Mission: Impossible Movies Ranked from Worst to Best: The Final Ranking

Some Mission: Unattainable: The Final Remark trailers are included in this article. In the most new and supposedly last Mission: Impossible video, Ethan Hunt receives his lecture on a VHS tape tape. That is a wonderful compliment to the time period during which this franchise first took off, when action movies entered a beneficial next life.

The article Mission: Impossible Shows Ranked from Worst to Best: The Last Ranking appeared initially on Den of Geek.

This essay contains some clues for Mission: Impossible &#8211, The Final Remarks.

In the most new and supposedly last Mission: Impossible video, Ethan Hunt receives his lecture on a VHS tape tape. The MacGuffin may be something as lovely as a celebrated floppy disc total of names, since the era in which this franchise began&#8212, when action movies found their next attractive life inside VCRs, was a wonderful wink. The earth has certainly changed since 1996 &#8217, s Mission: Difficult, but these films have remained constantly at the peak of superior movie cinema.

And Tom Cruise still manages to run, gunn, and smolder with his different, luxurious hairstyles throughout it all. However, the first M: I image was likewise Cruise&#8217, s initially as a supplier, made under the banner of Cruise/Wagner performances. He has likely continued to be committed to what was once seen as just a television version for a reason. &#8221, It might have begun as TV Internet, but in Cruise&#8217, s hands it has become a visual magnum opus that movie after movie, and decade after decade, has blossomed into one of the most brilliant and exciting spectacles ever produced in the Hollywood program.

The work in particular during the last decade of the series has been groundbreaking. After five films with five quite different directors, appearance, and tastes, Christopher McQuarrie stuck around &#8212, alongside acrobatic representative Wade Eastwood. Along with Cruise, they transformed the line into a traditional in-camera spectacle that dates back to the very beginning of film. In the process, Cruise has added another book to his vocation, that of an onscreen hero like Harold Lloyd or Douglas Fairbanks. It’s been a fantastic run, but to be honest, it’s a little subjective to calculate it using any sort of rating. But if we were going to do such a thing, here is how it really go&#8230,

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8. Mission: Impossible II ( 2000 )

John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II is almost controversial when it comes to being put past. From its abundance of slow-mo action—complete with Woo’s signature flying doves—to its use of Limp Bizkit, and even that absurd plot about artificial viruses that still doesn’t think fast on the other side of 2020, MI: -2 is a relic of later’ 90s Hollywood excess. On the one hand, it’s kind of wonderful that Cruise allowed the Hong Kong director’s own brand to completely rebuild a successful franchise-starter. On the other, it’s perhaps telling of where Cruise’s ego was at that time since Woo used this opportunity to transform the original all-American Ethan Hunt into a god of celluloid marble.

Make no mistake, there is something godlike about how Woo’s camera fetishizes Cruise’s new, luxurious mane of jet black hair during Hunt’s big introduction, where he is seen free-climbing across a rock face without rope, while Cruise is wearing sunglasses and a new, luxurious mane of jet black hair. It would come to work as metaphor for the rest of the movie where, despite ostensibly being the leader of a team, Ethan is mostly going it alone as he does ridiculous things like have a medieval duel against his evil doppelgänger ( Dougray Scott ), only both men now ride motorcycles instead of horses. Meanwhile, the on-screen crew scurries slack-jawed as Ethan massacres scores of faceless mercenaries in numerous shootouts.

While gunplay has always been an element of modern spy thrillers, the Mission: Impossible movies work best when the characters use their wits ( and the stunt team’s ingenuity ) to escape elaborate, tricky situations. M: I-2 resembles any other late 1990s and early 2000s actioner that might have starred Nicolas Cage or Bruce Willis in some strange way. Technically the plot, which involves Ethan’s reluctance to send new flame Nyah Hall ( Thandiwe Newton ) into the lion’s den as an informant, has classical pedigree. The film completely changes Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film Notorious, but in a different name. However, the movie is so in love with its movie star deity that even the supposedly central romance is cast in ambivalent shadow.

7. Mission: Impossible &#8211, The Final Reckoning ( 2025 )

Yes, we’re aware that the allegedly final Mission: Impossible movie is coming to the very end of this list, which is surprising. Which is not to say that The Final Reckoning is a bad movie. It&#8217 ;s just a messy one&#8212, and disappointing as well. Perhaps the expectations were too high for a film with &#8220, final&#8221, in the title. Additionally, it is said that the hype was only fueled by its reportedly eye-popping$ 400,000 million. But whereas the three previous Mission films directed by Christopher McQuarrie, including Dead Reckoning, had a light playfulness about them, The Final Reckoning gets lost in its own self-importance and grandiosity.

A Mission movie has once more been created that is determined to deify Ethan Hunt with McQuarrie, S&8220, and Gambler, both of which have previously incorporated the imagery of the messiah. Now the AI fate of the world lies in his literal hands. This approach results in a number of lengthy expository scenes where the characters blather endlessly about an abstract artificial intelligence’s motivations. Meanwhile far too little time is spent on the sweet spot for this series: Cruise&#8217, s chemistry with co-stars when he is n&#8217, t hanging from some death-defying height. In fact, Ethan is essentially the only one in this one, staring down generals, submarine captains, and American presidents. This is a total moron.

