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How to Watch the 'Mission: Impossible' Movies in Order (Chronologically and by Release Date)

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The Big Picture

• Tom Cruise has been the face of the Mission: Impossible franchise for 25 years, playing the daring and intelligent Ethan Hunt.
• The franchise has released seven films so far, with Mission: Impossible 8 coming in summer of 2025.
• The movies can be watched in either release date order or chronological order, with each installment building upon the previous ones.

Tom Cruise helped revive a franchise in 1996 when he starred in the first Mission: Impossible film as Ethan Hunt, a member of a fictional spy agency called Impossible Missions Force, or IMF. The first film kicked off a successful movie franchise that's run for 25 years, with the number of Mission: Impossible nearing the double digits. The entire series focuses on the daring and intelligent Hunt, and while playing the same character for more than two decades is no small feat, Cruise makes the impossible look easy. While Cruise has been onboard for all of the Mission: Impossible films — seven so far, with the eighth having stopped filming due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike — the other actor who’s been by his side since day one is Ving Rhames , who plays Luther Stickell, an expert hacker at IMF and Hunt’s most trusted friend. Over the years, many great actors like Jon Voight , Philip Seymour Hoffman , and Angela Bassett have had roles in the franchise, whether as allies or antagonists to Hunt.

Thankfully, for anyone wondering how to watch the Mission: Impossible movies in chronological order or by release date, the action spy franchise isn’t as complicated as Hunt’s “impossible” missions. Here’s a straightforward guide.

Editor's Note: This article was updated on November 5, 2023.

• Mission: Impossible

An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization.

Mission Impossible Movies In Order of Release Date

Here’s every film in the Mission: Impossible movie franchise, in the order they were released in:

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Mission: impossible 2 (2000), mission: impossible iii (2006).

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Mission Impossible Movies in Chronological Order of Events

The timeline of the Mission: Impossible franchise is pretty straightforward, but if you're wondering when Cruise climbed the Burj Khalifa, how many movies Ilsa Faust has been in, or who's been on Ethan Hunt's IMF team the longest, we've got you covered. Here's a breakdown of how to watch the Mission: Impossible films in chronological order and the important details to remember:

Based on the TV series of the same name that ran from 1966 to 1973, Mission: Impossible , the first film in what is now a multi-billion-dollar-earning franchise, takes the original story and turns it on its head. When a whole team of IMF agents is killed during a mission, Cruise’s Hunt is left as the only survivor. Unfortunately, surviving doesn’t do him much good, as IMF, in turn, suspects Hunt of being a mole in the organization and the one responsible for the killings. In order to prove his innocence, Hunt goes on the run in search of the real mole, intent on stopping them before they do any more damage. Along with Cruise and Rhames, Mission: Impossible also stars Voigt as Jim Phelps, one of the original series’s characters, Vanessa Redgrave as an arms dealer named Max, as well as Kristin Scott Thomas and Emilio Estevez as other major characters. Directed by Brian De Palma , the 1996 film is more of a contained, paranoid spy thriller, and ultimately, the franchise goes above and beyond the first film’s story and action sequences, but Mission: Impossible will always be the one that started it all.

Released four years after the first film, Mission: Impossible 2 , directed by John Woo, features the return of Hunt and the IMF, as Hunt is tasked with finding and disposing of a biochemical weapon called “Chimera.” The villain of this mission is a former IMF agent named Sean Ambrose, played by Dougray Scott . Other new additions to the cast are Thandiwe Newton as Nyah Nordoff-Hall, Ambrose’s ex-girlfriend who helps Hunt accomplish his task, as well as Brendan Gleeson as John C. McCloy, the CEO of Biocyte, the company that creates both the Chimera weapon and its antidote, “Bellerophon.” Ambrose aims to start a pandemic so that he can earn billions of dollars by selling the antidote, and Hunt and Nyah must secure the virus before it’s too late. The second film in the Mission: Impossible franchise ups the ante, with Hunt traveling all the way to Sydney, Australia to chase down Ambrose, and the action sequences are jam-packed in typical Woo fashion .

The third film in the Mission: Impossible franchise took a really long time to be released, with six years between 2000’s Mission: Impossible 2 and 2006’s Mission: Impossible III . The third outing for IMF agent Hunt introduces two more key characters to the story — Michelle Monaghan as Hunt's fiancée, Julia Meade, and Simon Pegg ’s Benji Dunn, an IMF technician and trusted teammate of Hunt’s. In Mission: Impossible III , Hunt attempts to retire from fieldwork and settle down with Julia, but the organization can’t seem to let him go. He is called in to rescue a kidnapped agent and stop an arms dealer named Owen Davian ( Seymour Hoffman ) from receiving a dangerous MacGuffin called the “Rabbit’s Foot.” All the while, Hunt tries to keep the secret of his real job from Julie, but despite his efforts, she gets dragged into danger anyway. Directed by J.J. Abrams , the third Mission: Impossible film also features many other fantastic actors, including Laurence Fishburne , Keri Russell , and Billy Crudup .

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

In the new decade, this is where the action franchise really hits its stride. The first Mission: Impossible film to have a subtitle, 2011’s Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol does not disappoint. After a mission goes terribly wrong, ending with the Kremlin blowing up, the U.S. government disavows IMF in what is known as the “Ghost Protocol,” leaving Hunt and his team alone and without backup. Along with Cruise, Rhames, Pegg, and Monaghan, the fourth Mission: Impossible film also stars Jeremy Renner , Paula Patton , Michael Nyqvist , and Léa Seydoux . While Hunt’s previous missions have involved traitor agents and virus weapons, this particular adventure features Hunt working to prevent a nuclear war. The stakes are higher than ever, and Hunt must overcome both physical and emotional hardships in order to do his job and save the world. The Iron Giant and Incredibles director Brad Bird made his live-action debut with Ghost Protocol , and the film is a major step up from the previous three, escalating the action set-pieces (most notably, Cruise's instantly iconic climb up the Burj Khalifa ) and introducing a more ensemble-driven approach the franchise is still embracing today.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Enter Rebecca Ferguson . Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is the fifth film in the Mission: Impossible series that never seems to stop. Alongside Alec Baldwin , Sean Harris , and Tom Hollander , this movie marks the first appearance of Ferguson's Ilsa Faust , an MI6 agent who encounters Hunt while undercover in the Syndicate crime organization; an international group of spies who went rogue. Ferguson’s character is definitely one of the most complicated of the series so far, and she adds new life and intrigue to the franchise. After Hunt is captured by the Syndicate, led by Harris’s character Solomon Lane, he is tortured for information and later escapes with Faust’s help. The Syndicate’s main goal is to reconstruct the world order through a series of violent terrorist attacks, and of course, Hunt gets blamed for the crimes, leaving him constantly on the run. It’s an age-old story. Hunt gets involved with a huge conspiracy then gets framed and must go on the run, relying on his amazing skills as an agent to take the Syndicate down before they can complete their plan. Considering that this formula has gotten the franchise this far, there’s really no reason to change it up, but director Christopher McQuarrie makes it feel fresh and new with extraordinary stunts and a deeper interest in Hunt as a character. It's no wonder that he's the only filmmaker to date to stick with the franchise for multiple sequels.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Mission: Impossible - Fallout follows Hunt, Faust, and the rest of Hunt's now-familiar team as they work to stop what’s left of the Syndicate. The organization has reformed as the Apostles, led by an unknown figure known as John Lark. After a mission to secure stolen plutonium cores doesn’t go well, Angela Bassett, finally joining the franchise as CIA Director Erika Sloane, assigns Henry Cavill ’s August Walker to oversee Hunt’s future missions. Meanwhile, an arms dealer named Alanna Mitsopolis, or the White Widow (a new character played by Vanessa Kirby ) causes trouble for Hunt and the IMF by stealing the plutonium to make a deal. According to Mitsopolis’s offer, Hunt must secure Lane (the villain from the previous movie) and deliver him to MI6, and she will give him the plutonium cores for the CIA and IMF. Of course, very little goes according to plan, as Hunt discovers that the person known as Lark is closer than he thought. Set two years after Rogue Nation , the two films’ plots are heavily intertwined, so it’s best to watch them together if you can.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

The latest chapter of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One features even bigger stunts than ever before and adds a host of exciting new cast members, including Hayley Atwell , Pom Klementieff , Shea Whigham, Esai Morales , Indira Varma , Cary Elwes , and Mark Gatiss , among others. Christopher McQuarrie once again wrote and directed the movie and will be doing the same for MIssion: Impossible 8 . The film introduces a new threat involving a familiar face, an organization known as the Community. It is by far the biggest film in the series, both in terms of cast and scope.

