Ahead of Tom Cruise's The Final Reckoning, every Mission Impossible movie ranked (No. 1 has a Kashmir connection)

Indian Express

15-05-2025

Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning: In a world where action franchises often overstay their welcome (Fast X, we're looking at you), Mission: Impossible has remained a rare, ticking time bomb of reinvention and relentless spectacle. It's the cinematic equivalent of watching someone juggle flaming swords while riding a unicycle… on a high wire… during a lightning storm. And that someone, of course, is Tom Cruise, Hollywood's last true daredevil, the man who ages like a myth.
Since 1996, this franchise has shapeshifted like a secret agent in a latex mask – espionage thriller, bullet ballet, political drama, sci-fi adjacent, and globe-hopping extravaganza. You want tension? There's the CIA vault heist. You want melodrama? Ethan Hunt's personal life is practically a tragic operetta. You want real stunts? Well, Cruise takes care of that himself. Mission: Impossible has become Cruise's legacy. Bond may have the charm, Bourne the grit, but Hunt? Hunt has the burden of doing it all with a smile, a sprint, and a self-destructing message.
It's also a cinematic scrapbook of locations most of us will only ever Google – Prague, Sydney, Rome, Shanghai, Vienna, Abu Dhabi, and of course, that glorious sprint around London rooftops. The franchise has featured a galaxy of talent: Jon Voight, Thandiwe Newton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett, Alec Baldwin, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan, Henry Cavill, and yes, our Anil Kapoor, proving with Ghost Protocol that even Indian billionaires aren't safe from Hunt's persuasive techniques.
And now, as we stand at the precipice of The Final Reckoning, the eighth and possibly the final chapter of this mad, magnificent ride, it's time to rank the movies that brought us here. We will unpack it like fans – flawed, passionate, occasionally controversial. Strap in, this message won't self-destruct.
Here's my countdown – from the weakest link (which is still better than most action movies out there put together) to the greatest mission ever accomplished.
There's a scene in MI2 where Tom Cruise rides a motorcycle towards a villain, launches into the air, and tackles him mid-spin. That moment, in a nutshell, captures the spirit of this film: pure style, questionable substance.
Directed by Hong Kong action maestro John Woo, this entry is all balletic gun-fu, slow-motion pigeons, and rock music montages. Ethan must stop a rogue agent (Dougray Scott) from unleashing a designer virus, Chimera. There's also a love triangle that has the emotional weight of a shampoo ad.
Sure, the action is sleek, and Cruise's hair has never flowed more gloriously. But MI2 feels less like a spy thriller and more like a music video directed by a teenage boy with a fascination for sunglasses and explosions. Even Hans Zimmer's roaring score can't save it from being the franchise's most disposable chapter.
This one introduced us to Ethan Hunt, the husband. Directed by a fresh-out-of-TV J J Abrams, MI:3 is darker, more emotional, and occasionally feels like an intense alias episode with a blockbuster budget. MI:3 isn't remembered for wild stunts or exotic locales, but for putting Hunt in love and in peril.
The film opens with a gut-punch: a villain (the always riveting Philip Seymour Hoffman) holding Hunt's wife hostage, counting down to doom. The scene sets the tone – it isn't just about saving the world, it's about saving one's soul.
But what makes it crackle is Hoffman as Owen Davian. No theatrics, no monologues, just pure, quiet menace. He doesn't care about your IMF protocols. He will find your wife, and he will kill her. Period.
The bridge assault sequence is a standout – loud, chaotic, and personal. We also get the first real glimpse of the 'team' dynamic that future films would lean more on. Still, there's a stiffness here — a franchise still figuring itself out. Good, but not great. A little heavy on the drama, but hey, it walked so Fallout could run.
You've got to hand it to Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie; they know how to swing for the fences. The seventh entry is a beautifully chaotic opera of train-top fights, AI paranoia, Rome car chases in a yellow Fiat, and that famous motorcycle cliff jump in Norway that made even God say, 'Maybe chill a bit?'
The most recent chapter feels like a paradox: ambitious but bloated, exhilarating yet overstuffed. The villain this time is not a person but an omnipresent AI known as 'The Entity' – timely, considering we now live in a world where even this article could be accused of being AI-written (I promise, it's not).