The action sequences are still jaw-dropping when they finally come, and it is always good to see co-stars Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, and an all too briefly used Ving Rhames again, but this feels less like a finale than a breaking point. If Mission is to return, it will have to be radically different ( and presumably less expensive ) than before.

6. Impossible III: Mission: Impossible ( 2006 )

Before he transformed Star Trek and Star Wars into remarkably similar franchises, writer-director J. J. Abrams made his big screen debut by doing much the same to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Abrams remade the M: I franchise in the style of his TV shows, particularly Alias, with an emphasis on extreme close-ups, heavy expository dialogue dumps, and intentionally vague motivations for his villains that seem to always have something to do with the War on Terror. This included turning Woo’s Übermensch from the last movie into the kind of suburban everyman who scores well with the Nielsen ratings and who has a sweet girl-next-door fiancée ( Michelle Monaghan ).

This approach may have your preferences, but for us, M: I-3 was too much of a piece with mid-2000s television and lacking in some film magic. With that said, the movie has two fantastic aces up its sleeve. The first and most notable is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s delectably obscene performance as the franchise’s most terrifying villain. Abrams ‘ signature monologues have never been more chilling as when Hoffman cuts through Cruise’s matinee heroics like a knife and unsettles the protagonist and the audience with an unblinking declaration of ill-intent. The character actor subtly and convincingly imitates Cruise’s leading man charisma during one of the famed “mask” sequences, which is perhaps more impressive.

That, plus introducing fan favorite Simon Pegg as Benji to the series ( if in little more than a cameo ), makes the movie worth a watch if not a regular revisit.

5. Mission: Impossible &#8211, Dead Reckoning ( 2023 )

The then-newest installment in the series, in the opinion of more than a few critics, was also the best one in 2023. I respectfully disagree. The Dead Reckoning epic, written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise, is undoubtedly as ambitious and visually stunning as the two previous collaborations, which at one point appeared to be the franchise’s grand finale. The much marketed stunt where Cruise drives a motorcycle off a mountain is as astonishing as promised, and there is an absolutely crackerjack chase sequence in Rome where a handcuffed Cruise and franchise newcomer Hayley Atwell battle for control of a disintegrating Fiat.

Dead Reckoning is easily the most entertaining action film of the summer of 2023 in terms of old-school spectacle and fast-paced action. However, when compared to the best entries in the M: I franchise, Dead Reckoning leaves something be desired. While McQuarrie’s counterintuitive instinct to script the scenes after designing the set pieces and essentially make it up as they went along paid off in Fallout, the first half of Dead Reckoning‘s story is hazy and muddled. The second act is especially disjointed when the film arrives in Venice, and the actors seem as uncertain as the script is over what exactly the film’s nefarious A. I. villain, codename:” The Entity”, wants.

The fact that this is the movie’s portion of it also mercilessly kills off fan favorite Ilsa Faust ( Rebecca Ferguson ) does the film no favors. Elsewhere in the film, Hayley Atwell proves a fantastic addition in her own right as Grace—essentially a civilian and audience surrogate who gets wrapped up in the M: I series’ craziness long enough to stare at Cruise in incredulity—but the inference that she is here to simply interchangeably replace Ilsa gives the film a sour subtext. Even though the rest of the ensemble feels underutilized, seeing the team back together makes this a good time, while Henry Czerny’s unanticipated return as Eugene Kittridge is unquestionably fantastic.

4. Ghost Protocol ( 2011 ), Mission: Impossible &#8211, and

There are many fans who will tell you that the Mission: Impossible franchise as we know it really started with this Brad Bird entry at the beginning of the 2010s, and it’s easy to see why. The first film made with a newly convicted Cruise&#8212, who Paramount Pictures had just tried for years to fire from the series &#8212, also happens where the movie star reincarnates his persona as a contemporary Douglas Fairbanks. Here he becomes the guy you could count on to commit the most absurdly dangerous and ridiculous stunts for our entertainment. What a prank.

And in terms of set pieces, nothing in the series may top this movie’s second act where Cruise is asked to become a real-life Spider-Man and wall-crawl—as well as swing and skip—along the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s a true showstopper that dominates the remainder of the film. Not that there isn’t a lot to enjoy elsewhere as Bird brings a slightly more sci-fi and cartoonish cheek to the proceedings with amusing gadgets like those aforementioned “blue means glue” Spidey gloves. Even more hilariously, the damn things never seem to function properly.

This is also the first Mission: Impossible movie where the whole team feels vital to the success of the adventure, including a now proper sidekick in the returning Pegg and some solid support from Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner. For a certain type of fan, this is the best, but we would argue that the team dynamics were improved and used in films with more than one stunning set piece to their credit.

