Ranking the Mission: Impossible Franchise From Worst to Best
Mission: Impossible is a long-running action film franchise about a secret agency that works to keep the world a safer place.
Whenever you initially come out of a movie, there is always an immediate impulse, for better or worse, of how you feel about it. If you had a few unexpected gripes you might trash it, if it felt like a ton of fun you might overhype it. In order to avoid unfairly judging Mission: Impossible – Fallout I needed to take a few weeks off after my viewing to absorb all that happened. Now that I’ve allowed some time for Fallout to fully sink in, I feel adequately prepared to rank the entire series. I also want to throw out there what a challenge this is for me. Ranking the franchise is the equivalent of a parent ranking their children. So, without further adieu, and with years of thought, here is my official rank of the Mission: Impossible franchise.
6 Mission: Impossible II
No surprise here. I think most people would agree that this is probably the worst movie in the franchise. John Woo was the director here, and between the doves and over the top fight scenes, it’s very apparent that he was. The movie is just so over-done that it’s hard to identify with. Tom Cruise is doing back flip kicks, front flip kicks, cartwheel kicks, I mean the man is all over the place. It also suffers from an unoriginal plot. Essentially some scientists make a virus that bad guys steal, plan to release, and then make money off the antidote. The one saving grace for the plot is the fact that the movie is self aware enough to even have Cruise address how simple it all is. Despite how ridiculous the movie is overall, it’s still a blast to watch and is entertaining to this day.
5 Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
The fact that Ghost Protocol is ranked second to last shows the strength of the franchise, because this is a great movie. It’s directed by The Incredibles helmer, Brad Bird, and really put the franchise back on the map. This was the highest grossing Mission: Impossible movie to date and really rejuvenated the series after Mission: Impossible III underperformed years earlier. Not only did Bird introduce Jeremy Renner to the mix and increase Simon Pegg’s screen time, he re-introduced the lunacy of stunts that Cruise was willing to perform. Climbing the Burj Khalifa is arguably the most memorable (and was certainly the most marketable) part of this movie, and we’re left with an awesome scene that will make any viewer queasy. The biggest problem with Ghost Protocol is its successors. At the time, the fight scenes were great, the dialogue was fine, and it was a fresh entry into the franchise. After Christopher McQuarrie’s films were released, the fight scenes in Ghost Protocol feel a bit weak, more of the dialogue comes off as cheesy, and the overall tone of the movie is less serious. McQuarrie offered us a grittier look into the franchise, and once the audience got a taste there was no going back. On top of all this, we’re given quite possibly the most forgettable antagonist of any Mission: Impossible movie.
4 Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Now this is where the list gets extremely tricky. There were times when I thought about the movie series and Rogue Nation was at the top of my list. So how did it drop so far? Well, for one, they trimmed down Renner’s role way too much. He was an integral part of the team in Ghost Protocol, but in Rogue Nation he’s mainly observing. This was a huge mistake in my opinion, because Renner’s hand-to-hand combat was some of the franchise’s finest. Next, the villain here, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), is somewhat forgettable (at least at the time). He’s a bit menacing and has a few psychotic moments, but it pales in comparison to another villain from the M:I movies (more to come on that later). Last but not least, the ending is anti-climactic. Hunt leads Lane into a trap and they enclose him in a glass box? I mean, not even a single punch is thrown. Asides from those few issues, this movie is rock solid. The death defying stunt on the airplane is amazing, the entire opera scene is fantastic, and we get one of the best fight scenes of the franchise as a tied up Hunt has to shimmy up a metal pole to help Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) kill a slew of Syndicate baddies.
3 Mission: Impossible
I’m sure people will question rating this movie higher than Rogue Nation, but come on, it’s the original. Were it not for this movie we would not have this awesome franchise that spans over 20 years and 6 films. This movie was the one that got us to love all of the trickery and face swapping that the series can offer. The fight scenes are nowhere close to what we have today, but we can’t penalize the movie because of the time period it was made. It also gave us the defining moment of the M:I franchise when Hunt is dangling in the CIA headquarters, desperately trying to keep his limbs from touching the ground. In addition to that, the entire CIA headquarters scene is also one of the best parts of a movie that the series has churned out. We come to see how his friendship with Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) came to be, and get background into how Hunt became the spy he is today. It’s a great movie chock full of twists and turns that deserves its spot at number 3 on our list.
2 Mission: Impossible III
Welp, if there’s a pick people are really going to disagree with, it’s this one right here. For some reason Mission: Impossible III seems to get panned by fans of the series, but I have no idea why. J.J. Abrams took the series and put his unique, Alias-ish twist on things, and made an amazing movie. First and most importantly, he gave us the best villain that any M:I movie has had to offer. Philip Seymour Hoffman blows you away with his performance as Owen Davien. Just a true sociopath who can explode into a rage at any point in time. His performance is astounding if not frightening even. On top of Hoffman’s performance, M:I III leaves us with, in my opinion, the single greatest scene to date. The infiltration of the Vatican to swap out Davien is done to perfection. Not only is it amazing watching all the characters simultaneously go about working their way inside, their bickering back and forth is so well done. Stickell is still an integral part of the series in III before we began his ousting and the slightly lamer part for him that followed. We also get a great supporting role from Laurence Fishburne as the director of the IMF. He has one particular scene where he is ripping apart Hunt for a failed op, and delivers some hilarious one-liners. As a matter of fact, the entire movie is just really well written.
1 Mission: Impossible – Fallout
By process of elimination you knew this was coming, but if you’ve already seen the movie, then you knew this was coming before you read the first word of this blog. This was one of the most action packed movies that I’ve ever seen, but not in a ridiculous, Hardcore Henry type manner. If there is a way to tastefully do action, McQuarrie and Cruise have cracked the code. Harris returns as the villain here and he manages to exceed his role from the first film. Asides from literally haunting Hunt’s dreams, he seems more unhinged and unstable in Fallout, looking maniacal and disheveled. His only goal has become putting an end to Hunt’s life and all those he loves. Although Henry Cavill’s performance wound up being a tad over-hyped, he was still a great addition to the film and aided in giving us the greatest fight scene in the entire franchise. McQuarrie also did an amazing job at mixing in twists and turns into a franchise that is known for twists and turns. I mentioned this in my movie review, but there were a couple times in the movie where I was completely caught off guard. The M:I movies are obviously Cruise’s vehicle, and he put everything he had into this one. Between the extensive amount of time he invested into the bathroom fight, the HALO jump, flying a helicopter, jumping between buildings and breaking his leg, I mean no other actor on earth devotes themselves like this to their craft. He gave it everything he had, and he delivered with giving us the best M:I movie of the series.
So there is my list. Everyone is subject to their own opinions and I’m sure plenty of people would disagree with my order. In this franchise, though, seeing as I love all of these movies so much, I wouldn’t have a problem with any order that people put them in. And that is the magic of these movies, because they feel so different from one another and are unique in their own way, they appeal to everyone differently. All that is left now is to see what lies in store for this franchise, and keep our fingers crossed that Cruise will return for more.