What's Next?

With every new installment, the Mission: Impossible franchise gets better and better. And while Dead Reckoning Part One may just be the best it's ever been, Cruise and McQuarrie will be looking to top that with Mission: Impossible 8 . However, the film has been delayed multiple times and has undergone a quiet name change. As of now, the eighth part of Ethan Hunt's story is set to premiere on Memorial Day, May 23, 2025.

Watch the Mission: Impossible franchise on Paramount+ in the U.S.

• Movie Features

All of Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible" movies, ranked from worst to best

• Tom Cruise has starred in seven "Mission: Impossible" movies since 1992.
• The actor recently reprised his role as Ethan Hunt in 2023's "Dead Reckoning Part One."
• Here are all of the "Mission: Impossible" movies, ranked from worst to best.

7. "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000)

"Mission: Impossible 2" should be given way more love than it gets — mainly because Hong Kong cinema legend John Woo helmed it. Yes, the "Hard Boiled" and "Bullet in the Head" director brought his signature bullet ballet style to the "Mission: Impossible" sequel, with all the slow-motion flair you could ask for.

Is it cheesy? Sure. Does the script need some work? Definitely. Is there any smart subtext or meaning underneath all the action? Absolutely not. This is a peak 2000s action movie, and it knows it. 

"Mission: Impossible 2" is so over the top that once you've made peace with it, it's best to just go along for the ride. Come on, Tom Cruise and Dougray Scott play motorbike chicken with each other before a mid-air tackle sends them both crashing to the ground… What's not to love? It's the type of vehicular chaos that Dominic Toretto would be proud of.

Even so, "Mission: Impossible 2" ranks at the bottom of the bunch.

6. "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011)

The 2011 film "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" takes the franchise into the modern era. It follows Ethan Hunt and his team as they're forced to go on the run when they're framed for bombing the Kremlin.

It quickly becomes a race to stop nuclear strategist Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who wants to start a nuclear war so that only the strongest members of humanity will survive. 

It's this plot that keeps "Ghost Protocol" from ascending the list, because, as spy thrillers go, stopping a nuclear war feels predictable, and the film fails to do anything unique with the premise. Plus, there's nothing particularly extraordinary about Hendricks as a villain.

But generic plot devices aside, the film features some brilliant fights and gripping set pieces. The stand-out moment is when Cruise's hero climbs the Burj Khalifa in Dubai with nothing but sticky gloves and rope.

It's a nail-biting scene, especially when the gloves begin to fail and Hunt must stop himself from tumbling off the side of the building. 

One of the most surprising elements of the film is Jeremy Renner 's William Brandt, a disgraced former agent who's grappling with the guilt of failing Ethan on a former mission. That sub-plot works very well amongst the rest of the action, and it's a clever way of injecting a bit of heart into the mission.

5. "Mission: Impossible 3" (2006)

Two words: JJ Abrams . The "Lost" and "Fringe" creator took to the big screen in 2006 with "Mission: Impossible 3," which takes a mid-noughties approach to the Impossible Mission Force and gives it a brutal edge.

The sequel pits Ethan, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Zhen (Maggie Q), and Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) against nefarious arms dealer Owen Davian, played by the incomparable Phillip Seymour Hoffman .

Part of what elevates "Mission: Impossible 3" from previous films is that it never actually explains what Ethan and the gang are chasing. It's known only by its mysterious codename, the Rabbit's Foot. It could be an infectious disease, a computer virus, a hard drive teeming with currency, or nuclear codes… And that's what makes it so compelling. 

It's also refreshing to see Ethan settled and in love with Michelle Monahan's Julia Meade. What does married life look like for a superspy? How does that complicate his responsibility to save the world? 

The sequel feels very busy, as Abrams packs a lot into a tight two-hour run time. And some beats don't quite work, like Ethan's dynamic with his young mentee Lindsay Farris (played by Keri Russell). But there are some stellar sequences throughout, like the ballistic shoot-out on the bridge — which is an eye-popping piece of action choreography.

4. "Mission: Impossible" (1996)

Taken from the 1966 TV series of the same name, 1996's "Mission: Impossible" introduces Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) as he works for Jim Phelps ( Jon Voight ), the main character from the show. 

It has audiences instantly on their toes when Ethan's entire team, and Phelps, are assassinated by a double agent in the opening — and the hero goes on the run after being framed for their deaths.

"Mission: Impossible" earned itself a place in cinema history thanks to the brilliantly intense break-in scene, where Cruise is suspended on wires while hacking a CIA mainframe computer.

And of course, the high-octane ending on top of the channel tunnel train is a pulse-pounding affair set to the iconic theme music. 

Cruise effortlessly brings Hunt to life alongside top-notch performances from Voight, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Ving Rhames , which really help sell the paranoid atmosphere that director Brian De Palma bakes into the adventure.

3. "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" (2015)

"Rogue Nation" is where frequent Tom Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie properly put his stamp on the franchise, and he expands the world in a fascinating way with the introduction of the Syndicate, a vast organization made up of rogue agents from every intelligence agency on the planet.

Their mission (should they choose to accept it) is to create disorder and chaos to destabilize the global intelligence community, although their true goals don't become apparent until 2018's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." Hunt is determined to root out the Syndicate, and its sinister leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris).

"Rogue Nation" also introduces Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a murky British agent who has a delicious will-they-won't-they dynamic with Cruise's hero.

A brawl in the rigging above an opera stage in Vienna is a stunning highlight, as is Cruise's dive into a submerged computer program. Cruise actually broke the world record for holding his breath for six minutes while completing that stunt in 2014.

2. "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023)

"Dead Reckoning Part One" sees Hunt's IMF team chasing a key that will lead them to an unstoppable AI that could wreak havoc on the world if left unchecked.

And, of course, every government agency in the world wants to get their hands on it — so Hunt and his team are effectively on the run from everyone. 

"Dead Reckoning's" focus on AI gives it a grounding in the real world, but the film also continues to elevate the sheer scale of action that audiences have come to expect from the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. 

That jaw-dropping mountain jump in the movie's climax has to be seen to be believed, and it only gets more bonkers after that.

It's a testament to Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie that MI films continue to feel fresh and new — even though "Dead Reckoning's" script does drag on at points. 

Then again, audiences are coming to see Cruise throw himself off a mountain, not to hear Oscar-winning dialogue.

Let's hope "Dead Reckoning Part Two" is just as fun.

1. "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" (2018)

There's no question that Christopher McQuarrie's "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" is the best movie in the franchise, which is saying something considering it's the sixth outing for Hunt and the gang. 

It continues the Syndicate storyline from "Rogue Nation" and dives further into Solomon Lane's (Sean Harris) world-threatening scheme. He wants to destabilize the world by irradiating the Siachen Glacier, which supplies water to India, Pakistan, and China. This would kill off a third of the world's population and drastically change society in the process.  

But the bulk of the story revolves around a CIA and IMF mole who goes by the codename 'John Lark.'

The hunt to find this rogue agent crosses the world, introducing the likes of Henry Cavill's CIA agent August Walker and Vanessa Kirby's underworld matriarch, Alanna Mitsopolis. 