3. Impossible: Mission: Impossible ( 1996 )

The last four entries of the series have been so good that it’s become common for folks to overlook the movie that started it all, Brian De Palma’s endlessly stylish Mission: Impossible. That’s unfortunate because there is something admirably blasphemous to this day about a movie that would throw the basics out the window. In this case, that meant turning the original show’s hero, Jim Phelps ( played by Jon Voight here ), into the villain while completely rewriting the rulebook about what the concept of” Mission: Impossible” is.

It’s the kind of creative move studios would never dare to make right now, but that’s what made the transition from a novelty from 60s spymania TV to a 90s action classic, with a strong emphasis on techno espionage babble and post-Cold War politics. The movie can at times appear dated given the emphasis on floppy disks and AOL email accounts, but it’s also got a brisk energy that never goes out of style thanks to De Palma’s ability to frame a knotty script by David Koepp and Robert Towne ( the latter of whom penned Chinatown ) into a breathlessly paced thriller filled with paranoia, double crosses, femme fatales, and horrifying dream sequences. In other words, it’s a De Palma special!

The filmmaker and Cruise also craft a series of set pieces that would become the series ‘ defining trademark. The finale, which features a fistfight atop a speeding train beneath the English Channel, is excellent, but it is quiet as a church mouse midpoint where Cruise’s hero dangles over the pressure-sensitive floor of a CIA vault and has a drop of sweat dripping just out of reach. —is the stuff of popcorn myth. It’s how M: I evolved from a great heist series to a shoot’em up. Plus, this movie gave us Ving Rhames ‘ stealth MVP hacker, Luther Stickell.

2. Mission: Impossible &#8211, Rogue Nation ( 2015 )

Rogue Nation has a slightly low key tone in retrospect, as absurd as that might sound for a film that begins with its star literally clinging for dear life to the outside of a plane at takeoff. Yet given how grand newcomer director Christopher McQuarrie would take things in the following three Mission films, his more restrained first iteration seems charmingly small scale in comparison. Even so, it continues to be the series ‘ most well-balanced and balanced adventure as well as a standalone action marvel. It&#8217, s the one where the project of making Ethan Hunt a tangible character began.

In a scene where Ethan is rightly categorized as a “gambler” based on his inconsistent but persistently ill-fated previous appearances, McQuarrie weaves a web where Hunt’s dicey lifestyle comes back to haunt him when confronted by a villain who shows their showboat instincts in on themselves, and which pits Ethan for the first time against Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, the series ‘ best supporting character. There’s a reason Ferguson’s MI6 double ( triple, quadruple? ) Agent was the first female protagonist in the series to have a recurring role. She gives a star-making turn as a woman who is in every way Ethan’s equal while keeping him and the audience on their toes.

She and a returning Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames strengthen the definitive Mission team, while McQuarrie creates elegant set pieces with classical flair, including an elegant scene homage to and one-ups Alfred Hitchcock’s famous sequence from The Man Who Knew Too Much ( 1956 ), as well as a Casablanca chase between Ethan and Ilsa, which is the best motorcycle sequence in the series ( if only they were stopped by Rick’s ). Also McQuarrie’s script ultimately figures out who Ethan Hunt truly is by letting all those around him realize he&#8217, s a madman. And Alan Hunley, Alec Baldwin&#8217 ;s character, gets this incredible line that sums up the entire series:

” Hunt is uniquely trained and highly motivated, a specialist without equal, immune to any countermeasures. There is no person he can become, no security he cannot breach, and no secret he cannot extract. He has most likely anticipated this very conversation and is waiting to strike in whatever direction we move. The living manifestation of destiny, Hunt has assigned you as his mission, sir.

1. Fallout ( 2017 ), Mission: Impossible &#8211,

If one were to rank these movies simply by virtue of set pieces and stunts, pound for pound it’s impossible to top Mission: Impossible &#8211, Fallout ( forgive the pun ). There are too many giddy mic drop moments in this action film bliss, but we particularly like Tom Cruise’s real HALO jump from a plane at 25, 000 feet, the extended fight scene between Henry Cavill and Liam Yang in a bathroom where the music completely blares, and the bizarre moment when Cavill needs to reload his biceps like they’re shotguns. !

There was no better adrenaline rush in Hollywood in the 2010s than this movie, and that is in large part a credit to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. As the first filmmaker to helm more than one M: I movie, McQuarrie had the seemingly counterintuitive innovation to meticulously hammer out all of the above action sequences as well as others —such as a motorcycle chase across the cobblestones of Paris and a helicopter climax where Cruise is really flying his chopper at low altitudes—with stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood and Cruise, and then retroactively pen a surprisingly tight and satisfying screenplay that continues to deconstruct the Ethan Hunt archetype into a man of flesh and blood.

In a story that is as zippy and sharp as you would expect from the screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, but which allows each action sequence to unfold with all the pageantry of an old-fashioned Gene Kelly musical number, McQuarrie also brings together all the series ‘ best supporting actors, including Rhames, Pegg, and his own additions of Rebecca Ferguson as the ambiguous Ilsa Faust and Sean Harris as the dastardly Solomon Lane. Many will call this the best Mission: Impossible movie, and we won’t quibble the point.

The article Mission: Impossible Shows Ranked from Worst to Best: The Last Ranking appeared initially on Den of Geek.