The seventh instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise will be released on the 14th July 2023 and what better excuse to re-watch one of the greatest mainstream action movie franchises to grace our screens.

The first film graced our screens in 1996 and for the first four entries it had different directors applying their own unique styles to the IMF (Impossible Mission Force). That is until 2015’s fifth instalment Rogue Nation, when writer/director Christopher McQuarrie took over the reigns. McQuarrie having already delivered films five and six will be also delivering films seven and eight in the franchise.

Read on for reviews of each film with my ranking at the end… and I do not want to see any of you doing a Tom Cruise run to get to them!

Mission: Impossible (1996 – Directed by Brian De Palma)

Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and his team of IMF agents have been sent to Prague to prevent the theft of a highly classified document that contains the real identities of all undercover agents across the globe. The mission goes horribly wrong though and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is left the sole survivor. Suspected by his agency to have defected Hunt must go rogue to find out who the real villain is and prevent the documents being sold to the highest bidder.

Brian De Palma opens the Mission franchise with an action movie that leans into the old fashioned spy thriller that the films were based on. Voight’s team leader taking on the name of the original series team leader. It is also a really lean film running at 110 minutes and featuring three key action sequences and three key monologues from Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.

The action sequences are the perfectly choreographed opening mission in Prague where all but Hunt meet their demise. The theft from CIA headquarters in Langley that features what is still one of the most iconic Cruise moments in the franchise where he is dangling above a computer dripping sweat onto a pressure sensitive floor. And a final face off on a train heading into the Euro Tunnel.

Cruise also gets to deliver some brilliant monologues as well. The scene in the Aquarium restaurant where he explains to Kitteridge (Henry Czerny) how the Prague mission was a set up, the way he explains how they will break into Langley and the scene where he reveals the villain whilst talking to Phelps are all as nail bitingly exciting as the action sequences.

Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is also much more raw here. He is part of a team and when he has to go out on his own he is much more impulsive and inexperienced. It is fun to see him using his charm to try and win over Max (Vanessa Redgrave) who deals in rare commodities and whom he will use to help flush out the villain.

Whilst some of the technology on show is starting to show its age the film itself is not and it lays down the foundations of what an Impossible Mission is. There are mask reveals, rogue agents, disavowed agents and some fantastic set pieces. When Cruise shouts “Red Light, Green Light” at the end it is truly satisfying.

A brilliant opening Mission. 

Mission: Impossible II (2000 – Directed by John Woo)

When ex-IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) steals a deadly virus named Chimera, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is pulled away from his rock climbing holiday in Australia and asked to enlist Ambrose’s ex girlfriend cat burglar Nyah Hall (Thandiwe Newton) to help steal it back.

John Woo’s Mission Impossible movie feels much more of a 1990’s action movie filled with his inimitable Hong Kong style than it does a Mission film. Woo brings along an overblown slow motion filled love story that includes more gun fights and kung fu fighting than any other film in the franchise. In fact there is only really one scene that actually feels like an impossible mission where Hunt infiltrates a building by free falling into it via a roof opening. Otherwise he is mostly shooting and kicking his way through minions.

Newton and Cruise get to speak about a dozen words to each other, spend sometime in an empty bathtub whilst she steals something and have a balletic car chase before they are madly in love with each other. From here Woo gives us high drama, slow motion, long stares, slow motion, sunglasses, slow motion, scarfs flying off in the wind, slow motion, two handgun sliding dives, slow motion, birds flying in slow motion, slow motion and no less than five mask reveals. Did I mention that he likes slow motion?

Anyone who is aware of John Woo’s famous Hong Kong action movies such as A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled will recognise his calling cards from a mile away and if you let yourself go with it then it is still a lot of fun. It just does not necessarily feel vital as a Mission film.

Other highlights include the opening rock climbing sequence that seems to bare no importance whatsoever (until perhaps the sixth film Fallout), a motorcycle chase and Anthony Hopkins delivering some dialogue that would perhaps not find its way to the screen in this day and age.

The result is still fun though and features the most physics defying moment in the entire franchise when Cruise somehow manages to kick a gun vertically in the air by jabbing it from out of the sand underneath him.

