TheMission: Impossiblefranchise is arguably one of the best action blockbusters today. Tom Cruise, being the architect of the franchise, hiring some of the best directors of all time, seems to have finally found his groove with the great Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie is the first director to have directed more than one entry, the latest of which was 2023’sDead Reckoning Part One. This franchise has also spanned most of Cruise’s career, starting back in 1996 and still going strong today.
Update June 11, 2025: This article has been updated following the release ofMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Oneand the recent delay toMission: Impossible 8back to 2025.
These movies are exciting populist action thrillers with some of the best stunts and action sequences ever, each one improving upon the previous film.Mission: Impossibleis everything an action fan could ever want in a summer blockbuster, which is why they have been so successful, as well as the clever marketing strategy they have acquired for the last four entries. This is the series ranked by Rotten Tomatoes scores.
7Mission: Impossible II (2000) - 56%
Mission: Impossible 2
Tom Cruise returns to his role as Ethan Hunt in the second installment of “Mission: Impossible.” This time Ethan Hunt leads his IMF team on a mission to capture a deadly German virus before it is released by terrorists. His mission is made impossible due to the fact that he is not the only person after samples of the disease. He must also contest with a gang of international terrorists headed by a turned bad former IMF agent who has already managed to steal the cure.
The only movie in the franchise that is regarded negatively not only by franchise standards but as an action movie as well. John Woo is up to bat in and this time, Ethan Hunt is in a race to get the deadly Chimera virus and its antidote with Sean Ambrose, played by the menacing Dougray Scott, who is a former IMF agent that has gone rogue. The IMF is under the assumption that Ambrose already has the virus and has assigned Hunt to team up with professional thief Nyah Hall, played by Thandiwe Newton, due to her past relationship with Ambrose to infiltrate his operation. Things become complicated for Hunt once he falls in love with Hall after staring deeply into each other’s eyes while doing a series of car pirouettes and nearly crashing off a cliff, thus binding them together for life or until the next movie.
All 8 ‘Mission: Impossible Movies, Ranked Worst to Best
Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ run has finally come to an end after three decades. Here’s how all 8 films rank against each other.
This action-packed movie is very obviously a Woo movie with its excessive action having Cruise dual-wielding Berettas and dodging bullets in slow motion, making this entry very different from the rest. Though the movie can be very tense at times, it drops the thriller element for a more action-focused movie. With asolid performance from Newtonand a plethora of fun and inventive action sequences, this movie is unfairly ridiculed. Though the action can bea bit extravagant and over-edited, this movie is what sets Cruise on the path to becoming the Cruise that we know today: the maniac who does death-defying stunts and wants to kill himself on camera.
Opening with Cruise actually free-climbing a mountain in the Utah desert, acting as a precursor to when he eventually climbs the Burj Khalifa inGhost Protocol. Definitely not the best in the franchise, it does, however, achieve its goal of doing something completely different from its predecessorMission: Impossible IIis worthy of a revisit from fans of the franchise.
Stream on Paramount+
6Mission: Impossible (1996) - 66%
Mission: Impossible
The first installment in the franchise with Brian De Palma as the captain of this ship setting sail on an almost 30-year journey with Tom Cruise as the immaculate spy Ethan Hunt.Mission: Impossiblestars Jim Phelps, played by the conservative Jon Voight, is assigned to assemble a team to stop the theft of the CIA NOC list in Prague, and the team, of course, includes Hunt as Phelp’s pointman. In one of the most iconic openings of all time, Phelps and his team are brutally murdered in cold blood, except for Ethan. Ethan, being the only survivor, is then accused of being the one behind the killings as well as a double agent by the IMF. Now he must go rogue and create his own team to clear his name and find out who framed him.
This is theMission: Impossiblemovie that feels most like a classic spy thriller due to its sometimes very convoluted plot as well as Brian De Palma’s direction. Cruise, who has worked with every great auteur in Hollywood, this time teaming up with De Palma who is a student of Alfred Hitchcock and was never secretive about it while still adding his own classic style with his POV and split diopter shots.
Hunt also teams up with his best friend Luther Stickell, played by the endlessly charming Ving Rhames, for the first time, becoming fast friends and getting a beer together at the end of the movie. Tom Cruise is impossibly charming and is perfectly cast, performing his own stunts, thus solidifying him as an action star. A massive hit at the box office, this sleek action thriller is a masterpiece in tension and kicked off the franchise with a bang.
