[Editor’s note: this list was originally published in 2018. It has since been updated with new films from the franchise.]
Few actors have been sustained by a single ongoing franchise greater than Tom Cruise, and the hype surrounding “Mission: Unattainable — The Ultimate Reckoning” proves that just about three many years after the previous ‘60s spy present turned a blockbuster, the components stays as potent than ever.
The longevity, and consistency, of the franchise is an uncommon sight, because the “Mission: Unattainable” movies have so totally eclipsed the unique TV present it was primarily based on within the cultural consciousness. Created by Bruce Geller, the unique “Mission: Unattainable” starred Peter Graves as an agent of the IMF (or “Unattainable Mission Pressure”), recruiting a bunch of extremely proficient brokers to struggle Chilly Struggle foes, crime lords, and different main targets. In 1996, the idea of the IMF — in addition to Lalo Schifrin’s iconic theme tune and the signature phrase “your mission, do you have to select to just accept it” — was tailored into the primary entry within the blockbuster franchise.
Directed by Brian De Palma and starring Cruise as perpetual rogue agent Ethan Hunt, the primary “Mission: Unattainable” wasn’t as properly obtained because the sequence sometimes is these days; critics dinged it for a convoluted plot, earlier than it turned clear that “barely comprehensible plots” had been a sequence trademark. However the film was a hit, and — after the slight dip of the second movie from John Woo, virtually universally seen as a sequence lowpoint — began getting extra important respect with J.J. Abrams’ third movie in 2006 and particularly when “Ghost Protocol” from Brad Chook gave the sequence a brand new shot of adrenaline in 2011.
The franchise entered a totally new period of its existence in 2015, when Christopher McQuarrie took the reins for “Rogue Nation.” Beforehand, the sequence was a revolving door for revered administrators to come back in and go away their mark, with Cruise and Ving Rhames as trusty hacker Luther as the one two constants. However McQuarrie stayed on after “Rogue Nation,” and helps usher it right into a (doable?) finish with the “Lifeless Reckoning” duology. Beneath McQuarrie, the comparatively episodic franchise turned barely extra serialized; the ensemble round Cruise tightened, with characters like Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust and Vanessa Kirby’s White Widow turning into recurring buddies and foes. It’s an method that’s labored gangbusters for the franchise, with 2018’s “Fallout” rating as arguably essentially the most acclaimed installment — not unhealthy for a film that got here 22 years after the sequence started.
The “Mission: Unattainable” films have by no means actually faltered — with eight films thus far, there’s not a dud within the bunch — which makes the problem of rating them particularly difficult. Nonetheless, there’s a lot to discover in revisiting the varied entries of this sequence, which incorporates the work of world-class auteurs and memorable stunts that make it a surprise Cruise has survived this lengthy. Right here’s hoping he lives by a number of extra installments. Within the meantime, our rating follows, do you have to select to just accept it.
With editorial contributions by David Ehrlich, Eric Kohn, and Zack Sharf.
8. “Mission: Unattainable II” (2000)
One option to put in a pin a doubtlessly viable franchise is to do regardless of the hell it was that John Woo did for his 2000 entry into the sequence, a mishmash of early aughts motion movie tropes, from rogue viruses to one thing involving evil inventory choices — in brief, a giant stew of boring narrative concepts executed poorly. No less than there’s Thandie Newton, cool as a cucumber and harmful as every other double-crossing profession felony the “M:I” films has lavished consideration on earlier than discarding by the point the following film comes alongside. She’s essentially the most Bond Lady-esque amongst Ethan’s love pursuits, however she’s additionally a genuinely fascinating character: a thief turned spy who has a very good coronary heart and a greater poker face, although all that’s pushed apart to set her up as a love curiosity for Ethan, one we’ll by no means, ever see once more. The movie isn’t completely with out a few different deserves, after all, and a bike chase involving Ethan and Dougray Scott because the evil Ambrose is a Woo basic (mild on the doves, although), although it could ultimately get bested by one other “M:I” movie anyway (“Rogue Nation”). The identical is true in regards to the movie’s opening stunt, which sees Ethan dangling off a large rock wall (for…enjoyable?), one other nutty sequence that was very cool on the time, after which rendered moot by a franchise hellbent on making each movie greater and crazier, even when it includes making earlier stunts look paltry by comparability (on this case, the Burj Khalifa climb in “Ghost Protocol,” nonetheless the most effective issues to occur in any motion film of the final decade). —KE
7. “Mission: Unattainable — The Ultimate Reckoning” (2025)
A heartbreaking disappointment, “The Ultimate Reckoning” is a film that appears to lose sight of why individuals love these movies within the first place. The “Mission: Unattainable” franchise has at all times thrived on thrilling setpieces and spectacle, with the connections between every movie and the villains menacing Hunt a decidedly secondary ingredient to what individuals come for. In making an attempt to ship off Cruise (allegedly), Christopher McQuarrie will get loses the forest for the bushes, bogging the story down by tying all earlier seven films collectively in a messy, ungainly bow (the discharge date of the primary movie is a plot level, to place in perspective how messy issues get). The primary act is genuinely atrocious, a large number of story threads revolving round an uninteresting villain within the AI Entity that feels far too downbeat and unhappy for this franchise. The ultimate act saves issues a bit, but when that is actually Ethan Hunt’s ultimate go, he deserved a greater ship off than this. —WC
6. “Mission: Unattainable III” (2006)
Of all of the business auteurs working immediately, J.J. Abrams has the uncommon distinction of launching his function movie profession with a blockbuster. The superpower TV producer already had hit reveals like “Alias” and “Misplaced” below his belt when he directed “MI: III,” and that background reveals in one of many tighter, plot-driven entries within the franchise — the primary one to place extra of an effort into growing Ethan Hunt as a personality. The precise plot includes some MacGuffin nonsense a couple of machine known as “The Rabbit’s Foot,” nevertheless it issues rather a lot lower than Hunt’s newfound achilles’ heel: his spouse, Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan), whose relevance to Hunt’s decision-making continues to reverberate by the sequence.