Mission: Impossible III (2006 – Directed by J. J. Abrams)

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has given up active duty within the IMF and now trains new agents whilst he prepares to marry his fiancé Julia (Michelle Monaghan). That is until he is asked to assist in an extraction mission for his brightest new recruit Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) who has been captured whilst investigating arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

J. J. Abrams Mission: Impossible is a clean, crisp and intricate action movie that in many ways sets the template for what the franchise would become. Ethan Hunt feels more fallible and more human but is still capable of insane feats of daredevilry, Simon Pegg is introduced as tech support specialist Benji who will go on to be an integral part of the team, Laurence Fishburne and Billy Crudup represent the bureaucratic fight behind the scenes of the action, Philip Seymour Hoffman is a smart and scary villain and Hunt and his team perform many feats of impossible action in beautifully choreographed set pieces.

The opening action sequence where Hunt rescues Farris is an absolutely barnstorming start and shows Davian to be a truly evil villain who can not be underestimated. We then have an intricate and smart operation inside the Vatican that features new team members played by Maggie Q and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, a superb jailbreak from a transport vehicle on a bridge that features an iconic explosive moment that throws Hunt into a vehicle, a theft involving swinging between two high rise buildings followed by a base jump and a car chase and then a footrace through Shanghai and a final showdown with the villain. If I had complaints about the second film having a lack of “impossible” set pieces this film more than made up for it.

And then there is Philip Seymour Hoffman who is simply breath taking as the villain and one of the high points of the entire franchise. He does not have too many scenes but those that he has cement him as one of the most terrifying villains that Hunt has faced. His calmness under pressure and absolute surety that he will kill Ethan in front of those that he loves is chilling and the manner in which he hardly seems to blink is more than a little disconcerting. Whilst his preferred method of execution with a micro bomb inserted into someone’s skull is genius as far as mad criminals go.

This film really set the tone for what we could expect to come for the franchise.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011 – Directed by Brad Bird)

When the IMF are implicated in an explosion inside the Kremlin it is disbanded and all of its agents disavowed. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) leads a new adhoc team against rogue Russian agent Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) who wants to start a nuclear war.

Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible film always feels like a disappointment to me as whilst it seems to feature all the right building blocks it never seems to excite or interest me. Bird has been responsible for some fantastic animated features including The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille but his live action films have never quite clicked (Tomorrowland: A World Beyond is the only other one). This Mission features lots of action set pieces and a world ending plot to foil but it just is not as gripping.

This is the film that promotes Simon Pegg’s Benji to main star and introduces Jeremy Renner’s Brandt who will appear again in Rogue Nation and it also features one of the most well known Mission stunts where Tom Cruise is hanging from the Burj Khalifa, which is the world’s tallest building. But as a whole it feels a little bit hollow and features perhaps the weakest villain of the franchise to date.

The best action sequences in the film happen right at the start. The first when Hunt escapes a Moscow prison (where he appears to be replicating Steve McQueen by throwing a rock against a wall and catching it repeatedly) and the second when Hunt and Benji infiltrate the Kremlin and use a device that mimics the space behind it. After this there is a heavy focus on the gadgets involved in the action. The use of sticky gloves to climb the Burj Khalifa, the use of a magnet suit to carry Renner during a theft, a GPS locator in a car chase inside a sandstorm and an automated car parking structure in the final showdown. All of which seem more technically clever than viscerally exciting.

As with the earlier films there are also some smaller cameos from familiar faces such as Josh Holloway (Lost), Lea Seydoux and Paula Patton.

Accomplished but uninteresting.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015 – Directed by Christopher McQuarrie)

I reviewed this film for my site when I watched it as part of a double bill with Fallout and you can find that review here – Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation

I still stand by this review entirely and rather than repeat myself too much just want to talk about a few key facets that make this film so good in the franchise:

• Christopher McQuarrie taking over the franchise and it moving away from its director by director approach truly reinvigorates it. His working relationship with Cruise has allowed the films to take far more risks and create incredibly exciting and real looking stunts.
• Rebecca Ferguson’s introduction as Ilsa Faust is just as important at reinvigorating the franchise as her character provides a true match to Cruise’s and makes everything far more intriguing.
• Sean Harris villain Solomon Lane is nearly as frightening as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian in the third film.
• The action set pieces are fantastic; Hunt hanging from a plane in its opening, the Vienna Opera House sequence featuring Faust and a sniper rifle, the underwater robbery, the car and motorccyle chases in Morocco and the foot race and final fight in London. All are thrilling.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018 – Directed by Christopher McQuarrie)

Fallout is the only Mission film I reviewed for this site on original release and you can find that review here – Mission: Impossible Fallout

I absolutely love this film and think it is the clear stand out as best film in the franchise. Again I am going to say that I stand by my earlier review entirely and when I read it I almost get as excited as I did when I first saw this film in the cinema.

