Mission: Impossible movies ranked
The Mission: Impossible franchise is one of the most popular action movie franchises of all time. The first of the Mission: Impossible movies starring Tom Cruise premiered in theaters almost 30 years ago, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down soon.
With a new Mission: Impossible movie coming this summer, we ranked the Mission: Impossible movies from worst to best. It’s wild that this franchise is getting so much better as it goes on. That’s all I’m going to say about that right now.
Before we rank the Mission: Impossible movies, I also wanted to share the Mission: Impossible movies in order, so you know how to watch them before Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two hits theaters on June 28, 2024. And, I also shared where to watch the Mission: Impossible movies before you venture out to the theaters to watch Dead Reckoning Part One and Part Two.
Mission: Impossible movies in order
- Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
- Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
- Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015)
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12, 2023)
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two (July 28, 2024)
Where to watch the Mission: Impossible movies
As of the end of June 2023, there are a few places to watch the Mission: Impossible movies. The first six Mission: Impossible movies are available to stream on Paramount+ right now. With your premium Paramount+ subscription, you can watch Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible 2, Mission: Impossible 3, Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and Fallout.
There are reports that the movies are available on Pluto TV, but that doesn’t appear to be true. You can also watch the Mission: Impossible movies on other SVOD platforms, but you’ll likely have to rent or buy the movies.
Let’s get the ranking started with the worst Mission: Impossible movie so far, Mission: Impossible 2.
7. Mission: Impossible 2
Mission: Impossible 2 premiered in 2000, four years after the first movie. Unfortunately, this is the worst of the Mission: Impossible movies. It’s not necessarily a bad action movie. There are some pretty iconic moments in the movie, but it just doesn’t live up to the standard set by the other Mission: Impossible movies. It’s pretty clearly the weakest movie of the original trilogy.
In the movie, Ethan Hunt must recover a new virus with massive implications. The Chimera virus has been stolen, and if it is used, it would cause a pandemic.
For the time period, some of the action sequences in Mission: Impossible 2 are incredible. Overall, they probably don’t crack any lists of the Mission: Impossible movie action sequences, though, and that’s a problem. The stakes are high, but are they high enough?
Enough about Mission: Impossible 2! Let’s move on to Mission: Impossible 3.
- Release Year: 2000
- Director: John Woo
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandiwe Newton, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, Brendan Gleeson, Rade Sherbedgia, and Ving Rhames
6. Mission: Impossible 3
Mission: Impossible 3 premiered in theaters in 2006. Directed by J.J. Abrams, Mission: Impossible 3 continues Ethan Hunt’s story and wraps up the original Mission: Impossible trilogy.
In the third movie, Ethan Hunt has hung up the spy gear. He’s going to be married soon and out of the industry… or so he thinks. After Ethan’s colleague, Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell), is kidnapped, Ethan is forced back into the game to save Lindsey, but is everything as it seems? You’ll have to watch to find out!
Overall, Mission: Impossible 3 is a good movie. There’s no doubt about that. It’s a step up from Mission: Impossible 2. The cast is better, and the story and direction are good. With that said, it just doesn’t have the same iconic moments that the first movie did, which is next up on the list.
And, the original trilogy just doesn’t hold up that well when compared to the new movies of the franchise. I hate to say that, but it’s true.
- Release Year: 2006
- Director: J.J. Abrams
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan, Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Billy Crudup, Keri Russell, Simon Pegg, and Laurence Fishburne
5. Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible premiered in theaters in 1996, and it’s definitely one of the most exciting action movies of the era. This was such a change of pace from the original Mission: Impossible TV series.
The film tells the story of Ethan Hunt, an agent from the Impossible Mission Force, as he tries to stop a rogue agent from giving up the names of other agents to those who would kill them. The agency relies on secrecy, for the most part, to be effective, and this is a direct threat to the organization and its mission.
Mission: Impossible is full of incredible stunt sequences. Everyone loves the scene where Ethan Hunt drops into the vault and hangs around, unable to touch the heat-sensored floor. It’s an epic scene, and it holds up nearly 30 years later. With all the incredible stunts we’ve seen in Mission: Impossible, this is probably one of the first that people think of. It’s that iconic!
