The Mission: Impossible franchise is one of the most reliable franchises in modern Hollywood. Spanning more than 20 years and still ongoing, the franchise has produced a number of unbelievable action movies, and, because it’s a Paramount franchise, they also represent the most rewatchable movies on Paramount Plus.
Starring Tom Cruise as action hero Ethan Hunt, these movies are always ostensibly about Hunt as an agent of the Impossible Mission Force assigned to save various world calamities. Really, though, this franchise has just become an excuse to watch Cruise do some of the most insane things you’ve ever seen. The stunts are incredible, but just as remarkable is how consistently great these movies have been. We’re ranking the entire franchise from worst to best, but remember that most of these movies are pretty good.
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7. Mission: Impossible II (2000)
123m
Genre
Adventure, Action, Thriller
Stars
Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandiwe Newton
Directed by
John Woo
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A movie that has plenty of style but is nonetheless almost undeniably the worst Mission: Impossible movie. Thandiwe Newton and Cruise are both excellent, but the movie features a fairly forgettable villain and an even more forgettable central plotline in which Ethan Hunt attempts to prevent the spread of a virus. This movie also strips Hunt of many of the elements that would become more standard in later installments. In almost every way, this first sequel is the least like what the rest of the franchise would ultimately become. Even so, it still has better action sequence than your average action movie, in part because it was directed by John Woo.
6. Mission: Impossible III (2006)
126m
Genre
Adventure, Action, Thriller
Stars
Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames
Directed by
J.J. Abrams
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Once you get past MI2, basically every Mission: Impossible movie is some degree of excellent. Mission: Impossible 3 lands in this spot not because it’s not a great time but because not every element of it works. The idea of giving Ethan Hunt a wife as he attempts to settle down is smart, as is the choice of Philip Seymour Hoffman to play the film’s villain (he’s still probably the best in the franchise). If you actually ask anyone what this movie is about, though, or what exactly happens in it, they’re not likely to remember. JJ Abrams certainly has his supporters, but this film is also not the crispest entry in the franchise from a visual perspective.
5. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
164m
Genre
Action, Adventure
Stars
Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames
Directed by
Christopher McQuarrie
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Dead Reckoning is the least consistently entertaining installment of the McQuarrie era, but that still makes it a hugely entertaining movie. Following Ethan as he goes up against a power artificial intelligence known as the Entity, part of this movie’s brilliance is that it leaves Hunt in a more uncertain place than previous installments. The real juice of this movie, though, comes from Haley Atwell as an expert pickpocket who finds herself totally swallowed up in an international spy thriller she can barely understand. Her chemistry with Cruise is excellent, and there’s a car chase through Rome here that is one of the more delightful things you’re likely to see in a modern blockbuster.
4. Mission: Impossible (1996)
110m
Genre
Adventure, Action, Thriller
Stars
Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart
Directed by
Brian De Palma
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Brian DePalma’s first entry kicked this franchise off, and perhaps the most delightful thing about Mission: Impossible is how little it has to do with any of the films that would come after it. Here, Cruise plays Ethan Hunt as an agent on the run after he loses his entire team. As he slowly uncovers a conspiracy that drives all the way to the heart of the IMF, he struggles to determine who he can trust. Cruise is at his manic, edgy best here, and the iconic sequence in which he drops down from the ceiling remains one of the most important images in the history of this storied franchise.
3. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
133m
Genre
Action, Thriller, Adventure
Stars
Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg
Directed by
Brad Bird
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Perhaps the single greatest image from any Mission: Impossible comes from Ghost Protocol, as Ethan climbs the outside of the world’s tallest building. This is the moment when we learned what this franchise was actually capable of. That image is great, but in truth, most of Ghost Protocol is just as good as that climactic sequence. From the broken mask machine leading to some improvisation to an opening sequence that reminds of that brief window when Josh Holloway was a major star, Ghost Protocol is one of the most fun movies in this franchise, and not coincidentally, also one of the best.
1. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
147m
Genre
Action, Adventure
Stars
Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames
Directed by
Christopher McQuarrie
Watch on Paramount+
Fallout is the most relentless installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and also the installment with the most incredible sequences stacked on top of one another. The movie’s plot is about stopping an international terrorist from obtaining nuclear weapons, but what really matters here is the way a car chase effortlessly leads into a skydiving sequences which then gets us to a climax where Cruise dangles out of a helicopter. The sheer exuberance of this movie, and the way McQuarrie and Cruise managed to find a plot that both makes sense and has an emotional core, feels like something close to a genuine miracle.
1. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
131m
Genre
Action, Adventure
Stars
Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg
Directed by
Christopher McQuarrie
Watch on Amazon
Rogue Nation is as impressive on the action front as its immediate predecessor, at least not holistically. But this movie has more personality than any other installment in this franchise, and that’s in large part thanks to the introduction of Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, a British agent of mysterious origin who proves herself to be every bit Hunt’s equal. It’s Ilsa’s presence that feels like it subtly reinvents this entire franchise, and proves that there are plenty of new stories to tell in this universe. It’s easy to overstate the impact an actor can have in a relatively small role, but Ferguson’s performance here is truly that good.