The key facets that I think are worth mentioning about this film are:

• McQuarrie and Cruise seem to be so much more confident in what they are trying to achieve here and everything feels more polished than ever whilst looking incredibly realistic.
• The continuation of the villain and his organisation from Rogue Nation gives it the feel of the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. organisation in the Bond franchise with Solomon Lane its Blofeld figurehead. The result seems much more insidious and widespread and frightening. A real threat to Ethan Hunt and his team.
• The new found confidence and the fact that the writer/director knew that he could build upon his story has resulted in a lot of call-backs to earlier films that add layers of depth. Vanessa Kirby’s arms dealer is the daughter of Max from the original, Ethan Hunt’s rock climbing holiday in the second film comes in useful for his escapades this time, Michelle Monaghan returns as Hunt’s wife from the third film. From the trailer of Dead Reckoning Part One it would seem that this exploration of characters and events in previous films will continue.
• Henry Cavill is immense as the hammer to Cruise’s scalpel
• The action set pieces set the bar at an all time high; the Halo sky dive through a lightning storm, the bathroom fight sequence, the extraction of Solomon Lane (which we get to see two versions of), the footrace in London where we see Cruise break his ankle for real and that finale with its helicopter chase, fight sequences and bomb defusal.

An all time high for the series and one I hope Dead Reckoning can match or beat.

Final Thoughts

I had a few final thoughts flying through my head after watching all of these films again so I wanted to gather them all here just to keep you waiting a tiny bit longer for my ranking.

Firstly, I was actually really stunned at the quality of all of these films on rewatch. I always remember the second film especially being a big disappointment but it is a really solid action movie and if its goal was to give a wider western audience an idea of a John Woo action movie it hits the mark perfectly.

Secondly, does the length of Tom Cruise’s hair help tell us which films are the best? He has short hair for the first, third and sixth movie. Long hair for the second and fourth and something in the middle for the fifth. Perhaps this is like the Star Trek films only being good on an even number?!

Thirdly, I really love that they get in a big name actor with gravitas for the IMF Director in each film. In order by film we have Henry Czerny, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Fishburne, Tom Wilkinson and then Alec Baldwin (the only man so far to take on the role in two films).

Fourthly, dropping the numbering after the third film I think was both a good and bad thing. I appreciate that each film having its own name gives it a bit of gravitas and mystery, but gosh does it sometimes make it hard for me to remember which one comes first between Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation!

Fifthly, these films have some absolutely brilliant villains and I actually want to rank these as well, so here goes (oh there are spoilers in this but I figure you came this far):

1. Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) – Mission: Impossible III
2. Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
3. John Lark (Henry Cavill) – Mission: Impossible – Fallout
4. Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) – Mission: Impossible
5. Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) – Mission: Impossible II
6. Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) – Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Sixthly, Tom Cruise running is a work of art.

Seventhly (and finally I think) whilst Tom Cruise and the stunt teams working on these films are the absolute MVP’s of the franchise I think it is worth calling out the following actors for pushing the films to the next level. Ving Rhames, the only actor other than Cruise to appear in every film brings along a deadpan sense of humour and a good foil for Cruise’s character. Simon Pegg, who joined in the third film in a small role is now a huge part of the team and great comic relief. But saving the best for last there is the stunning Rebecca Ferguson who joined the franchise in Rogue Nation and has in my opinion been one of the best additions to the franchise. With her Ilsa Faust challenging Ethan Hunt every step of the way.

Ranking

1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
3. Mission: Impossible III
4. Mission: Impossible
5. Mission: Impossibe – Ghost Protocol
6. Mission: Impossible II

As may have been obvious if you have read through all of my ramblings I believe that the addition of Christopher McQuarrie and Rebecca Ferguson have taken the franchise to the next level. Whilst Philip Seymour Hoffman and the action set pieces in the third film elevate it above the thriller machinations of the first film.

Let me know if you disagree, I would love to see your rankings.

Otherwise, let’s hope this message does not self destruct in 5 seconds and let’s all look forward to Dead Reckoning Part One in an IMAX theatre soon!