Everyone loves a movie ranking, right? So, with a new Mission Impossible movie out there in the world I thought I would add to the noise by giving the definitive ranking of this series! I will point out that this is a series that I truly enjoy and look forward to each installment. It might even be my favorite series out there (don't tell James Bond!). It's either this or the Air Buddies films. Kind of a tossup.
7. Mission: Impossible II (2000) - Here we go. The only movie in the series that I find to be bad. As in not good. At all. I can recall in 2000 being very excited to see this sequel and kind of laughing at its over the top ridiculousness. I recently rewatched for the first time since then and nothing had changed. It was still awful.
Star Tom Cruise had stated that he wanted the series to have each film being directed by major director in their own style. John Woo came on board for the second film and he definitely stamped his style all over the place. Bullets blazing, slow motion action, flying doves, and all the John Woo things you expect are here. However, it's so over the top that the movie becomes a cartoon. And not a good one. Thandie Newton, playing Cruise's thief girlfriend turned spy, deserved better. Also notable for being the movie that caused Dougray Scott to drop out of playing Wolverine in X-Men. On the plus side Anthony Hopkins (One of the many actors who played some version of an IMF leader) says maybe the most memorable line in the series, "It's not mission difficult, it's mission impossible."
Also notable for the one more where Ethan Hunt is not going rouge.
6. Mission: Impossible III (2006) - The abbreviation for this movie on the poster is M:i:III which already entertaining. Two colons! The lower case 'I'! Madness! But at least we're back to movies that I actually enjoy. Whew!
Originally this was set for David Fincher to direct who dropped out, then it was Joe Carnahan who worked on the film for over a year, only to drop out as well, and finally it was JJ Abrams made his film debut with this threequel. Fincher and Carnahan both cited creative differences as their reasons for dropping out, while Abrams was there to play ball.
This is the one that tried to ground Ethan Hunt and make him more into a character rather than just a cypher. Here Ethan Hunt is married to Julia (Michelle Monaghan) , done with being a super spy, and just trying to live a quiet life when he is drawn back into the IMF world after being told one of the agents he trained (Keri Russell) has been kidnapped by some bad guys with bad intentions.
What's good about M:i:III (other than the abbreviations) is the action set pieces (A must for a M:I film) and a legitimately great villain played by the late great Phillip Seymour Hoffman. When playing a mean guy, Hoffman had a certain tone that let you know you were messing with the wrong guy. He's formidable, and the M:I world that is kind of rare.
This is also where we first get Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) in the series. Though it's a small role, but it's a big a plus.
5. Mission: Impossible (1996) - The original. Funny thing, I had always looked at this movie as a movie that Brian DePalma directed that had none of his real style on in it. Then I watched it again recently and I couldn't be more wrong. His fingerprints are all over the place.
There's a paranoid element to this movie as everyone on Ethan Hunt's team, including Jim Phelps that main character from the TV series the movies are based on, gets killed, and Hunt is the main suspect. The movie is a winner from its two main set pieces: the break in at the CIA and the bullet train / helicopter finale. Both are fantastic and ridiculous sequences that absolutely work. Except for my uncle who told me over and over again how it is scientifically impossible for a helicopter to follow a bullet train in a tunnel, since the bullet creates a vacuum behind it. Something like that. Seriously, I heard this over and over again.
Also the movie manages to be exciting despite its lack of gun play. Only two shots are fired in the film and you don't even notice it. It definitely shows its age these days with its no longer advanced technology, and the reaction shots of Luther (the man in the chair, Ving Rhames) come across as corny more than anything else. But these are minor flaws and easy to overlook considering everything else the movie is giving you.
4. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) - This is a tough one. The big action sequences are here and they are fantastic. There's a bomb in an airport, a car chase in Rome, and a thrilling finale on the Orient Express! Also the one time I was truly fooled by the M:I mask, a staple of the series something I always find a bit silly, but here it works. And major props for bring back government company man Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) to the series for the first time since he was chasing Ethan in the first film. All of this is great, but the plot. Oh, the plot is maybe the silliest one of the bunch. Not that M:I plots need to be great. Usually, it's someone has stolen a nuclear bomb and is going to sell it to a madman! Start running Ethan!
