mountain and have been racing rapidly toward the peak — one in some kind of James Bond spy car, the other in a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T.

Sure, there are some logistical issues to get past — namely the aforementioned studio division — but Ethan Hunt and Dom Toretto must meet on the field of battle. At this point, we demand it.

In their early days, there wasn't much connecting the "Fast and Furious" movies and "Mission: Impossible." The latter franchise started as a pretty traditional spy story, full of wacky gadgets, double-crosses, and shootouts. "Fast and Furious," on the other hand, actually was about street racing for the first few movies, though that may be hard to remember now. The early entries are simple movies about brotherhood, nitrous oxide, and quarter-mile drags.

But as both series have developed into massive, global phenomena, the differences between them have vanished bit by bit. By "Fast and Furious 6," Dom Toretto and his crew are doing way more international espionage than street racing. Both franchises have massive action sequences set in the United Arab Emirates. Both star teams of highly skilled hackers and combatants — many being former criminals — who both are and aren't sanctioned by government agencies. And of course, both series have come to embrace a healthy level of sci-fi influence — the all-seeing "God's Eye" program and world-threatening Project Aries device in "F&F," for instance, and the villainous Entity AI system that battles Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning."

To top it off, both series released the first part of a two-part movie in 2023: "Fast X" and "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One." Both movies revolve around their respective protagonists accepting that they won't always win, with Dom Toretto and Ethan Hunt each unable to protect the people they care about most.

It's the era of crossover movies; it's the age of cinematic universes. From sprawling franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe to big brand collisions like "Godzilla vs. Kong," Hollywood has decided that the more names you can squeeze onto a poster, the better. "Fast and Furious" has been at the center of crossover rumors for years, mainly in regard to a possible fusion with the "Jurassic World" franchise.

That idea — half joke and half rumor — is relatively feasible because both brands are owned by Universal. There's nothing technically stopping Dom Toretto from challenging a Velociraptor to a drag race. However, combining the two franchises would demand some pretty wild justifications. Sure, both series are dumb and ridiculous in their own ways, but putting them in the same world would still break the canon. There's no way to pawn that crossover off as anything other than a glorious mess, which usually isn't the kind of branding studios are looking for with their moneymakers.

That's why "Mission: Impossible" and "Fast and Furious" are so perfect for a crossover movie. They operate under the same rules, tell the same kinds of stories, and star the same breed of larger-than-life characters. Plus, since Ethan Hunt and Dom Toretto both undertake top-secret missions, it would make sense why they've never crossed paths — until now.

Put your screenwriter hat on and picture this: A dangerous group of renegade cyberterrorists steals a top-secret piece of military technology capable of crippling the world's strongest governments. Ethan Hunt and his IMF team are called in to save the day, but they've never faced an enemy like this before. See, this rogue faction needs a guaranteed stud behind the wheel for the heist, so they kidnap Dominic Toretto's son, forcing him to drive for them. Thus begins an action-packed, globetrotting adventure where the two action legends eventually develop a mutual respect.

The themes of found family are the same. The action heroes' desire to protect the ones they love, even in the face of impossible odds, is the same. And just think of the stunt potential of putting Tom Cruise in a world where cars can defy the laws of physics. The script practically writes itself, with the possibilities only limited by the imagination of the production team.

We could have a hack-off scene with Luther and Benji battling Tej and Ramsey. Or how about a fistfight between Dom and Ethan atop a speeding jet? For anybody who loves fun, it's a guaranteed hit, with enough star power to give "Avengers: Endgame" a run for its money. The only thing standing between us and cinematic nirvana is one pesky little problem — that of the actual movie rights, which are split between Universal and Paramount.

Sure, a crossover between "Mission: Impossible" and "Fast and Furious" seems like a rip-roaring good time. But could it actually happen? The franchises are two of the biggest brands for Paramount and Universal, respectively. Typically, studios of that magnitude don't let others play with their toys.

Two of the most famous movie franchise crossovers, "Freddy vs. Jason" and "Alien vs. Predator," only occurred when all necessary rights fell under the same studio umbrella. There were efforts to make the former when Paramount still owned the rights to "Friday the 13th," but since both studios wanted to have full control, no movement was made. Only after New Line Cinema acquired the licenses for both properties did "Freddy vs. Jason" become a reality.

And that's just for a couple of lower-budget slasher series in the '80s and '90s. Imagine how much more protective a modern, titanic studio would be of a multi-billion dollar action franchise. It's unlikely that Universal or Paramount would ever give up control of their respective series, which means that a middle ground would need to be found. Is that possible? Yes, technically. Is it likely? In today's moviemaking marketplace? Probably not.

Thus we return to the original dilemma — the imperfect world we live in where IP ownership trumps fun. Perhaps we'll never see Dom Toretto and Ethan Hunt go head-to-head. But as long as we keep that magic idea of the "Impossibly Fast" crossover alive in our hearts, there's a chance.