Mission Accomplished: Ranking the Mission Impossible Series
Saturday, August 4, 2018 at 10:00AM By Spencer Coile
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Anytime the latest entry in an action movie franchise is released, it is celebrated as 'the best' in the series. No film series has better exemplified this than the Mission Impossible franchise. What makes this series particularly special is that it set the standard for filmed reboots of classic television shows. It may not have been the first, but it certainly is the most consistent. Perhaps most importantly, it knows when to take a break.
The release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a clever reminder in the age of comic book adaptations arriving every month that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) will always be there to save the day. But how exactly has the series evolved over time? And is Fallout actually the best in the series thus far?
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06. Mission: Impossible II (2000, dir. John Woo)
The less we say about this the better. While the first film was slow burn of a spy thriller, the second throws everything but the kitchen sink into the plot. Complete with a story involving the outbreak of a deadly virus, Thandie Newton walking around aimlessly, and shots that are repeated but from different angles to demonstrate how cool they were, Woo did not seem to grasp that the action setpieces are supplemental to the characters and plot. It is definitely the most cringe-inducing in the series, but still not without some spectacle.
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05. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011, dir. Brad Bird)
Bird, notable for his classic animated features like Iron Giant and The Incredibles, takes a stab at live-action with his entry into the Mission Impossible universe. There is so much to admire about his effort. We finally have a somewhat complicated female protagonist in Paula Patton, sequences that truly take the breath away, and a larger scale than the three films that came before it. Still, it ranks so low because of its pitiful villain (Michael Nyqvist). The high stakes involve nuclear missiles sent to attack the United States, but Kyqvist’s Kurt Hendricks does not feel like a crucial part of the story. Had we been given more of Léa Seydoux as the malicious assassin Sabine Moreau, then the film might have been more memorable.
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04. Mission: Impossible III (2006, dir. J.J. Abrams)
The first two films feel completely separate to the rest of the series. It's the third film in the franchise that began to cement its current identity. Mission: Impossible III finds Ethan Hunt finally settling down with a kindhearted nurse, Julia (Michelle Monaghan). It’s not that simple, however, and Ethan is forced to grapple with dedication to his job or his fiancé. This negotiation helps to raise the drama and to humanize Ethan in ways the previous films did not. But it also has a secret weapon: Philip Seymour Hoffman. Playing the primary villain, Owen Davian, Hoffman is a menacing figure throughout the entire film.
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03. Mission: Impossible (1996, dir. Brian De Palma)
It’d be easy to write the first Mission Impossible entry off as insignificant to what the series eventually became. However, that would be denying its sheer inventiveness. We are introduced to the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team, a rag-tag group of individuals who are great at their jobs feature some notable cast members like Kristin Scott Thomas and Emilio Estevez. And then within the first half hour, everyone (excluding Cruise) is promptly killed. Having only seen the first film recently, I can say that I was shocked by this decision. It is a testament to the risks this film takes and then De Palma allows the tension to escalate slowly again after that stunning first 30 minutes. It’s not wholly an action film, but a spy thriller; one that is smart and suspenseful.
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02. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015, dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
Rogue Nation takes the problems from Ghost Protocol and turns them into strengths. We now have a compelling villain in Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane and finally have a central female character, Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, who is very much Ethan’s equal (and actually returns in subsequent films). The set pieces and action sequences are more elaborate and more imaginative. But what makes Rogue Nation especially rewarding is the ways in which Tom Cruise’s superstar persona is challenged. Ethan Hunt is known to be the smartest, most daring agent at IMF, but Rogue Nation let's us see Ethan at his goofiest and his most vulnerable.
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01. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018, dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
If the insane action scenes aren't enough to sway you -- seriously, one scene features Cruise and Henry Cavill jumping from a plane and into Paris, and it's meant to look like one shot -- then it could be the ways in which McQuarrie and Cruise work to find different dimensions to Ethan Hunt. After 22 years, it'd be enough to simply give audiences an action flick with plenty of stunts and thrills, but the Mission Impossible seems interested in developing the mythology of Ethan. Who is this man? What makes him tick? What defines his morality? The thrills are the draw, but it's the exploration of its leading character that sticks.
It’s intriguing to trace the timeline of the Mission Impossible series. On the surface, they're only blockbuster action films, but when you dig a little deeper, you see the work of multiple auteurs coming together to craft a mosaic of one man across multiple decades. While not all of them work, it’d be hard to deny the ambition of this franchise. Let's see what Cruise's Ethan Hunt has planned for us in future installments.