Here the bad guy is an AI called The Entity (props for being right on time with an AI plot) that is can be in every device in the world and even has a human minion, a guy from Ethan's past named Gabrial (Esai Morales) to do what it needs to do. When I left the theater, while I enjoyed the movie for sure, one name stuck out in my head: Roger Moore. This felt like a Roger Moore era James Bond film. You know, the Octopussy, A View to a Kill, Moonraker era. And while I love Moore, he was MY Bond growing up, those movies are not the best of the series. Pom Klementieff's non stop henchwoman might as well be the new Richard Kiel.
Director Christopher McQuarrie has been running this series (with Cruise of course) since Rogue Nation, and while the stunts are up to par the something about this plot just seems to get away from him here. He also has almost all the dialogue either move the plot along or explain something to audience. While I'm not coming to an M:I movie for a character driven story, here is one movie that could have used a bit more.
I also hate the series exit of Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a character who always added something to the usual group with Ethan, Benji, and Luther. Sure, we added Hayley Atwell's pickpocket Grace to the team, but I would preferred to keep Ferguson if we're making a choice.
3. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) - Now we're talking! Everything you want in a M:I movie is right here. The Vienna opera house sequence, the underwater server, the motorcycle chase, Cruise actually hanging off the side of an airplane no damn good reason, and a good use of the masks, make this one an absolute banger of a movie.
This is also the best team in the series. We get Hunt, Luther, and Benji, plus William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), the series introduction of Ilsa Faust. Here the team is dealing with The Syndicate, an anti-IMF(!) out to spread chaos and evil around the world! Or just a bunch of rogue intelligence agents using their abilities for badness instead of goodness. Either way Hunt & Co. are out to stop them and their leader Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), who turns out to be an excellent villain himself.
This is also where Christopher McQuarrie takes over the director's chair and does not let it go.
2. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) - Fallout does everything Rogue Nation does, but just a bit better. Renner is gone and instead we get Henry Cavill as a CIA agent that Hunt is begrudgingly stuck working with as they track down stolen nuclear cores. The usual team of Luther, Benji, and Faust who has unclear motives are also all back from Rogue Nation.
Plot twists abound as do the set pieces. Standouts here are the bathroom fight, Ethan's run through London while Benji guides him (echoing the similar sequence in M:i:III), a cracking car chase through Paris, and an insane dueling helicopter finale in Kashmir(!).
The twists are truly surprising, Cavill and his mustache are great, and the masks do work here for a nice a surprise. Also, glad to see Alec Baldwin's CIA head from Rogue Nation return here as the now IMF chief, and Monaghan's Julia makes a nice series exit. The connection to the first film through Vanessa Shaw's White Widow character are also a nice touch. This series has also had a little trouble with actually feeling like a something consistent and for the first time perhaps, it feels like the series has a whole has led up this. Except for Mission: Impossible II. That hasn't led to anything.
McQuarrie has a way of making even the silliest of plot in the movie seem plausible and somewhat believable.
1. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - Brad Bird stepped in the director's chair for the 4th film in the series and managed to make the biggest impression.
If an M:I movie is all about their set pieces then this is one that has the most to offer. There is action set piece upon set piece here. And all of them are great.
Benji getting Ethan out of jail, Ethan scaling the Burge Khalifi in Dubai, the foot chase in the sandstorm, the break in at the Kremlin, and the finale in an automated parking lot all put this movie way over the top of the hill. The team of Benji, Brandt, and Jane Carter (Paula Patton) are solid. While the plot and the bad guy (the late Michael Nyqvist) are nothing to get excited about, everything else works. Even the title sequence, a nod to the TV series, is also a standout.
It's the one I've gone back to the most, the one that solidified this series as the one to watch and the one I will probably continue to revisit.
That's my ranking. What's yours?
