Like us, you’ve probably binged the entire Mission: Impossible franchise before The Final Reckoning drops in cinemas. Behold: our ultimate ranking, should you choose to accept it.
Stunts, set pieces, and Ethan Hunt doing anything for his team – that’s what makes any Mission: Impossible movie. Top Gun may have made him a star, but M:I made Tom Cruise.
If Ethan were real, he probably would have died about 20 minutes into the first movie. Instead, he’s survived nuclear blasts, grisly shootouts, and pelting it across London while having a broken ankle.
Thank goodness he did, because we’ve got an eight-movie roster to show for it. Ahead of The Final Reckoning, we’ve taken on the hardest mission of all: ranking all the Mission: Impossible movies (yes, including the new one).
8. Mission: Impossible II
- Year: 2000
- Director: John Woo
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Thandiwe Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames, Brendan Gleeson
What it’s about: Ethan Hunt, is sent on a mission to retrieve and destroy a genetically created disease called the Chimera. At the risk of being sold to Australian big pharma company Biocyte, he also faces off against a terrorist gang before they infect the whole world.
What we think: It probably comes as no surprise that Mission: Impossible 2 is the bottom of the barrel here. While it reeks with cool 2000s energy (and music), its overtly sexual tone and lack of memorable action during its Biocyte plot is total whiplash from the OG. Cruise climbing a Utah rockface in the opening scene is one of the best introductions in the franchise, but it’s quickly downhill from there.
Even if you forget Newton’s love interest Nyah falls madly for Ethan and is then never seen again, the stakes are pretty damn low as the team shoots their way around Australia. With a greater emphasis on romance, everything else feels half-hearted and mundane, and the most exciting outing for Hunt is a trip to the horse races. The Biocyte storyline itself also feels half-hearted, and any other time a nauseous gas is used on screen over the last 30 years has a better one.
Honestly, this one might have worked better as a Cruise standalone action rom-com (think 2010’s Knight and Day).
7. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
- Year: 2023
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames
What it’s about: After Russian submarine Sevastopol sinks, Ethan and the IMF must race against time to find the Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence that can destroy mankind.
What we think: Either the Entity is the greatest MI villain of all time, or it’s the lamest. Regardless of which side you’re on, creating something bigger than any one person was the only way the franchise could top itself. This time, Ethan has to save every single life on Earth, with Fallout perfectly setting up how much he cares about each. In Dead Reckoning, it’s a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.
Alongside our new antagonist, Gabriel, Grace, and a bunch of new CIA or governmental figures are all introduced. Ethan is being sent from pillar to post, and it’s difficult for us to keep up with where on Earth this story is meant to be going. As everyone fights it out for the Cruciform key, the Entity and links to the Sevastopol are often forgotten, with clunky dialogue reminding us nobody knows what the key does every 10 seconds.
Alanna and Ilsa return, and while both are enigmatic, they are vitally underused. Still, there’s an epic car chase sequence in Rome and a lot of key set-up for when the going gets good (and more settled) in Final Reckoning. Obviously, props to Cruise’s biggest stunt of all time in the motorbike jump, which rightfully got all the media attention it deserved.
6. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
- Year: 2011
- Director: Brad Bird
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton
What it’s about: With new team Jane and Benji by his side, Ethan must infiltrate the Kremlin and locate files that will help identify Cobalt, who wants to start a nuclear war.
What we think: Yes, I know you’re shocked – but hear me out. Cruise’s Burj Khalifa stunt is undoubtedly one of the most impressive and breathtaking set pieces he’s ever done, but the mission doesn’t stand out as much as others (especially after we’ve taken down the Kremlin). There are some new faces since M:I 3, and while Jeremy Renner’s Brandt is a welcome addition, Paula Patton’s Jane Carter remains void of background and personality. Ghost Protocol hasn’t aged amazingly well either, with the Kremlin CGI shaky at best.
It’s almost understandable that there’s a high turnover of IMF agents, but it would have been nice to see M:I 3’s team fleshed out for the two-movie arc many future characters got (justice for Zhen). However, Ghost Protocol is not a bad film by any stretch, and it’s the first time Ethan’s entire team is disavowed for going AWOL – basically marking the narrative turning point played out until the end. Points are lost for Luther only cropping up in the final few minutes – the man needed to be in this, and all missions.
5. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
- Year: 2025
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett
What it’s about: Part two of Dead Reckoning, Ethan wants to keep the Cruciform key – and therefore The Entity’s source code – out of the wrong hands… but he can’t hide forever.
What we think: Our final homage to Hunt is a three-hour tornado of maximalist mess. Frankly, it shouldn’t be any other way. Cruise is jumping from planes mid-air, plunging himself into icy waters and around a perilous submarine wreck, and nearly freezing to death in a block of ice. Every stunt you could possibly imagine the man doing is in here, and that was the only way to best what has come before.
We’re going to avoid spoilers here, but the plot is obviously heavily leaning on the events of Dead Reckoning. The Cruciform key’s purpose has finally been revealed (thank God), meaning we can focus on an actual linear mission, rather than the jumbled chaos we saw two years ago. Destroying The Entity isn’t a flawless endeavor, but the franchise is Mission Impossibling as hard as ever – with plenty of Easter eggs along the way, of course.
