The Mission: Impossible franchise started in 1996, but now there are 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. For all intents and purposes, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is where the franchise ends. Tom Cruise has suggested he's willing to come back as long as the films are profitable, hinting that he could do so into his 80s (via Deadline), but there's no confirmation that more sequels are coming.

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 attempts to wrap up the series with the biggest movie yet, and it arguably does just that. But, how it stacks up with the rest of the Mission: Impossible movies in of quality is a different story.

8 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 Thandiwe 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 ed 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 Jurassic 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.

7 Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Released In 2025

If there's one word to describe Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, it's ambitious. A nearly three-hour-long film juggling the loose threads from the previous seven films, Christopher McQuarrie's story feels the weight of potentially landing a beloved franchise. Certain aspects set up in Dead Reckoning are forgotten about, while the editing can feel jarring as it consistently splices in footage from the prior movies. The loss of Ilsa Faust is certainly felt, as is the lack of a real team dynamic for Ethan to bounce off of thanks to the regular team splitting from him to save the world.

The entire plane sequence with Cruise wing walking... is potentially the greatest achievement in the franchise.

It's undeniably the messiest of the Mission: Impossible movies since McQuarrie, and yet, some of that is forgiven thanks to the sheer awe-inspiring nature of a few Tom Cruise stunts. His search through the submarine is about as tense of a set piece one can ask for that doesn't involve the usual scope and spectacle. Then, the entire plane sequence with Cruise wing walking as Ethan pursues Gabriel in The Final Reckoning's ending is potentially the greatest achievement in the franchise.

The Final Reckoning wants to give Ethan and the entire Mission: Impossible franchise an epic finale, one that could be argued as being the best of the franchise. It doesn't hit that mark, but it's still a thrilling ride that can be astonishing at times to see unfold. Just because it ranks this low doesn't mean it's bad. The Final Reckoning just could've been a whole lot more.

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 ission" 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.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Owen Davian is the most memorable villain in the series.

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

Given where Mission: Impossible is now, Tom Cruise is jumping off things for real. It's easy to view the original as quaint, but the biggest thing Tom Cruise jumps down from is a ceiling vent. But not only was it pretty startling for the time - the core team is killed in the opening mission, and TV show lead Jim Phelps is the secret villain, a canon change tantamount to making Luke Skywalker a hermit - Mission: Impossible also maintains much of its thrill today.

It all lies on Brian De Palma, who approached this reboot of a well-known TV series with the same rigor as Scarface, with regular dialogue scenes as focused as the action; the Dutch angle paranoia of Ethan realizing he's a suspect is exposition at its best. And that action is definitely fantastic for its attention to tension.

The franchise's continued growth means that Mission: Impossible is revisited more often than many other mid-1990s tentpoles.

The Langley break-in may be simple enough on paper compared to what comes later, but Cruise still did the drop for real, and De Palma is meticulous in how he makes two beads of sweat the most important thing in the world for a far-too-long minute. The franchise's continued growth means that Mission: Impossible is revisited more often than many other mid-1990s tentpoles anyway, but even without five more films to mark it out, it's one of the best.

3 Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Released In 2015

The preceding two movies had begun to form what Mission: Impossible could be - stunt-based, a wink-wink continuity, overall fun blockbusters - but it was Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation that refined it. The film opens with a single shot that would be the centerpiece of another entire franchise - Cruise clinging to the side of a plane taking off - and goes breakneck into a lightning mix of twisty plot and integrated action that never lets one of the plates drop.

It had been on the tip of many tongues for a while, but here, it seems Ethan Hunt had overtaken James Bond.

Christopher McQuarrie had proven himself as a master thriller writer with The Usual Suspects, and this expands that, throwing in new elements like Ilsa Faust and evolving static aspects like Renner. The finale, in which the scheming, emotionally involved villain is captured in a moody London night, earned copious comparisons to Spectre, almost deferential to Mission: Impossible. It had been on the tip of many tongues for a while, but here, it seems Ethan Hunt had overtaken James Bond.

