There are few things in life more reliable than a money-making Hollywood movie franchise churning out picture after picture. This usually comes at the expense of quality, but a few of them have figured out how to maintain their standards and even thrive and grow over time. And when you have an ageless, HALO-jumping, cliff-scaling, helicopter-flying, building-climbing, running machine like Tom Cruise, it definitely helps. With this weekend’s newest release, here are the Mission: Impossible movies, should you choose to accept it, ranked in order from worst to best:
7. Mission: Impossible II (2000)
There will undoubtedly be some arguments about certain film placements higher up on this list (dare I say, an impossible mission?) but last place should generate no controversy. John Woo nearly killed the Mission: Impossible franchise by dumping out everything that was good with the first movie and replacing it with a series of terrible choices (including Tom Cruise’s flopping long hair, which Woo inexlicably lingers on over and over again in slo-mo). Woo tried making this a romance version of Mission Impossible: Face/Off, and it does not work in the slightest bit. Thandiwe Newton’s character is stupid, reckless, and incompetent, and the movie spends far too much time on the forced sparkless romance between her and Cruise. In between the constant melodrama, there are some interesting set pieces but they are messy and belabored. It’s even a waste of two-time Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins, and probably would have been better off if it had just self-destructed in five seconds so that this could not be rewatched.
6. Mission: Impossible III (2006)
A solid step up from the previous installment, J.J. Abrams probably saved the franchise here with a steady, if somewhat safe and forgettable, movie. We’re introduced to mainstays Simon Pegg, Michelle Monaghan and the now requisite Tom Cruise running scenes (the rooftop running scenes is incredible, let the man run free like the wild gazelle he is!). Monaghan and Cruise have real chemistry and the opening scene is one that is totally different from the others in the series, but one that believably sets the personal stakes for Ethan Hunt (here and for the whole series) as there’s an effective and believable relationship. There’s also a fantastic rotating supporting cast here (a constant throughout the series), including Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Eddie Marsan, and finally the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who to this day remains the best and most chilling villain in the franchise by some distance. There are some fun bits like Ethan Hunt going full Beautiful Mind to calculate his base jump, and look closely and you’ll catch an early Aaron Paul sighting.
5. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023)
This particular placement is a provisional one. It’s entirely possible that in 2024, McQ and Cruise will stick the landing and make me feel silly about doubting them at all, and maybe this is mainly a product of the hype, but Dead Reckoning Part One was a disappointment. The series has historically clocked in at around 2 hours (though Fallout came in around 2 hours and 20 minutes) but Dead Reckoning Part One‘s runtime is a bulging and unnecessary 2 hours and 43 minutes. You might as well just’re almost better off watching this 9 minute and 22 second behind-the-scenes clip. The stunt work is impressive, but for the first time in a long time, it really feels like they were structuring the story around these specific stunts, and the story suffers for it. There are undoubtedly some great sequences, like the airport scene in the first act, and the train sequence at the end, but there is way, way too much exposition, and one really strange, momentous choice that was made particularly head-scratching (aside from the mystifying retconning of Ethan Hunt’s past). With all due respect to Spiderverse and Dune, can we please stop with the almost 3 hour long “part one” movies? Just let Tom Cruise cook!
4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Until Christopher McQuarrie came along, each installment in the franchise was directed by a different director, and unlike say, Feige and the MCU, each director actually leaves their very distinct stamp on their movie. If J.J. Abrams previously saved the franchise from freefall, Brad Bird righted the ship with this one and helped everyone find their footing to surge forward. Simon Pegg is used much more effectively for more levity, and this is the first one to use comedy effectively (although some jokes are hit or miss). Again, a stellar supporting cast of Josh Holloway, Lea Seydoux, and Jeremy Renner are introduced, and Renner especially brings a lot to the table in terms of character and story. There’s also a sentimental but optimistic ending but really the only thing that you’ll remember from this movie is the groundbreaking, jaw-dropping Burj Khalifa sequence, which is maybe the best 30 consecutive minutes (and remains the literal and figurative high point) of the entire franchise.
3. Mission: Impossible (1996)
Just like Rambo and Fast and the Furious, the original installment of the franchise was the grittiest and most stripped down, far from the fully evolved popcorn entertainment movies that it was destined to become. There are hallmarks of the now-iconic tropes – the masks (which actually look like masks!), the self-destruct messages, and that unmistakable Danny Elfman score. The 1996 original was much more in the vein of 70s style espionage conspiracy thrillers than anything else. The first half-hour is thrilling, expertly guided by Brian de Palma’s stylish but sure hand, and the double-crossing is so well done that I always forget exactly what is in store and gasp along for the ride. Of all the double-crossings and twists and heists in the series, this first film still is the most impactful, and for all the high-flying stunts and set pieces that we’ve seen since, the original film still feels like it has the most actual stakes – somehow, hanging on a wire just inches from the ground makes you feel more nervous than hanging on a ledge on the tallest building in the world.
2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Propulsive from start to finish, Rogue Nation is the first Mission: Impossible installment to bring an effective femme fatale to the proceedings with an enigmatic and charismatic Rebecca Ferguson, whose Ilsa Faust probably remains the only character that can truly and believably act as a foil to Ethan Hunt. It’s also the first one to be helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, and it really shows. Simon Pegg does a whole lot here, and the rest of the team are now comfortable with each other (adding Alex Baldwin at the end). The tropes are well-worn but the set pieces are fantastic – the underwater tank scene is probably the most underrated in the whole franchise – 5 minutes of utter silence and pure, riveting tension. This is when we start to get the Goldilocks of what Mission: Impossible is, with the right balance of comedy, action set pieces, drama, twists making for the perfect recipe of blockbuster popcorn fun.
1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
In the opening few minutes of the film, Angela Bassett, as the head of the CIA, tells Alex Baldwin (the new head of the IMF): “You use a scalpel, I prefer a hammer.” The burly Henry Cavill indeed comes down on the first half of this movie like a sledgehammer, in the role that he was born to play. 22 years after the first movie, they find a way to inject a completely new dynamic into proceedings, by making the CIA (and Cavill) essentially the big brother to the IMF’s mask-wearing-trick-or-treaters. It is both fun and intimidating how dismissive they are of Ethan Hunt and the IMF, as we realize that the IMF maybe isn’t the all-important agency at the center of the universe that we always imagined it was. The second act does drag slightly and we never quite hit the highs that the early movie promises, but between the bathroom fight scene, the HALO jamp, the sewer sequence, and the chaotically thrilling third act with the simultaneous action sequences, Fallout is one of the greatest action movies of the last decade.