There's espionage, betrayal, callbacks to Hunt's past, and a new villain – Gabriel – who looks like he moonlights as a Scandinavian DJ. But here's the rub: Dead Reckoning Part One suffers a bit from middle-child syndrome. There's too much setup, a few too many monologues about the nature of truth and intelligence, and a finale that feels like an intermission. Still, when it works, it soars. The Venice sequence alone is worth the price of the ticket.
Also, shoutout to Hayley Atwell for joining the franchise with the kind of charisma you can't fake. And to Pom Klementieff, whose silent assassin steals scenes like candy from a sleepy toddler.
Ghost Protocol was the comeback nobody saw coming. Brad Bird, known for The Incredibles, made his live-action debut by injecting the franchise with adrenaline, humour, and the sheer audacity of Cruise dangling off the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, with nothing but a pair of magnetic gloves and a prayer.
In this, the IMF is disavowed (again) – a Russian madman wants to nuke the world (standard), and the team must stop him while avoiding global manhunts. But the plot's just scaffolding. The real thrills lie in the set pieces. In this, we get the Kremlin explosion, the sandstorm chase in Dubai, Cruise climbing the 'tallest building' and yes, Anil Kapoor as Brij Nath, one of those cameos in a Hollywood movie Indian fans still brag about.
This is also the film that made Jeremy Renner look like he might take over. Spoiler: He didn't.
This is where the franchise starts becoming prestige action cinema. McQuarrie steps in as writer-director and crafts a lean, stylish, and supremely confident spy thriller. Rogue Nation opens with Cruise clinging to the side of an airplane, and somehow, the film keeps topping itself from there.'
Solomon Lane is the villain, a whisper-voiced chess master of chaos. The goal? Dismantling a shadow organisation called 'The Syndicate'.
This is the film that gave us Ilsa Faust. Rebecca Ferguson arrives like a storm, stealing scenes, hearts, and occasionally, motorbikes. The opera house sequence in Vienna is a masterwork in tension and choreography, and the underwater heist is a breath-holding thrill.
The Syndicate storyline is compelling, and the film finally dials into what makes the IMF team so lovable: trust, banter, and last-second improvisation. It's smart without being smug. Cool without trying too hard.
You never forget your first mission. Brian De Palma's original Mission: Impossible isn't the loudest or the most explosive, but it's the most cerebral. This is a paranoid thriller in the mould of The Conversation and Three Days of the Condor, with a dose of Cold War flair.
The IMF team gets wiped out in the first act, and Ethan Hunt – a baby-faced Cruise – becomes the prime suspect. What follows is a twisty-turny tale of moles, masks, and misdirection. There's no Syndicate or Entity, just double agents and ticking clocks.
But let's not downplay what this gave us: The Langley Heist – the vault drop scene with the temperature/pressure/sound alarms? Iconic. The train sequence in the Chunnel? Groundbreaking for its time. That wild fish tank restaurant explosion, and the introduction of Luther Stickell, Ving Rhames' smooth-talking hacker who's been Ethan's right-hand man ever since.
It's also the one where Tom Cruise, not yet the 'stunt god,' leaned more on his acting chops and sharp suits than sheer physicality. A reminder that before the running and jumping, this was a story about deception and trust.
And here it is, the magnum opus. The film where everything clicked: cast, story, stakes, stunts, score. Fallout isn't just the best Mission: Impossible movie, it's one of the greatest action films of the 21st century.
McQuarrie delivers a symphony of tension. The HALO jump. The Paris chase. The bathroom brawl (yes, that one with Cavill loading his fists like guns). And finally, the helicopter battle – which was intended to depict Kashmir (but shot in New Zealand and Norway) – that feels like it lasts 20 minutes, every second earned.
What makes Fallout transcend is its emotional core. It's not just Ethan vs. the bomb. It's Ethan vs. himself, his past, his guilt. And unlike other invincible heroes, Hunt bleeds, fails, feels. He runs not because he can, but because he must.
And so, when the credits roll with the iconic MI theme track, you're left breathless not just from the action, but from the realisation that you've just watched a franchise at its absolute peak.
One final mission left
With Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning around the corner, there's a bittersweet tension in the air. If this is indeed Hunt's swan song, it better be one hell of a farewell. But no matter where it lands in the ranking, this franchise has already done the impossible: it made running look like art, stunts feel like story, and sequels better than the original. The franchise has been a 30-year odyssey of filmmaking bravery, international intrigue, and Tom Cruise doing things no insurance company ever approved.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it? Rewatch them all. Loudly. Proudly. And with popcorn at the ready.