Mission: Impossible Franchise Review

Spoilers-ish for the first seven films in the series!

Ahead of this weekend’s release of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (it only just now occurred to me they put the colon after “Mission” and not “Impossible,” but it makes sense!), I rewatched the entire series from the first one released in 1996 through to the 2023 film. I’m going to try hit all seven in much shorter chunks than I normally would for a singular film review, though.

The films, of course, concern the missions of the Impossible Mission Force, a deep off-the-books agency, hence the Secretary of the IMF always ready and willing to “disavow” knowledge of any agent captured or killed, with Ethan Hunt as its main agent (played by Tom Cruise). Hunt and the IMF are essentially an American version of James Bond: They have fun high-tech gadgets, including most famously realistic mask and voice disguises so they can impersonate people, and the stakes are often world-threatening.

A few things to know before going into a series re-watch yourself:

• Tom Cruise was doing his own crazy stunts from the beginning because he’s unbelievably committed to any project he does and he also wants to ensure anything on camera is as believable as possible for the audience. Definitely read the production notes on Wikipedia for each film entry after you watch it!
• Notably, the first four films in the franchise all had different directors and correspondingly, all have different looks and tones. Fans of the franchise liked swapping in a new director with each sequel. However, by the fifth film, Christopher McQuarrie stepped in to both direct and writer. Cruise and McQuarrie have collaborated on a lot of films over the years, beginning with Valkyrie in 2008, the two Jack Reacher film adaptions in 2012 and 2016, Edge of Tomorrow (highly recommend if you haven’t seen it!) in 2014, The Mummy in 2017, Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, and of course, the four most recent Mission: Impossible films. Quite the collaboration!
• There is a recurring ensemble cast around these films. Cruise’s first partner is Luther, a technical wizard (keeping with the Bond comparison, Hunt’s Q), played by Ving Rhames. Rhames is often the heart of the films. Simon Pegg’s character, Benji, is introduced in a smaller, but important role in the third film, also as a technical wizard, who ends up joining Hunt in the field in later films. Benji would be in every film going forward. He’s not the only one, but he provides a lot of the comedic relief for the films. Finally, there’s Illsa Faust, played by Rebecca Ferguson, a British intelligence officer who helps Hunt and is a quasi-love interest, and appeared in films five through seven.
• The films definitely became longer. The first film clocked in at just under two hours, then the next few hovered around the two-hour mark. Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation bumped the runtime up an extra 10 minutes, and then Fallout went an additional 15 minutes from that, and finally, Dead Reckoning was the longest film of the franchise at more than 2.7 hours. (The latest film seems to have taken the mantle for the longest at 2.8 hours).

Whoever is directing and whatever the story, here are things you’re sure to see from a Mission: Impossible film and certainly, from Cruise:

• Running! He loves to run!
• Motorcycles! Cruise loves being on a motorcycle and using that to either evade the bad guys, the cops, or to catch the bad guy, or the elusive Faust.
• Jumping! Whether it’s from building to building or off of a plane, Cruise is going to jump.
• Hanging! The classic hanging in the first film, where Cruise is dangling from the ceiling from wires inside the CIA only inches from the ground, is repeated in different ways in the two films after and then Jeremy Renner’s character, Brandt, does it in the fourth film. I don’t believe they callback to it after that.
• Climbing! Cruise is always going to be climbing and clinging to something, a rockface, the side of the world’s tallest building, a helicopter, a plane, whatever it takes to make saving the day work.
• Figure it out! An underrated slogan of the Mission: Impossible films, which mostly appears under the McQuarrie run, a rather self-effacing run at that, is Cruise being asked by his team how they’re going to do such and such to save the day, and Cruise responds, “We’ll [or sometimes “I’ll”] figure it out.”
• Rogue! Cruise and the IMF are often attacked by the bureaucracy or otherwise set-up by the villains to be seen as the villains themselves or going rogue from the U.S. government. Heck, that occurred in the very first film, but they go back to a similar concept a few times throughout the series.
• Ethos! Starting with the third film, they spend considerable time conveying Hunt’s moral code, principles, and ethos: One life or a million lives at stake, Hunt is going to give it his all to save the day. He cares about the innocent people caught up in everything and he cares about his individual team members. His unwavering convictions are what make him such a great, aspirational good guy in this Mission: Impossible universe.

As a broad matter, because the series started out with different directors and writers for each film, you can argue the first three films could almost been as standalone outings. The first two in particular are so different and they weren’t that concerned with Hunt’s characterization or the people around him. The third is when they start trying to make Hunt more three-dimensional instead of merely a stunt-taking bad-ass. However, it’s primarily under McQuarrie’s run that the films introduce more heart, more levity, and self-effacing humor (making fun of their mask gag and even Cruise’s durability and wherewithal). Add to those elements with the elevated (literally) stunts and action set pieces, it’s not a surprise the Mission: Impossible franchise is one of the few franchises that gets better and better with each outing. In other words, I’m saying, if the first two films aren’t quite your fancy, you may want to give three, four, and certainly the rest thereafter a chance.