5Mission: Impossible III (2006) - 71%
Mission: Impossible III
J.J. Abrams takes the leadwith the third entry in the franchise in an effort to revive the franchise a full six years after the despised Mission: Impossible II. This time around, we find that Ethan Hunt has retired from field work with IMF to train the next generation of field agents and settle down with his fiancé Julia Meade, played by the lovely Michelle Monaghan. Hunt is brought back into the field when his favorite student Lindsey Ferris, played by the remarkable Keri Russell, is kidnapped. Ferris was kidnapped while investigating arms dealer Owen Davian, played by the incomparable Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Once again, Ethan has to go rogue in order to save his fiancé from Davian’s grasp and take down this devious mastermind from bringing the world to its knees. Probably the slickest in the entry, Abrams breathes new life into the franchise with exciting action set pieces and allows Hoffman to chew up the scenery as the villain.
Mission: Impossible IIIis the first entry that understands the reason why Cruise is so good at playing Hunt: they are both maniacs. Cruise is determined to do the most insane stunts on camera to make the best movie possible, and Hunt is determined to do whatever it takes in order to complete the mission and rescue Julia. It has a much simpler plot than the other entries as well in that it is never explained what the “Rabbit’s Foot” is exactly other than it would be very bad if Davian got his hands on it because it doesn’t matter what it is.
Abrams knows exactly what you want, and it’s non-stop, fast-paced action with very little plot, which this movie delivers on. This also showcases Tom’s beautiful run for the first time, establishing him as one of the great on-screen runners. Arguably the most important entry,Mission: Impossible IIIbrought the franchise back into the public’s good graces and is the first one to lean into Tom Cruise’s personality.
4Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - 93%
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol
Blamed for a terrorist attack on the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the entire IMF agency are disavowed by the U.S. government, while the president initiates the Ghost Protocol. Forced to go “off the grid” – left without resources or backup – Hunt must somehow clear the agency’s name and prevent another attack. Complicating matters even more, Ethan must undertake the impossible mission with a group of fellow IMF fugitives whose actual motives are suspect.
Brad Bird’s turn to take a swing at the franchise, this time with a new team. The IMF is disavowed entirely after being blamed for the bombing of the Kremlin; Ethan Hunt must assemble a rag-tag group of spies in order to clear not only their names but the IMF’s as well. This team consists of Benji, Simon Pegg reprising his role, Paula Patton as Jane, and Jeremy Renner as Brandt, the analyst who is thrust into this world of espionage and violence, or so he seems. They are on a mission to not only clear their names but stop the war-hungry Kurt Hendricks, the real person who bombed the Kremlin and played by the late great Michael Nyqvist. Bird makes the brilliant decision of putting the team’s back against the wall by having their gadgets not work properly due to the IMF being completely shut down, forcing them to go old school.
Benji not being able to connect to the IMF, makes him unable to hack into the servers of the Burj Khalifa, leading to the incredible practical stunt of Cruise scaling the side of the tallest building in the world to get into the server room. Similar toM:I III,Ghost Protocolnot only leans into the fact that Tom Cruise is a maniac but made the entire marketing of the film about this fact, having every trailer tease the Burj Khalifa stunt.
10 Easter Eggs You Probably Missed in the Mission: Impossible Movies
Let us put our detective glasses on and explore a few of the most intriguing callbacks and references from the Mission Impossible franchise.
They’d tell anyone that would listen that Tom did it himself and that it was a practical stunt. This switch in the marketing strategy came after Cruise had a few bombs at the box office and Tom jumping on Oprah’s couch screaming about how much he loves Katie Holmes, as well as his involvement in Scientology, was still fresh in our minds. Brad Bird’s entry into the franchise is a stylish and intelligent movie that revived Tom Cruise’s career, but fully solidifiedMission: Impossibleas the great action blockbuster franchise that we all know and love.
3Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) - 94%
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
For the fifth installment, Cruise officially brought on Christopher McQuarrie to take the lead after his uncredited rewrites onGhost Protocoland the success the two of them had found together after McQuarrie wrote bothJack ReacherandEdge of Tomorrow. After the IMF is reinstated, it is once again disbanded when the head of the CIA, Alan Hunley, played by Alec Baldwin, calls for it after a nuclear bomb almost blew up San Francisco at the end of the last movie. Ethan Hunt has to once again go rogue to stop the evil organization known as The Syndicate, which is composed of rogue agents from around the world who were previously thought to have been dead.