The ultimate showdown includes a intelligent variation on the taut bomb-defusing situation that had already develop into cliché for these films, and no quantity of Tom Cruise working provides most of the motion sequences a lot distinction. Fortuitously, he’s not the actual star of the present. That distinction belongs to Philip Seymour Hoffman as arms vendor Owen Davian, nonetheless the perfect villain these films have supplied up. Davian is a cold-blooded mad man whose relentlessly calm demeanor brings an eerie realism to a task that might have known as for a easy cardboard baddie; when Hunt dangles the character out of a airplane in a useless try and make Davian speak, Hoffman’s dead-eyed stare into the howling wind provides the “Mission: Unattainable” films their most indelible picture since that bead of sweat crept down Cruise’s forehead. —EK
5. “Mission: Unattainable — Lifeless Reckoning Half One” (2023)
It’s powerful to evaluate “Lifeless Reckoning Half One,” because it very a lot lives as much as that “Half One” within the title by being simply half of the story, leaving the central battle between Hunt and a strong AI system often known as “The Entity” on a cliffhanger. Taken as a standalone, the film is simply as strong a thrill trip as the remainder of the films, with sequences like a crazed automotive chase all through the streets of Rome and the adrenaline fueled prepare explosion finale sequence rating among the many franchise’s finest stunts; that’s not even talking in regards to the Cruise mountain motorbike drop, which is simply as jaw-dropping within the movie as it’s within the many ad-spots which have promoted it.
However vital storyline troubles do preserve “Lifeless Reckoning” from reaching the heights of Christopher McQuarrie’s previous two movies for the sequence. For one, it has a little bit of an antagonist downside; though the film will get some enjoyable stress out of The Entity’s omnipresent nature, it’s not notably fascinating to see Hunt go in opposition to a faceless voice, and the AI’s agent Gabriel (Esai Morales) doesn’t show to be an appropriate stand-in, paling compared to Cavill’s John Lark in “Fallout” (credit score has to go to Pom Klementieff, whose menacing efficiency as Gabriel’s henchwoman provides the villains some wanted chew).
Extra broadly, the ballooning solid creates growing focus points, as a number of the previous faces don’t get the highlight they deserve; that’s notably galling with Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a standout in McQuarrie’s earlier movies who will get her screentime cannibalized in favor of a brand new, far much less compelling feminine lead in Hayley Atwall’s Grace, earlier than exiting the plot earlier than the third act. The “Mission: Unattainable” films have at all times been uneasily fast to deal with their feminine stars as pretty disposable (see how Paula Patton was the one one of many “Ghost Protocol” staff to not come again for any sequel), and the dealing with of Ilsa is a very bitter be aware in “Lifeless Reckoning’s” in any other case largely scrumptious thrill trip. —WC
Learn IndieWire’s evaluation of “Mission: Unattainable — Lifeless Reckoning Half One” by David Ehrlich.