Let’s get to the mini-reviews of each!

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Directed by Brian De Palma, the first outing is more spy noir than any other film in the franchise. It feels very much like a European film, cutting across my Americanized Bond comparison. Before the big climax with the train, this film is also perhaps the most intimate in scope and tension of any of the other films. It’s mostly just about betrayal and money. There’s no world-threatening stakes here. I do like that. The plot itself was a bit convoluted and difficult to follow. I would also argue this film absolutely fits in with the 1990s aesthetic. As in, it feels of that time.

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

Directed by John Woo, who really, really likes to use slow motion and show Cruise’s long hair billowing in the wind, the second outing is easily my least favorite. I guess I’m just not a Woo guy. The action sequences, and Woo is known for his action films, were goofy and not at all believable. Compare the climactic fight scene in this film to the fight scene in the bathroom fight scene in Fallout and it’s night and day. They also repeated the rogue agent aspect from the first film. Cruise does free climbing of a rockface when we first seem him that actually comes back to help him in Fallout incidentally. I did like the callbacks of the dangle and then in his climactic fight, a knife gets close to his eye, a callback to the propeller nearly in his eye in the first film. Like the first, this one also feels very much of it’s time, the late 1990s/early 2000s.

Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)

Directed by J.J. Abrams in his first feature film outing! I love me some J.J., although I have to say, this one also looks of it’s time period, that mid-aughts aesthetic. As I said, this one tried to begin infusing heart and character into the films. Hunt is married! He’s retired from the IMF. But of course, it wouldn’t be a movie or a series if he stayed retired. This was also the first one where Hunt had to deal with the bureaucracy coming for the IMF. The best villain to date in the series, played by the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, threatens Hunt and his wife. When Hunt is betrayed and Hoffman’s character rescued in a wild shootout on a bridge (maybe also the best action set piece of the series thus far), I loved that Hunt and his team were still trying to save civilians. That is why I see this film as being the first to introduce heart because it also introduces Hunt’s ethos of trying to save them all, i.e., even one life is worth risking it all for. J.J. outclassed and outdid the first two entries in his first outing as a director.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

