I think enough time has passed since the release of the eighth and final (final? FINAL??) Mission: Impossible film that I can sort out my thoughts properly. I’m going to try. I’m going to try my best. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this, probably more time than I would be able to justify if I were not a film writer for a crime website.
But I am, thank God. And I have deliberated for many hours. I have asked a lot of people for their rankings and reasonings, to give mine some context. You see, I love the Mission: Impossible franchise. I love it. Technically speaking, I consider it the single most impressive franchise in film history, in large part due to Tom Cruise’s preposterously impressive physical commitment to stuntwork and action sequences. Anyone who does their own stunts (especially to such a degree) in their late 50s and 60s has my respect. Anyone who hangs off the side of a plane at any age has my… awe? Admiration?
But I’m getting ahead of myself. This list is a ranking, yes, but its goal is not to divide up a franchise, or make its installments compete with one another. It’s goal is twofold: to celebrate the extraordinary achievement of the franchise on the whole, and to specifically spotlight how the franchise was resurrected and reborn into something even greater, after its first three installments were completed. This is not to say that Mission: Impossible is ever a cohesive franchise at all; the first three movies exist as a kind of trilogy, the fourth comes as a kind of reboot, and the fifth through eight follow along, intermittently dipping back into the original lore of the first three films as feels necessary.
But all of this makes for a fascinating franchise experience… it’s almost an ensemble of installments, rather than a linear trajectory. Different films have their own relationships with others, outside any chronological or numerical order.
This is why I feel okay organizing them in such a manner: because the point (or a point), it seems, of the franchise, is to be able to rearrange its varied installments.
So here we go… my final reckoning, from last to first. Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
8. Mission: Impossible 2
There are some moments of x-treme cool in Mission 2, especially Ethan Hunt’s free solo climb at the start of the movie. I love John Woo and I admire the gung-ho fun of this movie, but I think Mission 2’s extremely lighthearted, flirty tone came as a shock after Mission 1‘s rebellious seriousness. That and the plot itself is pretty loosey-goosey.
7. Mission: Impossible
Brian De Palma’s original Mission: Impossible movie was a big, big swing. First of all, it not only kills off its main characters in the film’s opening scene, but it makes the beloved lead of the Mission: Impossible TV show the bad guy! It’s got impressive stunts, but it’s more noteworthy for its moody, renegade tone. Every other installment after will swell with a sense of humor, but this one doesn’t as much… except for a certain indelible, whimsical, Topkapi-inspired aerial heist scene.
6. Mission: Impossible III
Philip Seymour Hoffman is the bad guy in this wildly fun installment about how Ethan Hunt does the hardest thing in the world: plan a wedding! While also trying to save the world from a maniacal arms dealer who is trying to acquire a mysterious biochemical weapon. It’s full of fun set-pieces, like a break-in in the Vatican! And there’s a scene where Ethan has to wear a mask (love the masks) and impersonate Philip Seymour Hoffman, and PSH performs the scene as if he’s Tom Cruise pretending to be himself. Delightful.
5. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (8)
I thought The Final Reckoning was wonderful. Many found it too full of direct callbacks to other installments (fairly rare for this series), and while I did find them to pile up, I didn’t mind them so much. I loved one in particular (the return of an actor from an early installment of the franchise). There is a long, incredible underwater adventure sequence, but for most of the movie, I was missing stunts… until the film’s finale, which is breathtaking. Literally.
4. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (5)
Is this the cutest M:I installment? Yes! Not only is there the kind of “intrigue at the opera” scene you hope for from a film like this, but in this movie we also meet the best of all M:I‘s (fairly chaste) love interests, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a character brimming with personality richness. She’s conflicted! She’s trapped! She has a CRUSH. She loves shoes! She has that signature action move, the hop-up-on-someone-and-strangle-them-with-her-thigh thing. Also, it features the coolest and yet most under-discussed of all Tom Cruise‘s marital arts moves, where he hops/shimmies/parkours upside down up a pole he’s tied to. It’s not even one of the big stunts; it’s just a little watermark of cool.
3. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (7)
God, now this is hard. I think the top 3 are pretty interchangeable for me. I love Mission 7‘s anti AI- plotline (and its allegories for cinema). That and the fact that it features not one but two mind-blowing technical stunt sequences that I could easily watch every single day (and for a period of time, did). It’s also clearly addresses the not-so-secret theme of the Mission: Impossible movies, which is that friendship is the most important thing, a sweet note since Tom Cruise and the writer-director-producer of most of the latter-day M:Is, Christopher McQuarrie, are very best friends.
4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (6)
Fallout is a damn fantastic movie, gussying up the erstwhile M:I formula (“The IMF is disavowed again and Ethan and his team have to go rogue!”) by adding in more bureaucrats and an on-the-ground nemesis in the form of Henry Cavill, who shines as an obnoxious ingrate of a federal agent with an objectively cool punching style. Also, do you love watching Tom Cruise run? Well this film has a lot of that. And, the final helicopter chase sequence is one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen on film.
1. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (4)
I have to give it to Ghost Protocol. First of all, my god, Brad Bird knows how to direct a movie. This reboot is tight as hell, and manages to sing even while introducing a ton of new characters. It’s a perfect movie, creatively screenwritten by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, produced by Christopher McQuarrie, who would go on to co-write and direct the rest of the franchise. The sequence where Tom Cruise climbs up (and then runs down!) the Burj Kalifa changed my life. I love the IMP’s smoke and mirrors (and projections!) in the Kremlin sequence. But mostly I admire the fact that this movie rebooted the whole franchise successfully… and to a new caliber.
