By Rick Gonzales
| Published
Box office savior Tom Cruise began the Mission: Impossible franchise in 1996, and it has since cleared $4 billion at the box office. The franchise had a rocky start, but as it moved forward, the films began to take off. The action intensified and the stunts got bigger and bigger until it crescendoed in a huge 2025 finale.
All eight films in the Mission: Impossible movie series are ranked from best to worst according to our scientifically calculated formula.
Every Mission: Impossible Film Ranked
1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout | 2018
The sixth film in the franchise, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, represents the best. Settling in with a running time of two and a half hours, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his Mission: Impossible team need to clear their names again. The action is appropriately impossible as the series calls upon Henry Cavill to spice things up.
While all the movie’s stunts are intense, the highlight is one of the best hand-to-hand fight sequences of the entire series.
2. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | 2011
While the first three films in the Mission: Impossible franchise were decent action flicks with solid stories, this fourth one was the first to show its full potential.
After being blamed for a terrorist attack in Russia, Ethan Hunt’s team must now work separately from the U.S. Government to prove their innocence.
The set pieces were better, the action more intense, and watching Tom Cruise cruise around on the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, was nerve-wracking, especially if heights are not your thing.
3. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One | 2023
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One follows Ethan Hunt as he races to stop a rogue AI called “The Entity” from destabilizing world powers. The film blends espionage with timely fears about artificial intelligence, earning praise for its suspense, action, and Hayley Atwell’s standout performance.
While critics admired its ambition, some noted that the two-part structure made the ending feel unfinished. Audiences largely embraced it, though box office returns were softer than expected, with global earnings of around $567 million, which was strong but below franchise highs. Still, it remains a strong entry that built anticipation for the concluding chapter.
4. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | 2015
For many, this is their favorite film in the franchise. Rogue Nation is relentless and efficient, offering the same thrills as the previous film, Ghost Protocol.
Here, though, Hunt’s team finds themselves in a battle with an organization called The Syndicate, a group that wishes to rid the world of the IMF. As always, it is Tom Cruise’s dedication to the action, the stunts, and the desire to do whatever it takes to entertain audiences.
5. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning | 2025
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning thrust Ethan Hunt and his team back into a fight against the rogue AI, “The Entity,” now wielding control over nuclear arsenals. The movie’s picks up where Dead Reckoning Pt One left off, diving into submarine secrets and a dramatic aerial standoff.
Critics appreciated the emotional weight and Cruise’s fearless stuntwork—especially the underwater and biplane sequences—but flagged the 170‑minute runtime and dense exposition. Box office reached ~$585.9 M globally against a $300–400 M budget, respectable but underwhelming next to earlier entries. A fitting, if imperfect, send‑off that leans on sentiment over spycraft.
6. Mission: Impossible III | 2006
Three years before the Star Trek reboot and almost a decade before Star Wars, director J.J. Abrams took on the Mission: Impossible franchise. While it was a step above the first two films, it wasn’t as memorable as Cruise or Abrams had wanted. That’s not to say it wasn’t a decent entry into the franchise, because it was.
In Mission: Impossible III, Ethan Hunt gets himself a new IMF team. Although they are fun to watch, the true highlight of the movie is the performance by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain, Davian.
7. Mission: Impossible | 1996
This was the first go-around for Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. Here, Cruise was joined by Jon Voight in a plot that would tie the future to the past. Voight played Jim Phelps, a character from the original Mission: Impossible television series, played by Peter Graves.
The Brian De Palma-directed film had Hunt on the hunt for a mole in the IMF organization. When it was discovered to be Phelps, fans and actors from the series alike were not pleased. The actors who played in the series were not shy about their dissatisfaction. Somehow, the film got a sequel.
8. Mission: Impossible 2 | 2000
After the entry film into the franchise, the pressure was on for Tom Cruise to knock its sequel out of the ballpark. John Woo was hired to direct, and with his pedigree, one would have thought the results would have been a smash hit.
Here, Ethan Hunt finds himself traversing the globe in attempts to stop an ex-IMF agent from setting off a bioweapon that could wipe out billions. The film simply didn’t pop, which is probably why it took Cruise six years before he made the third film in the franchise.
