There isn’t another movie franchise that is as consistent as the Mission: Impossible series, which makes it a rarity among Hollywood blockbusters. Even the most beloved of cinematic sagas has at least one or two entries that everyone would rather forget about; Star Wars has its Rise of Skywalker, Indiana Jones had its Dial of Destiny, James Bond has its Die Another Day, and even the good name of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy was sullied by The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Due to the strong authorial credit that Tom Cruise had over the Mission: Impossible films, they each retain a consistent level of entertainment value.
Mission: Impossible is a franchise where Cruise has created a great recurring hero in Ethan Hunt, but the film’s directors have been allowed to pursue their more artistic endeavors. Although it’s generally thought that commercialism and auteurism are mutually exclusive, Mission: Impossible has proven itself to be an exception. Here are the six Mission: Impossible films that are perfect action masterpieces.
6
‘Mission: Impossible’ (1996)
Image via Paramount Pictures
Mission: Impossible changed the trajectory of action cinema forever in 1996 by showing a new direction for the genre to take. Although the ‘90s were dominated by films that utilized the premise of Die Hard to conceive of their premises, the original Mission: Impossible was a slick throwback to the Golden Age of espionage, albeit one that was updated for modern times. Although Mission: Impossible was PG-13 and included more heists than gunplay, it has one of the most shocking opening setpieces in cinematic history.
The filmmaking in Mission: Impossible is so good that it doesn’t matter that some of the technology and gadgets have aged, as it feels like a product of its time. It’s also perhaps the last truly “great” film from Brian De Palma, an all-time great filmmaker who inserted a touch of Alfred Hitchcock’s influence into the first installment of the legendary series. It was part of an incredible double feature for Cruise in 1996, as starring in both Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire is the type of dominant star power that simply doesn’t happen anymore.
5
‘Mission: Impossible III’ (2006)
Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames in Mission: Impossible IIIImage via Paramount Pictures
Mission: Impossible III is the ultimate example used to prove that J.J. Abrams is no hack, even though it’s easy to clown on the director of The Rise of Skywalker. Abrams may struggle to develop satisfying plot twists, but Mission: Impossible III is one of the most accomplished directorial debuts of the 21st century. Not only did Abrams find a way to make Ethan’s domestic life interesting by introducing his new wife (Michelle Monaghan), but he’s responsible for creating the franchise’s greatest villain.
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance is so unreasonably great that he elevates the entire film, proving to be the rare co-star who could go head-to-head with Cruise. The quiet, explosive rage that Hoffman develops launches the film on a high note with a terrifying opening scene, and Abrams doesn’t let the tension go until the exhilarating final moments. Although Mission: Impossible II had reared in a direction that suggested that the series wasn’t going to be sustainable in the long term (even if there’s things to enjoy about John Woo’s wacky sequel), Abrams solidified the franchise as the most essential of the 21st century.
4
‘Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning’ (2023)
The train sequence from the seventh Mission: Impossible movie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)Image via Paramount Pictures
Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning may have been pitched as the first half of a two-part conclusion to the series that was completed with the somewhat underwhelming (if still enjoyable) Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning, but it isn’t a case in which audiences are getting a bifurcated experience. Christopher McQuarrie, in his third of four directed Mission: Impossible films, sets Ethan up on a collision course with his past in which he’s forced to choose between honoring his oaths to the IMF and following what he knows to be true. Cruise proves that he’s more vital than ever before, but the introduction of Hayley Atwell as his protege Grace showed that Ethan was able to recognize when he needed a boost of assistance.
Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning is one of the rare Hollywood films to be definitely against the use of artificial intelligence, and not just because Ethan and his friends have to take down an AI system hell-bent on global nuclear war. The amazing stunts that Cruise performed practically show that no amount of digital effects can replace the audacity of an actor actually risking his life for the sake of the audience’s entertainment. Rare is it that a nearly three hour action film has so little fat, as Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning is propulsive to a dizzying degree, and culminates with the type of action hijinks that would make Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin proud.
3
‘Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol’ (2011)
Image via Paramount Pictures
Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol was one of the most technologically advanced and aesthetically stylized entries in the series, but it also felt like a back-to-basics approach. Director Brad Bird, a legend of Pixar, recognized that this was a franchise that worked best when Ethan was teamed up with a crew of memorable supporting characters, and made the smart decision to boost the role of Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn, whilst also bringing in Carter (Paula Patton) and Brandt (Jeremy Renner). While it’s hinted that Renner may have potentially been positioned to take over the series in a soft reboot, Cruise proved in Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol that the series could never exist beyond him.
Bird’s transition from animation to live-action is seamless, as the hypnotic beauty of the film’s beautiful heist scenes are just as exhilarating as anything that the director included within The Incredibles or Ratatoulle. Critically, Bird also understood that it tends to work best when the Mission: Impossible films are allowed to be funny, as the banter between Ethan and his team is the best that it has ever been. The film’s use of “Ain’t That A Kick In the Head” has become so iconic that it has effectively rendered subsequent uses of the song derivative.
2
‘Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation’ (2015)
Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson costar in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.Image via Paramount Pictures
Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation was McQuarrie’s first time in the director’s chair for the franchise, even though he had also directed Cruise in the underrated Jack Reacher film and had served as both an official and uncredited screenwriter on many of his projects. Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation does pick up on the narrative beats that were introduced in its predecessor, but it also weaves in a noir-style mystery that serves as a throwback to De Palma, and by extension Hitchcock. McQuarrie is able to develop a twisty, exciting story that is somewhat reminiscent of his Oscar-winning screenplay for The Usual Suspects, but also gives juicy roles to supporting actors like Alec Baldwin and Tom Hollander, who both know how to chew the scenery.
Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation made one of the franchise’s best casting choices ever by bringing in Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, an enigmatic British spy with a past just as colorful as Ethan’s. It would not be an understatement to say that she is the saga’s second most important character, as Ferguson’s first scene during the film’s brilliant opera house shootout feels like the moment of a new movie star being born. The precarious nature of Ethan and Ilsas’ relationship with one another, which isn’t as romantic as it is emotional, is something that only Cruise and a truly remarkable leading lady could have pulled off. It also marked the return of Ving Rhames in the role of Luther, which is never a bad thing.
1
‘Mission: Impossible- Fallout’ (2018)
Image via Paramount Pictures
Mission: Impossible- Fallout isn’t just the best installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, but one of the best films of the 2010s. It’s not often that a series peaks with its sixth entry, but Mission: Impossible- Fallout both grounded Ethan with a human story and brought to life some of the most dazzling action sequences ever filmed. Although there’s generally a single sequence in each Mission: Impossible film that stands out, there’s multiple scenes in Mission: Impossible- Fallout that would be the best thing in nearly every other action flick. Between the HALO jump, the brutal bathroom brawl, the thrilling footchase, Ethan’s haunting dream sequence, and a helicopter fight that launched innumerable cases of vertigo, Mission: Impossible- Fallout somehow managed to keep topping itself.
Mission: Impossible- Fallout is the most emotional film in the franchise because it plays upon the attachment that the characters have earned over the course of the entire series. Cruise is able to show why he was once an actor who worked with Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson, and gives a performance that is vulnerable in a way that he hasn’t been in quite some time. Henry Cavill, who was far too gloomy to be a good Superman in the DCEU, gives a genuinely menacing, imposing performance that offers a perfect antagonist for Ethan to face off with. Mission: Impossible- Fallout is a genuine classic that defines what the action genre can do, and serves as a monolith to the magic of movies.