4. “Mission: Unattainable — Rogue Nation” (2015)
“Rogue Nation” is a standout entry for one primary purpose: Rebecca Ferguson. The Swedish actress’ breakout efficiency as undercover MI6 agent Isla Faust gave the franchise a massively refreshing feminine voice, one which goes toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise by way of kicking ass and magnetic display screen charisma. Ferguson was a breathe of recent air 5 movies into the “Mission: Unattainable” franchise, as was writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie’s method ends in essentially the most tightly constructed entry within the franchise, which makes “Rogue Nation” a refreshing blast that doesn’t fairly attain the unpredictable thrills of the perfect “Mission: Unattainable” films. In his fingers, “Mission: Unattainable” went extra old style. McQuarrie changed Chook’s cartoonishness with a extra classical method that recalled the whole lot from Alfred Hitchcock to James Bond. The entry additionally will get bonus factors for its opera fist struggle scene, which stays the most effective set items within the franchise. —ZS
3. “Mission Unattainable — Ghost Protocol” (2011)
J.J. Abrams introduced the “Mission: Unattainable” franchise nearer to Bond territory with the third installment, nevertheless it’s actually Brad Chook who proved as soon as and for all what a “Mission Unattainable” film might be with “Ghost Protocol.” Chook, the grasp animator behind “The Iron Large” and “The Incredibles,” made his live-action filmmaking debut on the sequel, and used his animator’s mind to show the sequence’ already well-known motion set items into true artistic endeavors. A hand-to-hand struggle between Lea Seydoux and Paula Patton has the texture of an motion ballet, whereas Tom Cruise’s iconic scaling of the Burj Khalifa has a constructing stress that erupts in staccato bursts of adrenaline. Chook’s motion scenes are their very own symphonies, every with a definite melody and a breathless climax. Chook’s movie is the “Mission Unattainable” franchise as a sequence of one-upping, expertly realized motion scenes, and that’s the franchise at its finest (see “Fallout,” under). —ZS
2. “Mission: Unattainable” (1996)
It’s the picture most carefully related to the primary period of the “M:I” franchise: An in depth-cropped, bespectacled Ethan Hunt hangs mere inches above a flooring finest described as “probably not appropriate to be a flooring anyway,” making an attempt to hack a pc by the use of some large floppy discs. He’s all nerves and concern and stress … after which he sweats, one droplet able to burst on to that very same flooring, alerting everybody to his presence — after which he catches it. It’s humorous and daring and intelligent, and whereas comparatively small-scale in comparison with the set items to come back, it’s nonetheless one which’s emblematic of the perfect of the sequence.
However, actually, it’s not even the perfect sequence within the movie itself. Brian De Palma’s elegant thriller opens with essentially the most amusing bit to play out in any “M:I” movie, a flowery piece of misdirection that introduces not solely Ethan Hunt, however his stacked solid of compatriots, together with Kristin Scott Thomas and Emilio Estevez — after which kills all of them off, with the intention to dig right into a story of double-crossing that any spy sequence would like to have amongst its ranks. It’ll develop into a well-known story beat: Ethan along with his again up in opposition to the wall, having to show his loyalty to an establishment that doesn’t completely deserve it. The movie ends with a type of deeply entertaining, extremely unbelievable motion set items that the franchise has perfected as its signature: a race between a prepare (with Cruise on high) and a helicopter (piloted by primary baddie Jean Reno), which makes its method by a tunnel. Certain! It’s as bonkers as something the sequence has crafted since, and it set the stage for all of the insanity to come back. —KE
1. “Mission: Unattainable — Fallout” (2018)
It doesn’t take lengthy to acknowledge that “Mission: Unattainable — Fallout” is likely one of the finest motion films ever made. Some will see the sunshine throughout the first act HALO leap, when Tom Cruise caps off an exhilarating long-take by leaping out of a C-17 at 25,000 toes, aerial photographer Craig O’Brien capturing the stunt by the IMAX lens strapped to his head (your transfer, Christopher Nolan). Others may cotton to the movie’s brilliance throughout the bareknuckle struggle scene that follows within the toilet of a Parisian nightclub. Henry Cavill packs a lot firepower into every punch that he actually has to reload his arms, and director Christopher McQuarrie — invoking the perfect of James Bond as he shoots the brawl with none music on the soundtrack — makes certain that we soak up each bodyblow and wince at each bit of busted tile.
However the true genius of the most recent (and probably final) chapter within the long-running “Mission: Unattainable” saga isn’t present in one of many movie’s death-defying set items, or within the elegant method that McQuarrie strings them collectively like excellent little pearls of violence, and even within the second when Angela Bassett deadpans some ridiculous line about stolen plutonium with a stoic fury worthy of King Lear. “Fallout” is nice as a result of it fulfills a promise that its star made to moviegoers again within the final millennium, and — with solely a handful of exceptions — hasn’t reneged on since. It’s a promise that’s made him the final film star of his variety, a one-man supernova who’s but to burn out a time when audiences solely appear to care about manufacturers. And it’s a promise that Tom Cruise lastly voices out loud within the sixth installment of the sequence that he’s sustained for 22 years, and has sustained him in return for not less than the final seven: “I received’t allow you to down.” —DE