Mission: Impossible starts strong, stumbles a little bit in the second and third movies, and then gets really good again, starting with Ghost Protocol, which is next up on the list.
- Release Year: 1996
- Director: Brian De Palma
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jean Reno
4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol premiered in theaters in 2011. It’s the fourth movie of the Mission: Impossible movie series, and it’s great! It’s hard to say what changed with the Mission: Impossible franchise between the third movie of the series and the release of Ghost Protocol in 2011, but it’s so easy to see what changed. The action sequences are so much bigger and scarier. There’s so much more to the story.
In the film, Ethan goes rogue to clear their organization’s name after being framed for a terrorist attack. There are so many wild moments in the movie for Ethan Hunt, including scaling the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, engaging in intense car chases through the streets of Mumbai, and infiltrating the Kremlin. This movie is nuts!
It’s not often that we see an action movie franchise improve this much over the course of its run, but the last three Mission: Impossible movies have been excellent.
Ghost Protocol just misses out on the No. 3 spot in the ranking, but it’s still a tier below the top two Mission: Impossible movies. Let’s get to them now!
- Release Year: 2011
- Director: Brad Bird
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Vladimir Mashkov, Léa Seydoux, Josh Holloway, Anil Kapoor, Samuli Edelmann, and more
3. Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation
Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation is the fifth movie of the Mission: Impossible franchise. It was released four years after Ghost Protocol in 2015. After clearing the IMF in Ghost Protocol and becoming a little bit famous for his role in that, Ethan Hunt becomes the hunted in Rogue Nation. A criminal syndicate is out to stop Ethan Hunt this time around, and he’s just trying to stay one step ahead of them while also preventing their larger and more dubious plan.
Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation features a few of the most intense and thrilling action sequences we’ve seen in the franchise thus far, including Ethan Hunt’s underwater scene where Cruise had to hold his breath like five minutes and the incredible motorcycle chase.
Rogue Nation just misses out on the top spot in the ranking. We’re truly splitting hairs for the top spot. You can guess what the next movie on the list is, and it just happens to be the most recent of the Mission: Impossible movies.
- Release Year: 2015
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, and Alec Baldwin
2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the sixth movie of the Mission: Impossible franchise. It premiered in theaters in 2018, and it’s the second-best of the Mission: Impossible movies so far!
The movie tells the story of Ethan Hunt is, once again, tasked with stopping nuclear tech from getting into the hands of the wrong people. This time, some of his old adversaries are back in the mix.
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s so odd to me that Mission: Impossible, as a franchise, just continues to get better and better. And, I mean that. Like, there are so few franchises these days that don’t become a complete shell of the original, hitting the same beats, and cashing in on IP. Mission: Impossible is definitely cashing in on IP, but the story, the action sequences, and just pretty much everything is better than it was in the original Mission: Impossible movies.
- Release Year: 2018
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan, and Alec Baldwin
1. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Tom Cruise and the Mission: Impossible team did it again! They upped the ante, and the new Mission: Impossible movie tops the ranking of the Mission: Impossible movies so far. There’s pretty much no doubt that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is the best of the franchise that we’ve seen so far.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning is the seventh movie of the Mission: Impossible franchise. It premiered in theaters on July 12, 2023. The story is split into two parts with Dead Reckoning Part Two, which is coming in the summer of 2024.
It’s been a few years (five!) since the last Mission: Impossible movie, and it’s safe to say that Dead Reckoning is just better than Fallout, although they’re both great movies. In Dead Reckoning, Ethan Hunt must stop a new AI tech, known as the Entity, as various groups try to control it.
There’s a pretty good chance Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is one of the most popular movies of the summer, and that’s a pretty bold statement. There have been so many good movies released this summer!
- Release Year: 2023
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, and Henry Czerny
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two premieres on June 28, 2024. We’ll update the ranking again to include all the new Mission: Impossible movies.