Dune, Deadpool and, now, Mission: Impossible? The Tom Cruise-led action franchise may not be the most obvious candidate to continue cinema’s unlikely popcorn bucket trend, but it’s apparently happening in preparation for the release of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
According to AMC’s director of food and beverage strategy Rob Bennett in a piece by TIME, Cruise “helped to guide the design” of an upcoming bucket, which will release in line with The Final Reckoning. The only tease? Bennett saying his team “nailed it”.
Those of us who are terminally online – myself included – will fondly reminisce about Cruise’s “I love my popcorn. Movies… popcorn” video in the lead-up to 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (which has since dropped the ‘Part One’ from its title). Now, we can act out our own Cruise-style popcorn poetry.
For so long cinema’s ultimate trendsetter, Cruise, is following a path laid down by Dune earlier this year with its sandworm-shaped popcorn bucket – which became the subject of social media conversation and memes for weeks after release. That, in turn, led to several imitators, from Venom, Deadpool and Wolverine, and even Gladiator 2.
Mission: Impossible, meanwhile, is gearing up for what appears to be the closing chapter in Ethan Hunt’s cinematic career. The first Final Reckoning trailer made good on that air of finality, while also hiding a surprise Mission: Impossible 3 callback that had fans’ minds – and their theories – racing.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Pom Klementieff, hits cinemas on May 23, 2025. Discover more of what’s headed your way with our guides to upcoming movies. Then your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to dive into our ranking of the best Mission: Impossible movies.
