If you watch all the Mission: Impossible movies in order, a clear connecting narrative emerges. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), a patriotic, idealistic undercover agent, is betrayed both by his government and the mole within it. The team he trusts and relies on is killed, and he’s nearly taken into custody as a scapegoat. Disillusioned, he goes rogue, continuing to carry out crucial missions to save his country and the world, but refusing to trust government institutions or protocols, and constantly trying to avoid personal connections, so he doesn’t have to lose anyone else he cares about. He succeeds at the missions, but he fails at avoiding emotional entanglement. So he keeps losing loved ones — and to keep that pattern from repeating, he takes more and more danger on himself, hoping no one else will have to take the kinds of risks he takes.

There’s another connecting narrative, though, a less pronounced and profound one: the story of a guy with a really strong grip.

The latest installment in the franchise, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, builds up to a much-advertised set piece in which Ethan dangles off two different biplanes as they loop and barrel roll, trying to throw him off. He doggedly clings to the planes’ landing gear, their wings, the edge of the cockpits, anything he can get a grip on, as the rest of his body swings in freefall.

True to movie marketing, the sequence has been billed as Cruise’s biggest, most thrilling stunt ever — but it looks awfully familiar, from that time in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation where Ethan climbs onto a Airbus A400M as it’s taxiing along a runway, then clings to its side as it takes off.

What do these stunts have in common, besides planes in flight and Ethan getting a super-intense cheek-flapping, hair-flattening, wind-based facial massage? They basically just come down to how good Ethan’s grip is,........

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