New Delhi, May 17 -- "I need you to trust me."

Though Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) asking people to place their trust in him has always been the implicit theme of the Mission: Impossible series, the first time it's said in so many words is in the third film, to his wife. He says the same thing to his old friend and teammate Luther (Ving Rhames) in the sixth film. He uses the word five times in an effort to convince Grace (Hayley Atwell) in the seventh. And in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, by all accounts the last film in the series, he says: "I need you to trust me. one last time."

And because Tom Cruise hasn't let us down yet, across seven films and 30 odd years, we do as he asks. We trust that the long exposition scenes will g...