The scope of McQuarrie's movie is massive, and its huge stunts mirror that size. A gobsmacking scene sees Hunt dive with Walker from a plane and parachute into Paris. Cruise shot the stunt alongside a cameraman to properly capture the chaotic dive . 

Then, of course, there's the film's exhilarating helicopter chase through a New Zealand mountain range — just another example of McQuarrie and Cruise's commitment to filming these stunts in the most jaw-dropping way possible.

"Fallout" is a thrilling chapter of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise that deepens the audience's understanding of Cruise's hero while delivering a stunning cinematic experience.

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25 years later,  Mission: Impossible  has a crucial subversive lesson for every franchise

Tom Cruise stars, but Jon Voight is the brisk thriller's monstrous soul.

Jon Voight was 57 when Mission: Impossible hit theaters 25 years ago, but everything about Brian De Palma 's movie renders him older. Gray-haired Jim Phelps wears suspenders that are painfully '80s — and May 22, 1996, was one of the last times in history nobody wanted to look '80s. Quite a contrast with Ethan Hunt ( Tom Cruise ), Jim's fellow secret agent, a walking smirk whose leather jacket shines brighter than his hair gel. Everyone else in Jim's Impossible Mission Force is cool: stylish European women, brash American dudes, thirtysomethings right at that perfect midpoint between being Young and being In Charge.

They just got done running an op in Kiev. Jim missed it, taking an expense-account job-cation to run recruitment out of the Drake Hotel (oooh!) in Chicago. "Guy's getting soft in his old age!" Ethan says. It's just a bit of ribbing, because Jim is his mentor. It's also a generational threat. Jim's wife, Claire (Emmanuelle Béart), is on the team, too. She's younger than Ethan, and when he makes his joke about old man Jim, Claire flashes her husband an unreadable glance. Does she feel sorry for him? Is she seeing him the way the boys do — a good man, yes, but a bit paternal? In the opening scene of Mission: Impossible , Ethan injects an unconscious Claire with a syringe and then cradles her cheek. Part of the job, of course, yet De Palma's romantic framing demands subtextual perversion. Don't these two just make more sense together? And then Jim dies in the first act: a tragedy, unless you're a human with a pulse who came to a Tom Cruise movie for Tom Cruise.

Jim Phelps was a main character on the original Mission: Impossible , played by Peter Graves across a couple iterations from 1968 through 1990. It's not clear whether Voight is literally the same character; canon barely mattered in 1996 outside the Star stuff, and Voight was a decade younger than his predecessor. But the general audience carried the memory of Graves' silver-haired monotone right into the movie. What was that memory, exactly? The other day, I went to Paramount+ to find a random Mission episode from February 1971 — almost as far from the movie as the movie is from us. In "Kitara," Jim's team goes to "the African nation of Bocamo," where "a colonial minority" practices "severe racial segregation." What this means, in dramatic terms, is Jim goes undercover with a ridiculous accent, because the bad guys speaks Villain English. Meanwhile, his crew uses a special pill on the malevolent military governor (Lawrence Dobkin) that turns his white skin black.

It's crazier than it sounds, with a plot that requires the Leonard Nimoy character to say (undercover, but still): "I am 1/16th Black." I don't bring this up to demand a cultural reckoning with a half-century-old TV episode (which was anti-apartheid in spirit if helplessly tone-deaf in execution). The thing to notice is how Graves' expression doesn't waver once. Here's Jim Phelps in an off-key racial-hysteria cartoon — walking around a corner of West Africa that looks like some producer's Beverly Glen courtyard — and he greets every incident with the same indifferent newsman grimace.

Elsewhere in the early '70s, Voight was going river-mad in Deliverance , and De Palma was putting Hitchcock under the knife with Sisters , and screenwriter Robert Towne was busily composing Chinatown . The fact that all three New Hollywood-ers wound up working on a TV adaptation about Tom Cruise's fitness regimen was end-of-cinema talk in 1996. But there's a subversive rage in the first Mission: Impossible , totally absent from the later films in the franchise. Everything goes wrong in the opening embassy mission. Nerdy hacker Jack Harmon (Emilio Estevez) gets skewered in an elevator — a heart-dagger for any Mighty Duck kids who saw Coach Bombay laughing with Cruise in the trailer. The rest of the team dies, too. It's one of the best first half-hours in any thriller. You only gradually realize how many different counter-plots were playing out in front of you. There's the embassy party, and a traitor stealing valuable information, and the IMF team stopping that traitor, and another IMF team setting up this whole operation to smoke out a mole in the agency.

At the center of this mystery maze is the mole: Jim Phelps, legendary hero of Mission: Impossible , a friend-killing backstabber who sells out the entire global security apparatus for some retirement cash. Between Jim's "death" and his surprise reappearance, the movie loses a step. Everyone remembers the hanging computer hack, which is a blast. But the screenplay is officially credited to Towne and David Koepp, plus a "story by" credit for Steven Zaillian and rumors of script doctoring by everyone in town. You feel Mission 's many cooks, the sense that Cruise's star power is gluing together some missing motivation. The dynamic between Ethan and Claire doesn't land anywhere it should: not romantic, not sexual, not suspicious, really nothing. They stitch together a renegade squad with Luther (Ving Rhames) and Krieger (Jean Reno). They fly to America, to London. They prepare a final sting to flush out the real bad guy.

And then Jim finds Ethan. He peddles an alibi, blaming the team's death on Kittridge (Henry Czerny). Ethan doesn't buy it. He can see the truth. We watch Jim's shooting from another angle. The old man fires his own gun, and reaches for blood packs. The look on Voight's face is astounding: a primal scream, a smile unlike any smile Tom Cruise has ever grinned (except maybe amid Interview With the Vampire 's erotic vanquishment). He is getting away with something awful. He loves it.

In this late Ethan-Jim conversation, Mission rediscovers all its layers. They're both fooling each other, and their lies ring true. Why, Ethan wonders, would Kittridge have done all this? "Why, Jim?" he asks, " Why ?" Jim's response has the quality of confession:

When you think about it, Ethan, it was inevitable. No more Cold War. No more secrets you keep from everyone but yourself, operations you answer to no one but yourself. And then one day, you wake up, the President of the United States is running the country without your permission. The son of a bitch. How dare he? Then you realize it's over. You're an obsolete piece of hardware not worth upgrading. You've got a lousy marriage and 62 grand a year.

"It was inevitable," says the hero of an old Mission: Impossible who is now the monster of the new Mission: Impossible . Every franchise gets the religious treatment now, so it's hard to think of any comparable event in recent years. Imagine if Luke actually was a bad guy in the new Star Wars movies, or if a Harry Potter sequel in 10 years finds Hermione peddling Ministry of Magic secrets to some breakaway Durmstrang alumni. A cosmic perspective on the last 25 years of movie franchises might declare that movie sagas have gotten more serious. But that's mostly cosmetic. James Bond keeps saving the world, and even Evil Superman is just a prophecy. (One Terminator turned John Connor into a bad guy, a decision offset by how Arnold Schwarzenegger's robot keeps getting nicer.) There are exceptions, and cultural reckonings nudge recent franchise expansions to reconsider their heroes in a broader context. But according to original series star Martin Landau , one original plan for the first Mission movie was to kill off the entire TV show cast in the opening reel. Today there would be social media scandals, actors and fans uniting with anxious executives to ensure a proper nostalgic celebration. In 1996, Mission: Impossible could still reserve its fan service for bleak jokes. "Good morning, Mr. Phelps," Kittridge says when the jig is up. That greeting started almost every episode of the show. Here, it sounds an awful lot like Gotcha, sucker .