Directed by Brad Bird, I knew this one was going to be incredible because he did two films in the conversation for the best of the 21st century before this: 2004’s The Incredibles and 2007’s Ratatouille. He’s the Pixar guy! But he’s also the guy with not only the best outing for the series up to this point, but also the first to not feel stuck in a particular time. You could watch this film made 14 years ago and it holds up just fine in 2025. I credited McQuarrie for the self-effacing and levity, but Bird actually starts it here. For example, the message for Hunt that usually self-destructs in five seconds … malfunctioned and didn’t self-destruct! Fun little gag. I even made a note that this was the first film in the series to not take itself as seriously. This one also got back to feeling more spy-y, with perhaps still my favorite use of spy gadgetry to date in the series: When Hunt and Benji are trying to infiltrate a building, they need to deceive the guard on duty, so they use a quasi-invisibility cloak mechanism. It is so cool! This film also features Cruise’s famous Burji Khalifa climb in Dubai (the world’s tallest building). If you don’t have sweaty hands watching that scene, you’re dead inside or a sociopath. Visually, one of the most compelling images, too, is when Cruise is running (running!) through a sandstorm. It looked incredible. Interestingly, this one barely featured our boy Luther, who only briefly showed up at the end of the film. Finally, it’s worth noting that Jeremy Renner’s character, Brandt, debuts here and definitely seemed like a Cruise/Hunt replacement, if Cruise stopped making the films, hence the dangling callback pictured above. Obviously, that didn’t become necessary. If it didn’t seem clear by this point, Ghost Protocol was my favorite of the series so far.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie in his first directing and writing outing for the series. What’s funny is if you recall the marketing for the film, you knew Cruise did an insane hanging/clinging bit with a giant flying Airbus. That happens at the beginning of the film! It’s not even remotely the climax. I made a note here of a recurring bit: they’re rogue/outside the IMF again! This is also the first film featuring Sean Harris’ villain, Solomon Lane, who is the first repeat villain, as he appears again in the next film. He runs the Syndicate, a terrorist organization causing mayhem throughout the world. This one has perhaps the best gag and use of the masks in the series at this point: Cruise kidnaps the British Prime Minister by pretending to be British Intelligence Director Atlee. It’s hilarious and so well-done. And then perhaps most interestingly, Rogue Nation is the first film in the franchise to not end with a huge set piece or some other grandiosity; instead, it’s intimate and clever. They capture Solomon in a glass box, echoing how he captured Hunt at the start of the film. I loved it! It’s a close call between this one and Ghost Protocol for my favorite at this juncture in my viewing.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Directed by this first returning director and writer, McQuarrie, I love the double meaning of the title: fallout from the prior film with returning villain, Solomon, but also, nuclear weapons threatening the world, as Solomon’s Syndicate-rebranded-Apostles threaten the world with two loose nuclear weapons. Even though I’ve seen this film before my rewatch of the series, they managed to fool me again with the Wolf Blitzer bit at the beginning! Dammit. That is the best use of the mask gag in the series. Essentially, they trick a nuclear weapons specialist into thinking the nuclear weapons went off in Jerusalem and Mecca. It’s so well-done. I briefly mentioned him before, but notably, Renner’s character, Brandt, does not return. I was wondering where he was. As I mentioned earlier, Fallout features perhaps the best fight sequence of the entire franchise: Hunt and Walker (played by my Superman boy, Henry Cavill, with a mustache!) fight someone they think is the elusive villain, Lark, and whoever he is completely wipes the floor with Hunt and Walker. The only reason they “win” in the end is because Faust returns, saving them by shooting the man in the head. (I should say, before all that, Hunt and Walker did a beautiful looking HALO jump above Paris.) As I also said, this film marks the first use of Hunt saying, “I’ll figure it out,” and a payoff of his free climbing in the second film. After a climactic battle with Walker on a rock, he has to climb back up and stop the nuclear bombs from detonating. The best part of it is the sneakiness by McQuarrie. After Hunt presses the button, they cut to what looks like on the horizon it could be a nuclear bomb going off, as if Hunt was just a smidge late. Instead, it’s the sunrise. Phew. It was intense! In fact, that whole ending sequence was wild. Cruise is chasing Walker in a helicopter (but first must climb a rope attached to the chase helicopter), while Faust and Benji are fighting with Solomon. Yeah, many fans, and even critics I believe, regard Fallout as the best in the series. I don’t think they’re wrong. There were so many great action sequences and set pieces, with a whip-smart plot and characterization, and much heart between Hunt and his team, Hunt and Faust, and between Hunt and his ex-wife. I loved it so much.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Directed and written again by McQuarrie (Erik Jendresen also has a credit), this is the first film in the series to be set-up as a part one of two. Admittedly, the first 20 minutes into the film, I was thinking, maaaaaybe they should have stopped with Fallout. But I think that’s primarily because the opening wasn’t as interesting and compelling to me as the previous entries. I also made a note that this had to be the longest time from opening to title sequence in the series yet: 28 minutes. So, essentially, a Russian submarine is holding a sentient A.I., referred to as the Entity, and the A.I. tricks the submarine into bombing itself. Now, a slew of entities (heh) want to control the A.I. for their own nefarious ends, while Hunt and his team obviously want to destroy the A.I. to stymie the danger it poses. And that’s the other thing. I’m not big on A.I. being the ultimate enemy (even if it’s really the humans trying to control it) because a sentient A.I. is not a great villain from a film perspective! Nonetheless, I warmed up to the film as it unfurled. Then they shocked me by killing Faust off (after another incredible sandstorm shootout sequence), only to reveal she wasn’t actually dead. But then they did kill her off later. This film also introduces Hayley Atwell’s character, Grace, who is a thief and pickpocket extraordinaire. I also didn’t quite get why they shoehorned in the Gabriel element. Gabriel is revealed as an old enemy of Hunt’s, who killed a prior love interest of his. It felt undercooked. Gabriel ultimately does kill Faust. Booo. One of my favorite lines in the whole series is delivered in regards to Hunt by Briggs (played by Shea Whigham, who is dry humor hilarious throughout), a U.S. intelligence officer trying to bring Hunt and his team in (another he’s “rogue” element!): “Do not consider him secure until you have driven a wooden stake through his open heart.” Ha. The entire train tunnel sequence toward the end of the film is one of the best of the whole series, from Hunt’s fight with Gabriel to Hunt and Grace trying to survive before the train topples into the water. I ended up loving this film after a slow start.

Here’s my ranking of the films:

1. Fallout
2. Rogue Nation
3. Ghost Protocol
4. Dead Reckoning Part One
5. Mission: Impossible III
6. Mission: Impossible
7. Mission: Impossible II

The best villain: I think this might be a hot take, but I actually believe Hoffman still played the best, most ruthless villain, perhaps because it was so intimate with him targeting Hunt’s wife out of revenge.

The best fight sequence: The bathroom scene from Fallout.

The best overall action sequence: Gosh, it might be the train climax in Dead Reckoning. There are so many great ones, though, especially under McQuarrie.

I love this franchise! Even the weakest ones – the first three of the series incidentally – are still fun to watch because Tom Cruise is insane in the best way for action films. I can’t wait to see The Final Reckoning!