Ranking The Mission: Impossible Franchise

Well, Tom Cruise’s franchise opus is finally–allegedly–over.

With the release of Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning, a franchise that was almost thirty years old has come to a conclusion. Tom Cruise has put life and limb on the line with ridiculously unnecessary stunt after ridiculously unnecessary stunt to get our butts into the cinema, and it’s time for him to move on to his next adventure. Maybe more Top Gun movies. Or maybe he goes back to where he was in the 1990’s and starts taking on more dramatic roles. I mean, he IS in his 60’s now, as unlikely as that looks when you see him sprinting across the scenery in one of his action performances.

I was very, very late to the game with the M:I franchise, having only seen one of them in theater prior to The Final Reckoning, and having watched nearly the entire series for the first time just last year. There was never any particular reason why I avoided the movies until 2024; they just never really struck my radar.

But I have seen them all now! And as I have done with the Halloween, Friday The 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Streetfranchises before it, it’s time to rank the M:I movies by how much I enjoyed them. Starting with a somewhat controversial #8…

8. Ghost Protocol

In just the two days since I sorted this list on my Letterboxd page, it’s already been alerted to me that many people feel this is far too low for Ghost Protocol. So let me defend my decision making here while also clearly stating this:

I like all of there Mission: Impossible movies. None has a lower score than 3/5 by me, so my saying this is 8th just means that to ME, it’s my least favorite of a quite good bunch.

Anyway, my rationale here is this: as I sat down in 2024 and started watching the M:I’s sequentially, a weird thing happened. I realized they all have the same exact plot. Ethan and his cadre of trusted allies go on the run after getting booted out of the IMF. I wanted something different by the time I got to Ghost Protocol. It felt like leftovers.

Additionally, after the ENTIRETY of Mission: Impossible III is about Ethan’s marriage, this movie came along and just went “Nah” and removed that aspect of his character. It felt unnecessary.

Still, it’s where the franchise first developed a true sense of humor, and everything else is the standard of these flicks, so I still dug it well enough.

Just less than the rest.

7. Mission: Impossible 2

This is the hardest one for me to grade because it’s the one I didn’t watch in 2024. I actually saw this one in theaters way back when it came out. Prior to last year, it was the only M:I I’d ever seen.

And it’s the one everybody hates!

That said, I actually remember enjoying the hell out of this when I watched it. It was so much whacky fun, and the climactic action set piece gets zanier and zanier. Is it John Woo’s OR this franchise’s best effort? No. But it sure strives to be fun.

I wonder if I actually enjoyed it ironically when it came out. I genuinely can’t recall. But I do recall having a solid time with it, so I just can’t find it in my heart to place it last. It’s my only bit of M:I nostalgia!

6. Mission: Impossible 3

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, man. YES. God, what a tremendous villain he was. Probably the best the series ever offered up. He was such a menacing force in this one, and he matched Ethan Hunt every step of the way.

There is the marriage, for which your mileage may vary. It adds a predictable and tropesy love story to the action proceedings. But Tom and Michelle Monaghan had decent chemistry, and the way the story is told–with the out of sequence opening bit–adds a lot of tension and drama.

Why is it down here then? Well ultimately, this just feels like a rehash of the first movie. Ethan Hunt is betrayed by a higher up at IMF and considered rogue. He has to prove his innocence with an elite team of Ving Rhames and others. At one point he dangles from a wire. It’s all my complaints about Ghost Protocol, but even one film earlier.

So even by part 3, I was beginning to want something different. Again, I feel like I’m STILL explaining why Ghost Protocol is so low. As good as it is, it’s a repetitive series, guys!

5. Mission: Impossible

Right around the middle of the list, we have Brian DePalma’s offering which kicked all of this off. I can’t imagine when this movie came out, we were all saying “I bet they keep making these movies until 2025!”. But here we are. And the first one, while having ups and downs, is definitely worthy of everything it spun off.

This feels almost a bit corny and of-its-day, especially in terms of the direction and score (not necessarily the M:I theme, but the rest of it). It comes off a touch hackneyed at points. It FEELS very 1990’s and doesn’t seem quite like it aged with the years as much as the rest of them do. It’s hard to put a finger on it, but… it’s there.

Still, Cruise rules as usual, and there are some very exciting and intense scenes. The scenes that became part of the zeitgeist–the wire-dangling scene and the explosion in the tunnel–still pay off and work so well. Even at this larval stage in the M:I development, they knew how to put together set pieces that would blow folks away. And they still worked on me in 2024, far after they were originally offered.

4. Dead Reckoning

Borderline great.

What this series always needed was Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff, and we just never knew it. Both were fantastic, especially Atwell who had a much bigger role. She stepped onto the path worn down for her by actresses like Rebecca Ferguson, and she made her role her own.

The problem is that after the absolutely bonkers and phenomenal finale and third act of Fallout, Dead Reckoning’s climax almost felt tame. The escaping the plummeting train got good–very good, even–but everything leading up to it was relatively ho-hum. Dead Reckoning was a victim of not being able to match the two movies that came before it, and that’s a shame.

For me, the best action set piece here was the car chase, which had plenty of drama and humor and just worked the best. The movie was almost strictly downhill from there, though.

3. Final Reckoning

For my full thoughts on The Final Reckoning, I would ask you to check Episode 564 of the So Wizard podcast where I was recently a guest to help review it!

But the long and short of it was this:

As per usual with this series, there were some amazing set pieces, be they the bi-plane battle or the underwater scene. McQuarrie and Cruise just continue striking gold coming up with beats for these movies.

But the biggest problem was, for me, the lack of humor that the movies had done so well ever since Ghost Protocol. This entry felt a little too dire for my tastes.

Still, it’s third for me. Maybe because I actually saw it on the big screen the way our lord and savior Tom Cruise intended. It felt like a big deal as the finale here.

2. Rogue Nation

For when it came out, Rogue Nation was the perfect combination of everything Mission: Impossible had become. The action was magnificent, and those bits were the best the series had given us to that point. Tom and his stunts were ballsy. The supporting cast ruled. And the humor was spot-on and used just frequently enough.

I remember when watching through these last year, that this entry immediately made me forgive the recycled plot elements that bothered me so much in Ghost Protocol. I just adored this one.

Too bad it would be topped in the franchise just one entry later…

1. Fallout

The third act of this movie is everything. EVERYTHING. It’s silly and intense and silly and extreme and silly and action-packed and silly and insane and silly and amazing and silly and glorious and silly.

I loved it.

The whole third act of this movie was my yelling at the TV and laughing. The climax is just banana bonkers. But in the very best way. It was McQuarrie and Tom throwing it all out there and clearly having a ton of fun while they did it.

Aside from all that, you have a movie that gets progressively better with each act. This went from one I thought was definitely going to come off as worse than Rogue Nation while I watched the first act to then becoming the best of the bunch. You have to love movies that improve almost by the minute. And it’s not like this starts off as anything resembling “bad”. It just gets to be SO DAMN GOOD.

*******

I’m glad I got around to watching this whole franchise. It was well worth it because, like I said, even the “worst” movies here are in the “Good” territory for me (3.0 out of 5).

But now I want to hear from you: how would YOU rank the Mission: Impossible films, worst to best? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time… take care!