Tom Cruise is 58 now, finishing off his next Mission and prepping another one. He's been making Mission: Impossible movies longer than Graves made Mission: Impossible TV shows. The films have gotten bigger and, lately, much better: trusty pieces of joy hardware, with old-fashioned stunts and a dedication to kinetic clarity matched by spiraling twist-inside-a-twist plots. Ethan Hunt has stopped nuclear bombs twice in the last 10 years; in Fallout , his team rescued merely a third of the world's population. In the first movie, Kittridge clearly thinks Hunt is a punk. By Rogue Nation , Alec Baldwin's next-gen Kittridge calls him "the living manifestation of destiny." A lot of hero worship — all approved by a star who happens to be a producer. Will any franchise ever be as boldly nasty with its source material? Not just turning a good guy into a bad guy — making him a vulgar bad guy, someone without a philosophy, only in it for the money? Seems impossible, frankly, but the best missions always are.

Related content:

• Tom Cruise says iconic Mission: Impossible vault scene nearly didn't happen because stunt was too hard
• Hayley Atwell cast in new Mission: Impossible film opposite Tom Cruise
• Next two Mission: Impossible sequels set dates for 2021 and 2022

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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review: Tom Cruise Hits New Heights

The seventh Mission: Impossible movie sends Tom Cruise and the IMF soaring into their biggest adventure yet. When it's over, this series could be Cruise's masterpiece.

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Is Tom Cruise the last movie star ? That’s a topic that’s been debated over the last few years, but if the definition of a movie star includes delivering for audiences exactly what they want and need, then Cruise can arguably make the strongest case out of any filmmaker working today. And all the while, through his many cinematic triumphs (and a fair number of misfires) he’s been painting his masterpiece. The Mission: Impossible series is that great labor. The franchise may have started out as a relatively unassuming action/spy thriller based on a creaky 1960s TV show, but it has become one of the few movie franchises that’s actually gotten better and better over the course of its 27-year existence.

To be sure, the series took a while—arguably four movies—to truly find its footing, but starting with the fourth entry, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), Tom Cruise discovered the perfect creative partner in Christopher McQuarrie , who did an uncredited rewrite on that film, and has written and directed every movie in the franchise since.

Now, with the seventh entry, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , the saga of Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Missions Force may have reached its zenith—or it may simply be that with so many other tentpoles flailing helplessly in creative and technological stagnation, watching something that actually looks like all $290 million of its (reported) budget is on the screen feels like a jolt of cold, pure cinematic oxygen.

Cruise, McQuarrie, and company have made a masterful, twisting, often breathtaking action thriller that never lets up for its entire two-hour-and-43-minute length, providing genuine character moments and emotional beats in between one pulverizing action sequence after another. The filmmakers’ visceral, practical approach to its set pieces, along with the star’s willingness to throw himself into more death-defying stunts every time out, adds to the movie’s top-notch entertainment value.

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The story this time ventures ever so gently past the realm of the techno-thriller where the M:I series has lived for most of its existence and into the realm of pure science fiction, albeit eerily steeped in one of the biggest news stories happening right now. The movie opens on a submarine where we are immediately introduced to the villain: a highly sophisticated artificial intelligence known only as “the Entity.” It’s quickly established that the Entity has a mind of its own (has McQuarrie been watching cult classic Colossus: The Forbin Project ?), and whoever can get control of it and its almost god-like power will be able to impersonate or penetrate any system or government in the world. You could rule the globe or destroy it without almost anyone noticing.

Naturally, every government wants to get its hands on the thing, but more frighteningly, a self-styled angel of death known as Gabriel ( Esai Morales ) has his own nefarious plans for it. Or is Gabriel actually working for the Entity? That’s never made exactly clear. In any case, the MacGuffin has its own MacGuffin: two keys that interlock and give the holder access to the Entity, which is where Ethan and the IMF come into the picture.

Joined by regulars Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and the always enigmatic yet bewitching Ilsa Faust ( Rebecca Ferguson ), Ethan is ordered by returning IMF boss Eugene Kittridge ( Henry Czerny, reprising his role from 1996 ) to find those keys before they fall into the hands of a mysterious buyer. But Ethan’s plan, involving a cat-and-mouse game in an Abu Dhabi airport, is thwarted by a rogue element, a professional thief named Grace ( Hayley Atwell ) who steals one of the keys and is unwittingly thrust into the middle of a very dangerous pursuit with apocalyptic implications. More disturbingly, the Entity seems to be ahead of everyone every step of the way.

As with all the M:I movies, going back to Brian de Palma’s original, underrated Mission: Impossible (1996), which upended the conventions of the TV show and set a modest template for what was to come, the plotting of the film can be almost needlessly convoluted, although we would argue that McQuarrie has gone for a slightly more direct approach this time than in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015) or Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018). Where he does run into trouble is juggling all the characters that are now part of the storyline. While in-depth characterization has never been a strong suit of these movies, the addition of four major new characters to this film means that some of our legacy players get short shrift. The shortest straw is drawn by Ilsa, the MVP of the previous two films, who is sidelined here to everyone’s detriment.

She is more or less replaced by Atwell’s Grace, but the truth is that Grace may be the most complex female protagonist in the series yet . Cunning, wily, and blessed with a keen sense of self-interest, she is a match in mind games for Ethan, and Atwell generates not just intelligence and empathy, but more pure chemistry with Cruise than any other female lead we’ve seen him interact with in years.

The other breakout here is Pom Klementieff (like Atwell, an MCU veteran who we just saw give her best performance as Mantis in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ) as Paris, an assassin working for Gabriel who channels serious Bond femme fatale energy, sort of a cross between Famke Janssen’s Xenia Onatopp and Barbara Carrera’s non-canon Fatima Blush (like those two, she seems to get off on causing sheer destruction).

Esai Morales provides a simmering, well-dressed charisma as Gabriel, which creates a deceptively good-looking alternative to the last two movies’ visibly psychotic Solomon Lane, although Gabriel’s motivations remain a bit murky throughout the story. And while it’s nice to see Vanessa Kirby’s alluringly impish grin as the White Widow, and Shea Whigham as a by-the-book government agent sent to capture Ethan (who, yes, goes rogue again), neither one has a whole lot to do.

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But those are relatively small complaints against the movie’s entire reason for existence: one insanely (but always coherently) choreographed action sequence after another, from a berserk chase through the streets of Rome with Ethan and Grace driving a tiny yellow Fiat while handcuffed together, to Ethan’s heart-stopping jump from a cliff on a motorcycle (which Cruise actually performed, as can be seen in a featurette available online ), to an explosive, white-knuckle climax aboard the Orient Express as it hurtles toward a collapsing bridge. If in fact there’s CG involved here, it’s used far more effectively than another train-set action sequence dialed up by a different franchise not long ago.

All of this is presented with humor (this may be the funniest entry yet, despite the gravity of the stakes), exuberance, and McQuarrie’s increasingly expansive eye, as he also makes use of real locations around the world in the grand style of the earliest Bond movies. He’s brilliantly aided by James Mather’s thunderous sound, Lorne Balfe’s massive, dramatic score (as always, making excellent use of the original theme by Lalo Schifrin), and the kinetic editing of Eddie Hamilton (who also did Top Gun: Maverick , and who Cruise should keep on the payroll until one of them retires).

As per the Hollywood blockbuster these days, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One ends before the story is over, although it pauses more for a natural break in the action than a cliffhanger. Where the narrative goes from here is anyone’s guess, and if Cruise and McQuarrie can deliver something as purely entertaining as this with Part Two , the franchise’s stature as the American answer to 007 and one of the best action series of all time will be secured.

Best of all? As soon as the movie is over and the credits roll, you can leave. Cruise cares enough for his audience to not make them wait around after nearly three hours for a post-credits scene. Now that’s a movie star.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is out in theaters Wednesday, July 12. See it on the biggest screen you can find.

4.5 out of 5

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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Mission: Impossible Movies, Ranked

With the release of Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One , we look back at a franchise so reliably good, it might have surpassed the greatness of Bond.

