The “Mission: Impossible” movie franchise has been going on for close to 30 years now, and with the seven films in the property soon to become eight at the time of writing (with the release of this summer’s “The Final Reckoning”), there’s more than enough to catch up on prior to May. When it comes to “Mission: Impossible” rankings and recaps, you hardly ever see a key entry being included at all: the original TV series that kicked off the entire thing (in its normal episodic or even movie-length form). That series ran for a whopping seven seasons and 171 episodes from 1966-1973, and that’s not even counting the revival series from 1988, which lasted 2 seasons on its own. Clearly, there are a ton of impossible missions that precede the film series, so why aren’t they discussed very often?

The uninformed answer is that the films have no connection to the TV series, save for the name, a few stylistic carry-over elements, and so on. Be wary of anyone who makes this claim, however, for they’ve clearly forgotten the plot of Brian De Palma’s 1996 “Mission: Impossible,” in which Jim Phelps (played by Peter Graves in the TV series and Jon Voight in the film) plays an integral and highly controversial role (particularly among certain actors from the “Mission: Impossible” TV show). Beyond that, while it’s certainly true that the “Mission: Impossible” films aren’t otherwise connected to the continuity of the TV series in another major way, there are a number of elements and homages to the show that crop up in just about every installment of the film franchise.

In terms of the oldest homage to the original series, Christopher McQuarrie has everyone else beat. In McQuarrie’s first “Mission” movie as both writer and director, 2015’s “Rogue Nation,” he includes a moment that recalls the very first scene of “Mission: Impossible” ever filmed. Not only is the scene a reference to the pilot episode of the series, but it’s also a clever subversion of one of the staple “Mission: Impossible” moments seen in every episode and every film to date.

The very first episode of the “Mission: Impossible” TV show, titled “Pilot,” was written by series creator Bruce Geller and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. The episode wastes no time in establishing what would become the format for the series (and, by extrapolation, the films), introducing Impossible Mission Force leader Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) as he clandestinely receives a mission briefing in extreme secrecy. For this first-ever briefing, Briggs visits what appears to be a wholesale warehouse but treats it like a record store, making his coded request for a “special recording, collector’s series.” The baffled female employee is quickly replaced by a man who seems to be in on the arrangement, and he nods with understanding as Briggs requests “Pevan in G, by Ernest Vaughan and the Pan-Symphonic Orchestra, 1963.”

After being handed a record from beneath a desk, Briggs is left alone in the office to listen to the record in private. His briefing is actually found on a groove in the middle of the record; the outer portion contains just the music. Once the details of the IMF’s mission have been relayed, the voice on the record says “As usual, this recording will decompose one minute after the breaking of the seal.” (The now-classic “This message will self-destruct in five seconds” wouldn’t appear in the series for another episode or two.)

For co-writer and director McQuarrie’s homage to the series’ origins in “Rogue Nation,” he has Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) visit a fully-fledged record shop in London cheekily named “The Vinyl Offer.” Once there, Hunt tells the record shop employee on call (Hermione Corfield) that he’s looking for a “rare” recording, and upon specifying that it’s a jazz record, the two describe the 1961 album “Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane.” Like with Briggs, Hunt is given the record containing the briefing, and is directed to observe it in a private listening booth. Of course, this being the 21st century, the record player briefing contains a visual component as well as an aural one.

One additional homage lies in the way both scenes provide a bit of color with regard to their respective agents’ reputations. In “Pilot,” the voice on the record indicates that Briggs is rejoining the IMF after some sort of leave of absence, saying “I hope it’s ‘welcome back,’ Dan. It’s been a while.” In “Rogue Nation,” meanwhile, Hunt is given his first of several reminders about his outsized legacy within the IMF by the record shop employee, who remarks to him that “It really is you” and wonders aloud if all the stories she’s heard about him might be true. In response, Hunt only gives her an enigmatic smirk.

In “Pilot,” Briggs’ briefing goes off without a hitch. The agent learns of the mission, selects his team, and proceeds to pull off an impossible task with relative ease. However, in “Rogue Nation,” Hunt is not so lucky, discovering in the middle of the record’s briefing that this entire liaison has been hijacked by the evil Syndicate, a cabal of rogue agents from various intelligence agencies who’ve taken it upon themselves to disrupt and dismantle the world order for their own selfish ends. The scene is a clever subversion of (literally) the building blocks of the entire franchise, with the Syndicate intercepting and perverting the mission briefing. To add insult to that injury, the record shop employee is even cruelly killed before Hunt’s eyes as he finds himself trapped and gassed within the listening booth — the murderer being none other than the head of the Syndicate, ex-MI6 agent Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who had been in the shop the entire time.

With this scene, McQuarrie and co-writer Drew Pearce are slyly pulling off a double homage — not just to the franchise’s initial origins, but also to the tone and themes set by the first “Mission: Impossible” movie and its preceding sequels. Beginning with De Palma’s film, the franchise has taken a long, hard look at all sides of the existence of an Impossible Missions Force, an organization so secretive that it may be too clandestine for its own good. Following the traitorous actions of Jim Phelps, the IMF and those behind it have questioned the loyalty of Hunt time and time again. But while Hunt has remained steadfast (save for those times when his orders go against his strict true north morality), the IMF has endured a number of shake-ups, betrayals, defections, losses, and other seismic issues. Chief among the philosophical questions of the property is: How can such an organization continue to operate ethically, and can it continue to exist?

With that post-main-credits scene in “Rogue Nation,” McQuarrie is putting Hunt and the IMF to the test, and is using the franchise’s long history to really twist the screws to them. He even reveals that the record shop employee is an IMF agent herself, or at least some sort of staff member, demonstrating just how dangerous it can be working for the force even in that capacity, never mind Hunt’s propensity to leap onto planes mid-takeoff. With “The Final Reckoning” on the horizon for Hunt (and possibly the “Mission: Impossible” franchise itself), it stands to reason that McQuarrie could harken back to the IMF’s long history even more, and all bets are off as to whether Hunt can weather that storm. To paraphrase Tom Cruise, this mission could indeed get a whole lot more impossibler.