If you’re applying any shred of logic to the franchise this far in, you’re missing the point. The Final Reckoning hugely benefits from its own disasters, all the while plying fitting tributes on Cruise like they’re going out of fashion. Vanity project? Of course it is! And it’s the most spectacular, unmissable, and death-defying farewell Ethan Hunt can muster.
4. Mission: Impossible
- Year: 1996
- Director: Brian De Palma
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Henry Czerny, Jon Voight, Ving Rhames, Kristen Scott Thomas
What it’s about: Meet Ethan Hunt, a spy who has been falsely accused and framed for a crime he didn’t commit. He must prove his innocence and reveal the truth, without the help of the CIA.
What we think: Ah, back to where it all began. If you watch the original after any of the more recent movies, you’re going to be shocked at just how fresh-faced Ethan is, both as a man and as an agent. In the very beginning, Ethan’s IMF was killed to set him up, later revealing his beloved boss was playing for the other side the entire time.
It’s where that heist scene everybody tries so hard to reenact comes from, and by God, the production is stylish. With De Palma at the helm, there’s almost a film noir vibe to Ethan’s first outing, and it’s a perspective on the franchise we never see again. The gadgets are sleek, classic, and a beautiful nod to the spy movies of old. All of this was long before audiences expected a lot of Cruise’s action capabilities, and it’s incredibly refreshing to strip the spy stereotype back to its basics.
As far as ‘90s action movies go, Mission: Impossible was fresh, unique, and the start of something incredibly special.
3. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Year: 2018
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby
What it’s about: Ethan and the IMF must stop a group of terrorists who plan to detonate three plutonium cores for a simultaneous nuclear attack on different cities.
What we think: The entry that likely became everyone’s favourite from the franchise (except ours, sorry), Fallout takes what Rogue Nation started and delivers the ultimate twist of the knife. Trying to take down Solomon Lane once and for all results in an insanely filmed HALO jump, the mother of all bathroom fisticuffs, and unmasked (literally) betrayal at every turn.
While Julia’s return likely won’t land for fans who aren’t franchise nerds, the arrival of Kirby’s Alanna is perfectly offset by the will-they-won’t-they vibes between Ilsa and Ethan. Angela Bassett’s Erika Sloane doesn’t even remotely give away the essential force she ends up becoming in Final Reckoning, while Cavill’s unwaveringly grating Walker is so believable, you actually forget he’s supposed to be a nice guy IRL.
Here’s the one and only gripe: Lane isn’t functioning at his best as a villain in Fallout. Walker being revealed as John Lark is as clear as daylight from the moment the movie starts, and he’s arguably taking too much attention away from where the real intrigue is. The Apostles are a pretty lame spinoff of The Syndicate that hardly get fleshed out, meaning we’re not thinking about antagonists, but rather what cool stunt Ethan is going to do next.
That being said, Fallout is an incredibly polished and satisfying run for everyone else involved, rightly regarded as one of the strongest installments in the franchise.
2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
- Year: 2015
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Jeremy Renner
What it’s about: The entire IMF has officially been disavowed. Ethan Hunt tries to avoid being captured by the CIA as he seeks to prove the existence of the terrorist group known as The Syndicate.
What we think: As seamless as it is commercially stylish (and yes, Luther is properly back in the gang this time), Rogue Nation might just be the most polished of the bunch. With an impeccable antagonist in The Syndicate’s leader Solomon Lane, the fifth installment is everything we’ve come to expect from a Mission: Impossible movie at its very best. We’ve got shootouts at the opera, multiple global escapades, the IMF team solely relying on their skill after being shut down by the CIA, and a formidable rival in the form of Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust.
There isn’t a second that isn’t ultilized as it should be, meaning you are quite literally on the edge of your seat the entire time. The threat to UK-US relations harks back to classic spy movies from decades gone by, but the franchises never compromises on its own identity.
There’s a sprinkling of cinema magic here other entries in the franchise haven’t fully been able to hold on to. The arrival of McQuarrie was undoubtedly a sage move, and he injected Mission: Impossible with the slick stability it needed. If you’re going to rewatch one movie to get you in the mood for the finale, make it this.
1. Mission: Impossible III
- Year: 2006
- Director: J.J. Abrams
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Simon Pegg, Billy Crudup
What it’s about: Out of the game and settled down, Ethan Hunt is forced out of retirement to rescue his student captured by an arms dealer. However, his fiancée is kidnapped, and a mole is exposed.
What we think: Yes, we are M:I 3 truthers here. The jewel in Mission: Impossible’s crown is easily Mission: Impossible III, the first to successfully blend Ethan’s personal and professional lives. Instead of having a romantic interest that overshadows everything in M:I 2, Ethan’s love for Julia neatly drives the plot forward and changes Ethan’s life for good. It’s the first time we see him fleshed out, too – underneath all of those decisions that defy any form of logic is a human, wanting to be loved.
M:I 3 is also notably the first time the franchise takes some big swings. Ethan thankfully moves away from the racecourse and onto swinging through skyscrapers in Shanghai, driven by his desire to rescue Julia from the objective best Mission: Impossible villain in history: Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian. The third installment is able to take a darker turn because it’s injected more humanity and higher stakes, yet still retains its now infamous Hollywood sheen.
It’s the first taste of Mission: Impossible having one-of-a-kind potential as a franchise, and Cruise’s decades-long legacy in a role he’s since become synonymous with. As the movie that course-corrected the franchise back on the road to greatness, credit must be given where it’s due. Throw in some gnarly explosions and the arrival of Benji, and who could have a problem with that?
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