7. Mission: Impossible II (2000)

This actually kills me to write because I absolutely fucking adore John Woo, but I think even the revered Hong Kong action auteur would cop to the fact that M:I 2 was not his finest hour behind the camera. He was the right man for the wrong job. Hell, Woo even managed to make a better movie with a medium talent like Jean-Claude Van Damme (1993’s Hard Target ) than he did here with Cruise. Woo and Hollywood were always a weird fit. His operatic-bordering-on-corny-melodrama sensibility may have worked like double-fisted gangbusters when partnered with Chow Yun-Fat (see A Better Tomorrow , The Killer , and Hard Boiled ), but something often got lost when it came to satisfying the commercial imperatives of big-studio American filmmaking. Coming four years after Brian De Palma’s series kick-off, M:I 2 is all flashy, slo-mo razzle dazzle. In fact, its entire M.O. seemed to be more is more . And while in some movies it can be, here it’s most definitely not. M:I 2 is so obsessed with style (i.e. the long-haired Cruise’s ludicrous meet-cute with Thandie Newton in a skidding high-speed car chase pas de deux ), you couldn’t help walk out of the theater starved for some substance beyond the film’s tapioca villain (Dougray Scott) and its equally so-what plot about… stock options ? Still, Cruise’s rock-climbing finger-nail hang from Utah’s Dead Horse Point during the opening credits remains a vertigo-inducing thrill.

6. Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Going from Brian De Palma to John Woo to J.J. Abrams, the director of MI: III , feels like a whiplash-inducing game of Hollywood Mad Libs . But Abrams, in his first big-budget movie assignment, got more right than wrong in this solid installment. Abrams has always been a believer in character over spectacle, which is something this outing sorely needed after the baroque indulgence of Woo’s M:I 2 . Then again, you could also argue that Abrams overcompensated here—that MI: III really could have used a little more spectacle. Still, it is what it is. And what it is, is a deeply personal rescue operation for Ethan Hunt. It’s a bit of a strange choice especially since Hunt (not to mention the inscrutable movie star who plays him) was always a bit of a cipher when it came to his backstory. He (they) often seems more like a superhuman automaton than a flesh-and-blood person capable of emotional entanglements. The love object in question is played by Michelle Monaghan, but there’s zero chemistry there. Instead, the real sparks come between Cruise and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays the film’s creepy villain, Owen Davian. There are several signature action set pieces in this one (the Shanghai skyscraper climb, the kinda phoney-looking bridge ambush), but the one that sticks is probably the Vatican extraction, where they kidnap Davian using some of the best examples of the franchise’s low-fi rubber mask trickery. Unlike Woo, here’s a case where less is more.

5. Mission: Impossible (1996)

Hollywood is littered with the bloated corpses of movies that were made with the intention of kicking off long-lasting franchises ( The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , John Carter , The Dark Tower , etc.). But it was obvious right out of the gate that Brian De Palma’s first Mission: Impossible would lead to a series of legs (even those legs wouldn’t be attached to De Palma). We were lured into the theater by the name-brand cache of the vintage TV series and, of course, Cruise’s star power. But we were immediately put on notice that the M:I movies wouldn’t really have all that much to do with the small-screen storytelling of the show—that these movies would be massive Rube Golberg-ian exercises in pyrotechnics and triple-cross pretzel logic. So this is really where it all begins. And now, it seems like a quaint throwback to a time when blockbusters could be…smart. Clearly, it’s hard to discuss this film without talking about the trickle-of-sweat hanging-spider break-in at the CIA’s Langley headquarters. Twenty-five years later, movie magic has come so far. But this set-piece really hasn’t been topped in terms of pure ingenuity and suspense. Over time, the M:I series’ trademark set pieces would get bigger and louder and more lavish and expensive, but nothing has yet come close to topping this economical masterclass in dangling, white-knuckle delirium.

4. Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation (2015)

Okay, this is where this list really starts to get into Sophie’s Choice territory. From here on, all of these movies could be number one. But we’re gonna go with our gut. So… Rogue Nation . When producer-star Cruise began the M:I series he’d always envisioned each new chapter having a different director so that each film would have its own idiosyncratic stamp. It was a great instinct, not to mention an auteur-theory idea that was more experimental than a guy like Cruise is often given credit for. But in Rogue Nation , the star found himself to be so simpatico with Christopher McQuarrie that the director has remained at the tiller for 2018’s Mission: Impossible—Fallout and the currently-in-the-works Mission: Impossible 7 . McQuarrie, who first made his name as the writer of the twisty, ur-‘90s indie puzzle-box caper The Usual Suspects , began working with Cruise on 2008’s disappointingly mediocre Valkyrie . And they’ve been almost inseparable ever since. Things get off to the races right away in Rogue Nation (with Cruise dangling from the side of a cargo plane as it takes off—before the opening credits even roll!). And the breakneck pace doesn’t relent much afterwards. In fact, you could make a case that this is where the franchise finally found its rhythmic sweet spot. Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Ving Rhames are all given their moments in the spotlight, too. But the real draw here is the clockwork precision and giddy inventiveness of McQuarrie, whether it’s in the— deep breath —underwater computer-lab chip exchange or the Hitchcockian Vienna opera house sequence (a sequence, by the way, that actually feels operatic ), where we first become intrigued and enthralled by Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa, the series’ best late-stage addition. All of this, plus Alec Baldwin as the head of the CIA!

3. Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol (2011)

I’ve got just two words for you: Burj Khalifa. Everything about this sea-sick skyscraper-scaling sequence on Dubai’s tallest building in the world is so goddamned perfect it’s like huffing laughing gas. In fact, it may be the defining action scene of the 21st century so far. Fuck that, it definitely is. Hands down! After the kinda disappointing M:I III , director Brad Bird gives the franchise the reboot it needs. The team is really firing on all cylinders thanks to the humorous interplay between Crusie and Simon Pegg and the addition of Paula Patton. It’s the first time when Cruise’s lust for kicks actually begins to feel like a high-stakes geek show, where he (and we) won’t be satisfied until he ends up in traction (or worse) performing some insane without-a-net stunt. Are you not entertained? Frankly, it’s impossible not be what with the Houdini-esque Kremlin break-in, Old Testament sand storms, and the always-welcome Lea Seydoux.

2. Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

The only thing holding back Dead Reckoning Part One from the top spot? It's the fact that it released roughly three years too late. The AI villain is as silly as something out of the Fast & Furious franchise—but nothing can hold Tom Cruise's movie magic back. He still somehow makes it work; he gives Ethan Hunt a new, mysterious backstory. Of course, though, it's all about the stunts. In Dead Reckoning Part One , Cruise drives a tiny car through Rome, fistfights in a tiny alleyway, and jumps off a cliff... on a motorcycle! And the man is 60 years old. It's an incredible sight to behold.

1. Mission: Impossible—Fallout (2018)

Fallout is like the Raiders of the Lost Ark of Mission: Impossible movies. It cuts out all the passing and junk and serves up only the most choice bits. It’s 147 minutes of highlights. If that sounds exhausting, well, I’m sorry, you couldn’t be more wrong. Cruise was 56 when this movie was made and he was determined to prove to every single one of us that he was still the world’s hungriest movies star. He breaks an ankle jumping from one Parisian rooftop to the next: No problem, as long the camera didn’t stop rolling. In my mind, Fallout is the moment the Mission: Impossible movies nosed ahead of the Bond franchise. And to take the comparison a step further, Fallout is in a way Ethan Hunt’s Skyfall —the chapter of the story that fills in our hero’s personal backstory and shows us the emotional sacrifices his line of work has made him make. I don’t want to get too psychoanalytical about what is essentially a top-notch Hollywood Event Movie, so let me also point to the fact that this is also the film where Cruise shatters a shitload of porcelain in his brutal bathroom brawl with Henry Cavill. It also features the lightning-lit HALO jump, a bonkers Paris motorcycle chase, and a helicopter finale that makes you want to stay put as the ushers sweep up all of the theater’s spilled popcorn and stray Sour Patch Kids and stick around for the next showing so you can experience it all over again.