Reader Comments (17)
Ghost Protocol should be higher. It also deserves credit for being so SO good that it set the bar high and people are actually excited for these films. J.J definitely did not accomplish that with the 3rd film. Ghost Protocol made that happen. It helped Tom Cruise’s image too. On this list, it would be my #2 (or even #1).
I also like how Cruise allowed people to share the posters with him starting with Ghost Protocol. You don’t see that everyday coming from him (or similar stars like Denzel, for example). It was a nice thing to do as the ensemble really became important in that film and the ones that followed.
Yeah. I can understand the rankings except for GHOST PROTOCOL which for me is #1, no joke. I don't think anything in FALLOUT measures up to that skyscraper sequence in Ghost Protocol and certainly no small role measures up to Lea Seydoux's. Brad Bird is underrated!
good ranking. I have not seen the new one but other than that, I like all these film’s quite a bit and Rogue Nation is my favorite. I think you may be over-rating the film that started it a bit, but understandable.
The Bourne and Bond films get all the credit but when it comes to Spy/Action film series, Mission Impossible is heads amd shoulders above the rest in quality, consistency and fun.
Haven't seen Fallout yet, but I'm with the others in saying Ghost Protocol is underrated. Of 2-5, it's my #1 (I think the whole thing is great), although I still like the first film best - and I think you may have hit on why with the spy movie vs. action movie divide.
My favorite is third entry! Rogue Nation is boring
How much of the box office supports the cult of Scientology? Pass.
@Sister Rona
Get over it. The rest of the world has...
@Sister Rona-I'm with you honey. I could care less about some aging dinosaur doing stupid stunts to prove that he can play characters that are younger than him.
Does mean you will add Mission: Impossible-Fallout to your Oscar predictions during it's updated? Also, when will the updated Oscar nominations predictions for the 91st Academy Awards come up? If it's after the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, can you let us know?
Ghost protocol is either 1 or 2 with rogue nation. Fallout is 3. And yes the John woo one is dead last by a mile.
Ghost Protocol should be way higher. It breathed new life into the franchise and the whole Dubai sequence is awesome. Mission Impossible 3 has a great villain but Ghost Protocol is still the better film.
Agree that Rogue Nation is the best of those I've seen (haven't seen Fallout yet).
The way I like to break down the M:I films is-
Mission: Impossible- A genuine spy film as opposed to just an actioner.
M:i-2- The absolute pits.
M:i:III- The best villain that the series has had.
Ghost Protocol- The most fun the series has ever been. Made M:I cool again.
Rogue Nation- An amazingly sure-footed film, and the best female protagonist the series has had.
Haven't seen Fallout yet, but cannot wait. So until then, I would rank the films as 1 (only because it is a separate film to the rest of the series frankly) followed by 5,4,3 and then 2 by a long distance.
Yeah, Ghost Protocol is number one for me by a long shot. Sequence for sequence it's the strongest of the series (nothing in any of the other films has ever topped the Burj Khalifa sequence), and the chemistry among the cast was better than any that preceded it (the addition of Rebecca Ferguson in Rogue Nation definitely kicked things up a notch). It also never drags for a second, something that Rogue Nation and Fallout, despite their often jaw-dropping action sequences, couldn't manage.
Add me to the list of people who think Ghost Protocol should be higher. It not only contains one of the best action set pieces of the decade, but it also changed how people perceived these movies (rather than III). I wish they’d kept Paula Patton around too.
The M:I films are good for at least one well-executed set piece but I don't get the hype (including Oscar prognostication) that gets drummed up with each new film. The recent batch boast some good action sequences but are sorely lacking in dialogue and coherent plotting.
Where I'd rank them (with the caveat that I'll probably wait for home video to see Fallout):
1. Mission:Impossible... De Palma cleverly played off of the original TV show to craft fresh iconography. In retrospect, it's not surprising that a Hitchcock devotee would kill off a bunch of movie stars 30 minutes in but damn was it a ballsy move. Still the best all-around film in my book.
2. M:I - Ghost Protocol... Script problems aside, the Dubai sequence was genius. The supporting cast was quite good, too.
3. M:I - Rogue Nation... Great opera set piece and a solid star-making performance by Rebecca Ferguson. Otherwise, meh.
4. M:I 3... A game performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman but a mostly drab, paint-by-numbers affair.
5. M:I 2... Apparently the victim of studio interference but still pretty awful.
My all time favourite is ghost protocol