This is the first time we are introduced to Ilsa Faust, the MI6 agent who is undercover within The Syndicate and is Ethan Hunt’s match, played by the stunning and skillful Rebecca Ferguson. McQuarrie affirms his skills as a writer and director with some of the most impressive action in the series untilFallout, moving at a breakneck pace, this movie builds upon everything that the last film does. Doubling down on stunts and action sequences,Rogue Nationhas a much simpler plot, making this entry the perfect summer blockbuster. Opening with maybe the most insane stunt in the series to date, Cruise hangs on the side of an airplane while taking off and trying to reach altitude.
Once again, the marketing was all about this stunt and firmly supplantedMission: Impossibleas the franchise of Tom Cruise doingpsychotic stunts for real, unlike the other CGI-laden modern blockbusters.Rogue Nationwas a hit with both critics and general audiences alike, showing once more that Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise make a perfect combination.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Read Our Review
The most recent addition to the series, 2023’sMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part Onesaw Cruise and McQuarrie teaming up for a third time to deliver the epic seventh installment in the franchise. Forming the first part in a two-part story that will be concluded with 2025’s previosuly titledDead Reckoning, Part Two,the film sees Ethan and his team on the hunt for two halves of a key that holds the power to a malevolent piece of Artificial Intelligence known as The Entity. With the help of his long-time sidekicks, Benji and Luther, and after reuniting with Isla Faust, Ethan must stop the various parties interested in the keys from getting their hands on them, or else the fate of humankind is at stake.
As well as the many familiar faces,Mission: Impossible 7also introduces us to new ones in the form of Hayley Atwell’s charming thief, Grace, who turns out to be a useful ally to Hunt and his team, the villainous Gabriel (Esai Morales), who wants to harness The Entity to rule the world, and French assassin Paris, played byGuardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3’sPom Kelmentieff. It also marks the second appearance of Vanessa Kirby’s flirtatious black-market arms dealer, Alanna Mitsopolis, who also wants control of the keys.
With wall-to-wall action,Mission: Impossible 7is a non-stop thrill ride of a film that barely slows down for a second. Like many of its predecessors, the fight scenes, chases, and action set-pieces are phenomenal, especially the much-talked-about stunt that saw Cruise riding a motorcycle off a mountain top. Through is an all too relevant AI-oriented plot, and you have all the ingredients for an entertaining blockbuster. It’s just a shame that, despite garnering critical acclaim,it was ultimately a disappointment at the box office, because this one is almost the best of the lot.
Available for Purchase on PVOD
1Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) - 97%
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Christopher McQuarrie stuck around this time after the success ofRogue Nation, making him the first to direct more than one in the franchise. It has been two years since The Syndicate disbanded, they have regrouped into a new organization called The Apostles, a terrorist group that is hell-bent on starting nuclear war. Ethan must go on a race against time to prevent the worst from happening while battling double agents and his own past. Fallout has the most technically impressive stunts in the series, in a series that is filled to the brim with technically impressive stunts.
From the “single take” HALO jump scene to Hunt hanging off of the bottom of a helicopter, this movie has everyone in top form. Again, this movie doubles down on marketing the impressive stunts, this being the movie where Cruise broke his leg jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
Mission Impossible: 10 Actors Almost Cast in the Franchise
As one of the most popular franchises ever, it’s no surprise that many actors have wanted to star in a Mission Impossible movie.
Not only did McQuarrie and company keep this shot in the final film, but they also kept in the shot of him getting up and limping off camera. Both of these shots were put in all the trailers. Henry Cavill also joins the cast as the iconically mustached CIA agent Walker whom Hunt is tasked with bringing along for this mission, and gives an incredible performance.Falloutis chock-full of non-stop set-pieces, each one more jaw-dropping than the last, and almost all involving Cruise, who was well into his 50s by the time of its release. Leaning even more into Cruise’s lunacy and Hunt’s determination to accomplish the mission no matter what, this movie has the surrounding characters pointing out just how insane he is more than any of the other entries. Offering the best stunts in the series and it being the highest-grossing easily makesFalloutone of the best action movies ever made.