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How Tom Cruise Remains Youthful at 61, and How You Can Too

The Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning star belies his 61 years with a dedicated nutrition and training plan

Tom Cruise has been climbing skyscrapers, halo jumping from planes and leaping from motorbikes for more than three decades now, but seven Mission: Impossible s (soon to be eight), two Top Gun s and a War of the Worlds later, and he's still going strong. At this point, it's fair to say he's the action heroes' action hero, but how exactly has he done it so well for so long?

Could it be the prodigious work ethic? A training regimen with no let up or is it his carefully-managed diet? Well, chances are, it’s all of the above and so much more.

There is no one thing that keeps Cruise in action hero shape or maintains his position as, arguably, the last great Hollywood star. There are multiple secrets behind his youthfulness. And now they’re yours too, should you choose to accept them.

Interpersonal Skills

‘yes, i’ll spend two hours with fans. people are really kind to come out, so i want to say hello.’.

Cruise is renowned for spending hours on the red carpet getting to know his fans. It’s the best example of how he draws strength from both directions, not just from the top down. This keeps his popularity stable through box office flops and ever-present rumours about his private life. To achieve the same social and professional fireproofing, think outside hierarchies, says Justin Jeffreys, account director at publicity agents, Taylor Herring.

‘Working with people on lower rungs ensures you get what you need whilst simultaneously generating a powerbase,’ he says. Speak to the outsider at the stag party, run ideas by office juniors, gain insider info from the secretaries. ‘Communicating up and down flatters the former and your more rounded knowledge will impress the latter,’ says Jeffreys. Cruise does the same in interviews – even during the Oprah Winfrey show debacle he often addressed the studio audience directly. Just try not to ruin the furniture.

The Work Ethic

Interviewer: ‘did you learn a bit of german for the part’ cruise: ‘i learnt german.’.

That was for Valkyrie . For The Colour of Money, Cruise played pool for 12 hours a day to prep. ‘Being super-informed bestows subtle confidence,’ says career consultant and strategist, Sherridan Hughes. ‘Everyone else will feel at ease working with you and for you. You’re more flexible and adaptable than your peers because whatever happens, you’ve covered it.’ Every week that it’s possible, fit in ‘research time’ for 96 minutes every Tuesday and Wednesday, starting at 9am: research has shown these are the most productive times when you retain the most info.

Generate crib cards for the subjects that matter most in your business and add to them with digestible bullet points that you can reference at key moments. ‘It’ll keep brain space free,’ adds Hughes. ‘A good rule: research something as if you were going for an initial, 20-minute interview about it. This stops you going too in depth but covers the key bases.’ Think Rain Man in a hurry.

The Tom Cruise Body

When asked how he stays young, cruise responded: ‘sea-kayaking, caving... fencing, treadmill, weights... rock-climbing, hiking... i jog... i do so many different activities.’.

Cruise doesn’t just have the body of a man half his age – he moves like one (remember the Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation fight scene?) Variety is the secret for those of us for whom David Beckham isn’t a training buddy. ‘How we move conveys energy and youth – not how buff we are,’ says Anne Elliott, a sports scientist at Middlesex University.

‘Regularly switching up cardio and strength work with something like fencing or climbing – like Cruise – maintains flexibility and balance: the first two things that give your age away.’ Drop unusual practices into your workout, such as one-armed barbell presses – it’ll help unearth your physical weak spots. You can then work on them which will mean you maintain a more youthfully functioning body overall.

Tom Cruise's Style

Like his body, cruise maintains a youthful style without ever looking like he’s dressing too young. he still regularly appears in best-dressed lists..

His style choices identify Cruise as ‘well dressed’, rather than ‘short’, says Alan Au of Jimmy Au’s menswear of Beverly Hills, a known haunt of Cruise’s stylist. ‘The right fit conveys power and shows you've accepted who you are, physically. Cruise always wears a well tailored coat (lapels not too big or small) whether smart casual and his ‘relaxed’ is only just loose enough (too loose looks hand-me-down).’

Avoid boxy cuts and styles and bring attention up to the face and chest with a lighter top. Make sure only a quarter-inch of sleeve hem is showing from jackets. Cruise favours turtlenecks and Au agrees they work – ‘but avoid the chunkier styles. The three-quarter-necks are better. They are shorter and give the same effect – while still leaving you with a neck.’

The Mind-set

‘i don’t invalidate it when i can’t do something...i say, 'that’s interesting' and go with it. it’s from there you get your energy.’.

Failures don’t floor Cruise; he uses them to reboot momentum and uncover more of his personal skill set. ‘Never avoid looking at why something went wrong – list all the reasons why it did as soon as you can,‘ says clinical psychologist Dr Abigael San . It could be a relationship or weight loss plan as much as the movie Vanilla Sky . ‘Failure leads to inaction. Planning goals as soon as possible restores a feeling of power and control. If you didn’t get a promotion, do all you can to find out why.’

Write notes in a special document or folder on your computer, analysing everything in detail. ‘Physicalising the reasons snaps us out of negativity. Now consider three things you can do immediately with this situation,’ he says. Set yourself a deadline of three months to action what you come up with. ‘Each little success along the way – a new responsibility at work; a date with somebody new – will reframe that initial ‘fail’ as a catalyst to self-development,’ adds Write.

The Tom Cruise Diet

Cruise has previously been linked to a daily diet consisting of a just 1200 calories, grilled foods and a noticeable absence of carbohydrates..

It doesn’t sound nearly enough fuel for the ultra-active short stack, but it’s probably his youth elixir. Carbs generate insulin – an ageing hormone, says nutritional scientist Dr Paul Clayton, author of Health Defence . ‘They become glucose molecules in the body, damaging muscle and skin tissues which causes ageing,’ he says. Clayton recommends fermentable carbs like legumes and pulses, which produce less insulin than digestible carbs like grains and spuds. If you must have your cake, eat it all in one meal only; a single insulin surge is less damaging than regular carb-snacking.

Chronic tissue inflammation also speeds up ageing. Avoid it by cooking at low temperatures (ie grilling), and increase anti-inflammatory nutrients like flavonoids (from onions, say, or citrus fruits), isoflavones (from soy) and 1316 beta-glucan (found in brewer’s yeast supplements). Cue that youthful Cruise appearance: you’ll have her – hell, everyone – at hello.

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Tom cruise thanks rome for helping make ‘mission: impossible 7’ possible.

Cruise, director Christopher McQuarrie and the cast of 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One' celebrated the film's world premiere in the Italian capital on Monday.

By Lorenzo Cecioni

Lorenzo Cecioni

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Giant screens, a gang dressed in the full, black Mission: Impossible look, a red carpet in a semicircle, with Tom Cruise standing at the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome with the entire Piazza di Spagna below him, watching every move and hanging on every word.

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Before kicking off his red carpet marathon, in which he seemed determined to greet every single guest, Cruise reminded the crowd of “how important it is to show not only that you can still make movies but also that you can get back to filling theaters after the most difficult time the world, and this art form, has been through.”

Cruise recalled how Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was shot in Venice and Rome “in full COVID. “It was very important to do that to show everyone that the pandemic was not going to kill cinema,” he said. “I have to thank everyone, with our very strict safety protocols and the help of this country, together we did something extraordinary.”

Looking down from the Spanish Steps, Cruise recalled a scene the film shot in this iconic landmark.

“We turned this wonderful square, for a day, into an open-air set when we shot here and it was fantastic,” he said. “We did it by closing it off to the public, and I admit it’s one of those things that I regularly ask studios for.”

Nearly 61 years old, Cruise has not lost his childlike smile, or, he admits, his youthful ambition. “Ever since I was a child I used to look at the tallest buildings, the skyscrapers, and imagine how to climb them, or even better, how to get down from the top to the ground. Without using ladders, of course, but also without losing my life,” he added. “I think it’s that childhood dream that always pushes me further and makes me face these challenges myself.”