2 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning

Released In 2023

As the seventh film in the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise, it is incredible that the series can still be this great this late in the game. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One gives Ethan Hunt more characterization than ever, delving deeper into the IMF agent's backstory. The film shakes up the series' villain formula, with Hunt, this time, having to take on a rogue AI with god-like powers. While the film once again centers around a MacGuffin, it manages to keep the stakes high throughout.

Once again, the stunts are the highlight of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. The fight on top of the train, the extensive Rome car chase, and Tom Cruise's now-iconic motorcycle cliff jump are all incredible, although they don't reach the heights of the helicopter chase and the bathroom fight in Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning is an incredible film that exceeds almost all of its predecessors, except for one film.

1 Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Released In 2018

In Mission: Impossible - Fallout, everything improves from Rogue Nation. The stunts are more audacious - the 106 HALO jumps make for a hand-clamming sequence early on, while the helicopter chase in the finale is maintained for so long, beats from the trailers were cut - the humor more balanced, and the filmmaking more astute. Like De Palma, action and dialogue are treated with equal opportunity for flair, and the story is more reaching. With its villains, the series manages to use the convoluted story to explore genre clichés.

What makes Mission: Impossible - Fallout great is how it dissects Ethan Hunt. Tom Cruise's character has evolved across the Mission: Impossible series, but not all of it was organic, something McQuarrie's worked hard to correct. This started in Rogue Nation, but this entire movie is constructed around attempting to figure out what creates this "force of nature" and recontextualize him in the real world. To see it so earnestly delivered alongside everything else is an emotional powerhouse.

How Does The Mission: Impossible TV Show Compare To The Movies?

While the Mission: Impossible movies have a lot of fans, don't count some of the original television show cast among those ranks. Several of these actors had a massive problem with Tom Cruise's movies from the start. The main problem came from the first movie's twist and who the villain was. In that film, Phelps, the leader of the IMF, played by Jon Voight, betrayed his team as a double agent, and every member of the team was shot and killed except for newcomer Ethan Hunt.

Greg Morris, who played tech guru Barney Collier, walked out of the theater before the movie ended. Peter Graves, who played Phelps in the TV show as the main hero of the series, was so upset about the twist that he refused to reprise his role as Phelps in the movie. Martin Landau, who played Rollin Hand, was so angry that he lashed out at the movie in the press:

"When they were working on an early incarnation of the first one — not the script they ultimately did — they wanted the entire team to be destroyed, done away with one at a time, and I was against that. It was basically an action-adventure movie and not Mission. Mission was a mind game. The ideal mission was getting in and getting out without anyone ever knowing we were there. So the whole texture changed. Why volunteer to essentially have our characters commit suicide? I ed on it... The script wasn't that good either!"

However, it didn't matter, and the Mission: Impossible movie franchise became one of the most successful action movie franchises in history. The TV show still remains highly regarded, though. On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score for the first season is a perfect 100%, and the critics' reviews were all positive until the final fifth season. Reviews called it one of the best spy shows in television history, especially in an era when other shows were getting "goofier," M:I maintained a "touch of class."

The Future Of The Mission: Impossible Franchise

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and the previous movie made it look like things were winding down for Ethan Hunt and his elite team. It almost seems like it can't get much worse, and the stakes can't get much higher. However, as director Christopher McQuarrie has teased, this may not mark the end of the franchise, and there could be more Mission: Impossible movies in the future.

"There's always a plan, the plan always changes, everything goes completely awry, and hopefully everything always turns out alright in the end. But you never really fully understand, or trust where it is you're going, until you get there."

Tom Cruise is 60, but even he says that he plans to keep making Mission: Impossible movies, likely into his 80s. “Harrison Ford is a legend; I hope to be still going; I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him,” Cruise said (via The Sydney Morning Herald). “I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I’m his age.” Mission: Impossible movies aren't going anywhere and could be around for the next two decades if Cruise gets his way, even if there's a temporary pause on the series after Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.