Warning: this is just my opinion and I have infamously controversial opinions. But I think most people agree on what the worst Mission: Impossible film is.
7) Mission: Impossible II (2000)
It’s a miracle this film didn’t kill the franchise stone-dead, as Mission: Impossible II is such an unnecessary change in direction from the first film. It’s a boring and messy blend of Y2K action movie cliches, which turns the Ethan Hunt character into a James Bond-style playboy and gracelessly rips off The Matrix, GoldenEye and Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious. John Woo is a great action director but his style just doesn’t work here with a bloated script (that is also needlessly misogynist) that gives him nothing to work with. This is a badly-dated product of its time, and the only true mis-step in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
6) Mission: Impossible III (2006)
From now on I like all the films and I actually have a big soft spot for Mission: Impossible III. Not just because it has the single scariest villain in the entire series played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, but because it acts as a prototype for the direction the franchise would go in, with a heavier focus on action and on character depth. However, it can’t help but pale in comparison to what followed. JJ Abrams directs this really well but the Bourne-style action and more grounded tone means this is one of the more generic entries in the franchise. Plus, the IMF team just isn’t as interesting here, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q being bland additions. Still, we get an introduction to Simon Pegg’s Benji, the true sign of better things to come.
5) Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
And here’s the first hot take. Ghost Protocol is seen by many as the film where the franchise truly found its feet and I certainly wouldn’t argue. Animation legend Brad Bird made his live-action directorial debut here with some truly fantastic action set-pieces, and a scale that the previous films have been lacking. However, the film doesn’t manage to keep the momentum of the first two acts and the last half-an-hour is a bit of a slog. This also has the poorest villain in the franchise, since we barely even see him and we never really understand the threat he poses. Still, the best bits of Ghost Protocol are brilliant and luckily future films were able to build upon its best elements. For example…
4) Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
The final scene of Ghost Protocol leads right into this film which really helps it. For the first time it actually feels like these films have continuity with each other, and Rogue Nation effortlessly builds up a wider network of heroes and villains with a really fun plot involving a shadowy group called the Syndicate. I love the variety of action scenes here, from an opening plane heist to a superb scene at an opera, to underwater and finally a big climax in London. I don’t have much to complain about here, but Rogue Nation can sometimes fade into the background for me. It’s not like that’s its fault though, as it is sandwiched between Ghost Protocol and Fallout, the two most well-liked films of this franchise. It’s bound to be a bit ignored.
3) Mission: Impossible (1996)
The film that started it all is my pick for the most underrated in the franchise. Legendary director Brian de Palma was hired to get a film adaptation of the TV series up on screens, and this first instalment holds up really well in my opinion. Many point to the film’s iconic heist sequence as its strongest, but it’s consistently tense throughout and full of brilliant twists and subversions. De Palma directs the hell out of it, Cruise is great in his first outing as Ethan Hunt, and there’s a fantastic espionage feel to this that the later entries largely abandon. It’s not perfect, but it deserves more love than it gets and I would have been really interested to see the franchise continue down this espionage lane. But then, we wouldn’t have got these two films.
2) Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (2023)
At 163 minutes, Dead Reckoning is certainly a hefty watch especially for a film that only gives you half the story. However, having perfected the art of suspenseful action with Fallout, Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie continue in that lane and make an exhilarating experience. M:I goes AI in this seventh instalment, as the IMF team are on the hunt for an advanced AI called the Entity, and while it is mainly an excuse for a series of constantly-escalating action scenes, there are some wonderful moments of tension here. The sequence at Abu Dhabi airport and the action in Venice are all highlights but it’s the final half-hour that will go down in history - a phenomenal combination of action, stuntwork and spywork set on a train that is an absolute high-point of this franchise. Seven films in, and the Mission: Impossible movies have truly become one of the best sources of entertainment ever. But the absolute pinnacle is…
1) Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
It took the franchise six movies, but they finally cracked every single element of the Mission: Impossible formula. Fallout is not just the best film in the franchise but it’s simply one of the best action movies of the 21st century - two-and-a-half hours of engrossing story, exhilarating action, gorgeous direction and a brilliant team of characters that gel together brilliantly. Fallout delivers as a standalone film but also expertly follows up on several dangling plot threads from previous instalments, bringing Michelle Monaghan and Sean Harris back and doing great work with their characters. Mission: Impossible - Fallout is magnificent blockbuster filmmaking, and if The Final Reckoning is even half as good as it, then the series will end on an absolute bang.
Thoughts on Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning will be coming very soon!