Cruise’s race through downtown Rome, in a vintage yellow Fiat 500, in the new Mission: Impossible seems destined to become part of the collective cinematic imagination. The mad dash between Rione Monti, Via dei Serpenti lapping Colle Oppio, through the streets around Santa Maria Maggiore before taking the less conventional descent down the Trinità dei Monti staircase, skidding to a halt at the bottom of the Spanish Steps. “I love Rome, it’s a wonderful city. I’m completely crazy about it and it’s been great to work here,” he said. “I thank you for welcoming me and how well it has allowed us to work.”

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Why Mission: Impossible is the best franchise in Hollywood

The latest installment in Tom Cruise’s action series is a reminder of how for over 25 years, the films have been uncommonly good

H as Ethan Hunt finally met his match? The most indefatigable agent of American intelligence, played as always by Tom Cruise, has a formidable new foe in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One , the seventh installment in the movie series based on the TV series. It’s not a who but a what: a computer virus with a mind of its own, crunching numbers so efficiently that it can anticipate the good guy’s every move. The deck seems stacked against Ethan. But then, doesn’t it always? Beating unbeatable odds is his whole thing. It’s an average Tuesday for him, and the ultimate appeal of this series, whose very title is a challenge Ethan always rises (and climbs, and runs, and sweats, and nearly plummets to his death) to meet.

The truly improbable victory in Dead Reckoning belongs not to Hunt, whose skin-of-his-teeth survival is all but guaranteed by the “part one” in the title, but to the Mission: Impossible franchise itself. More than 25 years after Cruise refashioned a small-screen spy story into a big-screen action vehicle for himself, how are these movies still so good? Dead Reckoning may not be the best Mission: Impossible, but that’s only because the bar has been set as high as the various skyscrapers and aircraft cabins from which Hunt inevitably hangs. It’s the best Hollywood franchise we have. And like its sixtysomething star, it’s showing surprisingly few signs of wear and tear.

There are no bad Mission: Impossible movies. No, not even John Woo’s Y2K entry, M:I-2, which hard boils the tricky suspense mechanics of Brian De Palma’s 1996 original into an action thriller of sublimely mounting absurdities, a bullet opera in the key of Notorious. There are those who love Woo’s balletically soapy take on Mission: Impossible best. They’re no more wrong than those who prefer the third movie, with its chilling Philip Seymour Hoffman villain. Or the fourth, with its daisy chain of Pixarian obstacles and world’s-tallest-building ascent. Or any of the three directed by Christopher McQuarrie, which have managed to serialize Hunt’s feats of high-wire espionage without depriving them of their self-contained fun.

Every M:I is an ingenious contraption and an antidote to blockbuster bloat, streamlining the world-saving business of your average summer movie into a series of expertly staged set pieces, many of them built around Cruise’s who-needs-a-stunt-double game of chicken with his own mortality. They’re dumb in a smart way, or maybe vice versa: accept their lapses in logic, and they have a way of buzzing your brain with the audacity of their compounding complications. That they scarcely demand investment in the characters, even Cruise’s, is a feature, not a bug. Each courts a more primal investment, the constant present-tense urgency of their races against the clock.

Is there any other running franchise that so fully and consistently earns the adjective “Hitchcockian”? No surprise that M:I fits the bill, given that its inaugural entry was directed by De Palma, the master of suspense’s most eager disciple. Breaking from the reigning trends in Hollywood action cinema these past three decades, Mission: Impossible is less about killing than a nerve-racking flirtation with death. Hunt may drop a few bodies for his country and his species, but he’s much more likely to put his own at perpetual risk; most of the centerpiece sequences of Mission: Impossible are triumphs of suspense, not violence. They sometimes even revolve around minimizing casualties, as when Hunt has to think of a way to bust his arch-nemesis out of captivity in part six, Fallout, without killing any innocent guards.

M:I’s unlikely creative consistency is especially surprising given how much turnover the series has seen across its lifespan. Cruise and Ving Rhames are the only cast members who appear in every entry; the makeup of his squad of sidekicks has changed constantly over the years, actors coming and going with each sequel. The creative team changes, too – or it used to, at least, before McQuarrie settled in with 2015’s Rogue Nation. Until then, M:I existed in a state of constant stylistic reinvention, a different film-maker merging his preoccupations with Cruise’s each time. That makes this the rare Hollywood series that’s at once a revolving door of behind-the-camera talent and a dependable source of auteuristic personality – a director’s franchise as much as a star’s.

Of course, the constant is Cruise. His star power, renewed through the lengths he’s willing to go to preserve it, anchors the series. Hunt may not be much of a character by standard definition – he’s more cipher than complicated man – but he’s an ideal avatar for Cruise’s commitment to generating thrills through the lunacy of practical stunt work. Conflating his own determination (and blithely disregarded safety) with that of his character, the actor treats each movie like a mad race against the very concept of acting your age. It’s not so much that the stunts get more precarious every time. It’s that Cruise gets older, and the stakes go up accordingly. He can’t stop.

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Mission: Impossible has never been entirely immune to trends. If the crunch of Limp Bizkit on a soundtrack didn’t prove that already, the Endgame-biting inconclusiveness of Dead Reckoning should. But the movies have held onto their values, their spy-thriller formula, pioneered by De Palma’s original and molded into different shapes with each successive sequel. Their appeal is largely standalone, give or take a loose plot thread: when you watch a Mission: Impossible movie, you’re dangling right there in the breathtaking moment with Cruise, not waiting for a cameo or callback, not hoping for a preview of a coming installment. And when someone, say, hangs from a rising airplane, there’s an extra jolt of shivery anxiety in the knowledge that what you’re seeing wasn’t achieved solely through the click of a mouse.

Cruise, in the lead-up to Dead Reckoning’s release, promised that he plans to keep making Mission: Impossible movies well into his 80s. That could be a recipe for tragedy: even the most thetan-purged movie star might eventually reach his limit or the base-jumping point of no return. But if the last seven movies in the series are any indication, it probably won’t be a recipe for diminishing returns. A movie franchise that still delivers five decades on? The odds are in Cruise’s favor, however unbeatable they might seem.

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All Mission: Impossible Movies, Ranked By Tomatometer

“Hey, Tom. Paramount here. Yes, the studio. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a new summer franchise out of a 30-year-old TV show, and have it virtually improve with each sequel over 20 years…”

And so Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt has halo-jumped, rock-climbed, motorcycle-duelled, and face mask-revealed his way across dozens of countries to unravel all manner of world threats in the Mission: Impossible movies. He’s had help along the way, featuring a cast of series veterans, like Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, and occasional players like Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton. Hunt hasn’t had too much help from the IMF, though, considering how many times they think their star employee has gone rogue.

A trademark for most of Mission: Impossible ‘s lifespan was bringing in a new director for each entry, ranging from John Woo to Brad Bird to Brian De Palma, giving each entry a unique spin. But Since Rogue Nation , Cruise (who also produces) has found a perfect collaborator in Christopher McQuarrie. He was the first to direct two M:I s in a row, with Fallout raking in the series’ best box office and critical marks. And McQuarrie is directing the next two films: Dead Reckoning – Part One releases this Friday, with Part Two  out June 28, 2024.

Before we see what death-defying hijinks they get into next (we don’t think Ethan’s been to the moon yet), we’re ranking all Mission: Impossible movies by Tomatometer! — Alex Vo

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) 96%

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) 97%

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015) 94%

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) 93%

Mission: Impossible III (2006) 71%

Mission: Impossible (1996) 66%

Mission: Impossible II (2000) 56%

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Tom Cruise Goes Running Again in First Look At Mission: Impossible 8

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• Fans share excitement over Tom Cruise running in London for Mission: Impossible 8 .
• Action-packed scenes feature Cruise sprinting to save the world from rogue AI, captivating audiences globally.
• Mission: Impossible 8 plot remains a mystery, but it will likely continue the story with The Entity and familiar faces.

