The Mission: Impossible franchise started in 1996, and by 2025, there will be eight releases of Mission: Impossible ranked. Mission: Impossible is one of the most critically acclaimed action franchises of the modern era, with the movie series spanning nearly three decades. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning won’t even mark the end of the franchise, as Tom Cruise has said he wants to continue playing Ethan Hunt as long as the films are profitable, hinting that he could do so into his 80s (via ᴅᴇᴀᴅline).

Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise is one of the superstar actor’s most iconic film series, in which Cruise plays IMF agent Ethan Hunt. The franchise has become known for its slick dialogue, extended action scenes, and realistic stunts, with Cruise constantly putting himself in danger to make the best film possible. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning sounds like it could wrap up the series, but with more Mission: Impossible movies on the way, the films’ rankings could be seriously shaken up.

7

Mission: Impossible II

Released In 2000

Mission: Impossible II was the highest-grossing movie of 2000, which goes a long way to show how bizarre that pre-Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings era of tentpoles was. It’s a pretty standard-for-the-time sequel, putting the most recognizable element of a box office hit – Tom Cruise, masks – in a totally new environment – the Australian suburbs – but even with (or perhaps because of) John Woo putting his slow-mo dove stamp on Mission: Impossible, the film never rises above ridiculous.

Mission: Impossible II has dated more than any other entry, and the cheese shows. The Thandie Newton-as-object-of-all-desire plot (which, as many have noted, comes straight from Hitchcock’s Notorious) is an interesting angle but winds up peculiarly steamy. At the same time, Dougray Scott (whose part is mainly remembered for being the role that blocked him from Wolverine) isn’t quite the mirror-image villain he attempts to be.

And yet, despite that, it’s still rather enjoyable, remarkably so considering it’s the weakest entry in a long-running series: can the likes of Jurᴀssic Park or The Mummy claim their lowest point is still watchable? The overuse of masks is delightfully farcical (especially since it was called out in Ghost Protocol), and even if Tom Cruise’s performance of Ethan Hunt is unlike in any other Mission: Impossible film, his all-in-action approach is palpable.

6

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Released In 2011

The Burj Khalifa sequence at the center of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is quite possibly the franchise’s defining moment. It’s a lengthy scene built almost entirely around Tom Cruise’s desire to do death-defying things at extreme heights for authentic entertainment and is so well-established and integrated that any other skyscraper exterior action feels trite by comparison. It’s truly a “worth the price of admission” setpiece that showed just what the franchise was capable of.

The rest of the film works well enough but never matches those heights: it opens with CG Kremlin destruction and ends with a CG fight in a high-tech parking garage; the story is somewhat unclear on how to use Ethan with his team. Brad Bird deserves enduring praise for continuing the reinvention started in Mission: Impossible III while inserting some more self-aware humor to keep the series from becoming too gritty. That this can place so “low” shows how good the Mission: Impossible franchise is.

5

Mission: Impossible III

Released In 2006

At the time, going from Brian De Palma to John Woo to a TV creative may have felt like a downgrade, but nobody quite reckoned for J.J. Abrams. From a modern perspective, it makes perfect sense: the pioneer behind both Star Trek and Star Wars reboots, his feature debut likewise reinvigorated the Mission: Impossible franchise (which had been dormant for six years). Abrams didn’t change the formula but laid down several key aspects defining the series’ longevity.

So, for the most part, Mission: Impossible III is a solid entry in the series, with exciting enough action (albeit nothing to rival the thrills of what came next) and a plot that uses Abrams’ questionable mystery box to great effect (with Mission: Impossible III standing purely on its own, there’s no unfilled tease, even if the Rabbit’s Foot MacGuffin isn’t all that novel). But Abrams’ characters are what makes this entry stand out.

The team aspect is back at the forefront. Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian is the most memorable villain in the series (that mid-flight interrogation is as startling as any of Cruise’s stunts), and for the first time, it properly explores the personal side of Ethan Hunt.

4

Mission: Impossible

Released In 1996