Hollywood icon Tom Cruise is back to doing what he does best, running, as the actor films scenes for the action sequel Mission: Impossible 8 in London, England. Fans of the actor and the franchise have now taken to Twitter/X to share images, footage, and their thoughts on Cruise’s running, which somehow remains one of the most gripping elements of modern blockbuster moviemaking.

You can check out the visual poetry that is Tom Cruise running below, as well as some thoughts and feelings shared by fans who cannot wait to see him run all over the world once again in Mission: Impossible 8 .

Several images of the actor sprinting either away or towards the latest global threat have also emerged, and offer our first look at the next Mission: Impossible sequel, which was formerly titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two before changes were made behind the scenes .

Released in July last year, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning is directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. The Mission: Impossible follow-up finds Tom Cruise back as Ethan Hunt, who this time must save the world from a rogue AI known as “The Entity.” You can check out the official synopsis and trailer for Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning below.

“Ethan Hunt and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: to track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With the fate of the world at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most.”

What Will Mission: Impossible 8 Be About?

It is currently unknown exactly what Mission: Impossible 8 will be about but, considering that movies 7 and 8 were initially intended to be a two-parter, we can no doubt expect the next movie to carry over some of the plot elements from its predecessor. This likely includes both the AI enemy known as The Entity , and the villainous Gabriel (Esai Morales), a terrorist with ties to Ethan Hunts's past. We can also expect to see the core cast return, including Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, and Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, as well as newcomer Hayley Atwell as Grace.

How the Mission: Impossible Title Change Could Save the Franchise

A title change has given the Mission: Impossible franchise a new lease on life.

The rest of the ensemble will reportedly include Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge, Vanessa Kirby as Alanna Mitsopolis, Pom Klementieff as Paris, and Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs, alongside Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Janet McTeer, Hannah Waddingham, and Lucy Tulugarjuk. Following the apparent fate of Ilsa Faust , it is currently unknown whether Rebecca Ferguson will be involved.

Mission: Impossible 8 is scheduled to be released in the United States on May 23, 2025, by Paramount Pictures.

“People are going to be floored”: Mission Impossible 8 Star Reveals Details about One Epic Scene With Tom Cruise, Promises Fans Have No Idea What’s Coming

F rom swinging from a skyscraper in Ghost Protocol to jumping off the cliff in Dead Reckoning , Tom Cruise loves pushing the envelope with each of his films. And fans might once again be in for a treat in the upcoming installment in the series, as actor Shea Whigham teased an epic scene in the film.

Known for being the recurring FBI Agent Michael Stasiak in the Fast & Furious flicks, Whigham made his MI debut in the seventh film, which hit theatres last year. With the sequel to it now delayed, the actor, who has finished filming his part, stressed that fans are going to be astonished by what Cruise and McQuarrie are crafting for the upcoming release.

Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 8 Will Leave Fans Floored Claimed Shea Whigham

While originally slated to hit theatres on 28 June 2024, following hardships in the production, the film was pushed back to May of next year last month. But per reports, the film might see another delay following the malfunction in the $25M submarine , and the budget is said to be ballooning to $400M.

“We’ll just shut our movie down”: Mission: Impossible – Fallout Director Demanded $3 Million if Henry Cavill Shaved His Mustache for Justice League

But it’s not all doom and gloom from the sets of Mission: Impossible 8 according to Shea Whigham. The actor stressed that fans are going to be astonished by what Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie have stored up their sleeves, stating this one is shaped like an adventure film.

He said (via THR ):

 What he’s doing now, people are going to be floored. He wants to make this one like an adventure film, and he and McQuarrie have an idea of what they want to do with it. So it’s going to be amazing.

The Fast & Furious star also teased one scene with Cruise, which is inspired by the writing in one of McQuarrie’s best films, which is iconic for playing on the gullibility of its viewers .

Shea Whigham Discusses The Usual Suspects ’ Influence on MI 8

Before making his directional debut, Christopher McQuarrie earned acclaim for penning the script of The Usual Suspects , which earned him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Whigham, who plays the part of Jasper Briggs in Mission: Impossible , recalled requesting the director to put him in a scene with Cruise and pen it like his work on The Usual Suspects .

He recalled:

I said to Christopher McQuarrie on [Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning]: ‘I don’t want a bigger trailer. I don’t want more money. I don’t want better catering. I just want one scene between Tom and I, where you, McQ, write it like The UsualSuspects, and we get a chance to get in there.’ And he delivered,” Whigham shares.

According to Whigham, McQuarrie nailed the said scene, and fans will get to witness it for themselves next year if the production doesn’t sustain further delays.

“I love that character a lot”: Jeremy Renner Open to Returning to Mission: Impossible After Almost Replacing Tom Cruise as the Franchise Lead Star

Mission: Impossible 8 is currently slated to release on 23 May 2025.

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Tom Cruise Seen Sprinting Down Street in London as He Shoots Next Mission: Impossible Movie

The eighth 'Mission: Impossible' film, which does not yet have a title, is expected in theaters May 23, 2025

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Tom Cruise is showing no signs of slowing down in the next Mission: Impossible movie.

On Sunday, Cruise, 61, was seen sprinting down a street in London while filming a scene for the upcoming eighth film in his signature action franchise. The actor could be seen wearing a black suit with a white shirt opened at the top, with fake blood drenched over his chest while filming the sequence.

Cruise most recently appeared as his Mission: Impossible character Ethan Hunt in last year's Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning , which made $172 million at the  domestic box office . Dead Reckoning also earned the franchise its first-ever Academy Award nominations when it received nods for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound at the recent 96th Oscars ceremony.

A title for the upcoming eighth Mission: Impossible movie has not yet been announced. The next film was originally set for release on June 28, but production delays related to 2023's SAG-AFTRA strike forced the film to restart production in the fall and delay its release until May 23, 2025, as Deadline reported back in October.

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Dead Reckoning left Cruise's character Ethan Hunt and series regulars Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) at odds with villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) and forging new alliances with characters like Grace (Hayley Atwell) over a battle for control over a sentient artificial intelligence.

James Gourley/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

The eighth Mission: Impossible film is just one movie among a number of projects Cruise has in development. In February, PEOPLE confirmed Cruise will star in the next movie from The Revenant filmmaker  Alejandro G. Iñárritu , while The Hollywood Reporter  reported in January that Paramount is developing Top Gun 3 as a sequel to Cruise's major 2022 success Top Gun: Maverick .

Cruise, known for his penchant for performing his own stunts, was recently seen climbing the iconic Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills on March 16 accompanied by a film crew. A representative for Cruise did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comment Monday. While it's unclear what Cruise was filming on Saturday, the stunt did not appear related to the next Mission: Impossible film.

Mission: Impossible 8 is expected in theaters May 23, 2025.

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Jeremy Renner Left ‘Mission: Impossible’ Franchise Because ‘It Requires a Lot of Time Away’ and ‘I Had to Go Be a Dad’ — but He’s Now Open to Return

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Could Jeremy Renner ‘s “ Mission: Impossible ” character William Brandt be back in action?

In a new interview with Collider , Renner — who starred in 2011’s “Ghost Protocol” and 2015’s “Rogue Nation” alongside franchise star Tom Cruise — reflected on his decision to leave the franchise and hinted that he would be open to returning.

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“Maybe now that my daughter is older that could happen,” Renner told Collider. “I’d always jump into a ‘Mission: Impossible’ anytime and back into Brandt. It’s great.”

At the end of “Rogue Nation,” Brandt decided to retire from his career in the Impossible Mission Force — but, unlike some “Misson: Impossible” characters, Brandt left the franchise alive, making a return even more likely.

The untitled eighth “Misson: Impossible” film is currently slated for 2025. Though it was originally thought to be the last of the franchise, Christopher McQuarrie — who has directed the last two films — stated last year that future installments are on the table.

Renner, perhaps best known for playing Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has made a triumphant return to acting after a snow plow accident in January 2023 left him with blunt chest trauma 30 broken bones. He is currently starring in Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingstown,” the third season of which premieres on June 2.

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