With Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One out in theatres, I felt the need to make a rankings list of the series that’s aged like fine wine.
The M:I franchise has been one of Hollywood’s most consistent franchises in terms of quality. So choosing the best of them all was a bit tough. Keep in mind, this is my ranking of the series and your ranking of the movies may differ.
7. Mission: Impossible – 2
While people differ on what movies come out on top, pretty much everyone agrees that M:I 2 is the worst of the M:I franchise. You’d think that a movie directed by the legendary John Woo (Face/Off, Hardboiled, The Killer) would provide viewers with a solid action movie that would blow their pants off.
It’s not a good M:I movie. The plot involves Ethan having to save the world from a rogue agent who can be described as his dark mirror. The plot could have been interesting, but the movie bores us with a snore-worthy romance angle between Cruise and Thandiwe Newton. A bigger problem is, it’s not even a good John Woo movie.
The action is pretty bland with none of the bombast and flair of a John Woo movie. The villain is…Well, M:I movies never had a good villain except the third one, so I’ll cut him some slack. Thandiwe Newton doesn’t exactly shine in this movie. The movie isn’t particularly good and the screenplay feels somewhat weird.
All in all, not a good M:I movie and not a good John Woo movie.
6. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
You can read my full review to understand why I’ve placed the latest movie at this position.
Dead Reckoning Part One is still a good Mission: Impossible movie. The action is mostly solid, the cast is great. Hayley Atwell is a terrific addition to the series. Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise as usual, pulling off stunts like a madman at his advanced age.
All that said, Dead Reckoning feels a bit incomplete, which is a given considering it’s part one of a two part movie. It’s also a bit long in the tooth and the dialogues can get a bit annoying. If they worked on those a bit more, then Dead Reckoning Part One would have been a much better movie than the one we got. As it stands, it’s a good M:I movie, if not a great one.
5. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
While the franchise’s shift to action was established by Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation was the movie that solidified said shift. It was also the beginning of the partnership between Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie.
While Rogue Nation was a great movie, it did also feel like McQuarrie dipping his toes into the M:I franchise and playing it somewhat safe. The boisterous confidence that was present in Ghost Protocol and even in McQuarrie’s later movies for the franchise aren’t as prevalent here.
Rogue Nation does get points for the introduction of Rebecca Ferguson though. She was the standout of the movie as the double agent Ilsa Faust. She was a welcome addition to the cast.
4. Mission: Impossible – 3
Considering the fact that J.J Abrams is treated like an outcast by genre fans for his treatment of the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, credit where credit is due, he did a good job resurrecting the Mission: Impossible franchise with his work on M:I-3.
Yes, the annoying lens flare is there. But Abrams did a great job of marrying the neo-noir spy narrative of the first movie with a action packed flavor. That bridge bombing is still one of the series best action sequences. This is also the movie that humanized Ethan Hunt to a good extent and brought in series regular Simon Pegg.
If nothing else, M:I-3 deserves a special place for having the best villain of the series. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman provides a terrific performance as the ice-cold arms dealer Owen Damien. Considering that the M:I series has always had weak villains, this was a first.
3. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
If Rogue Nation was McQuarrie trying to get his driving license, then Fallout was McQuarrie ripping a Bugatti on the Autobahn at full speed.
Watching Cruise execute a HALO jump without any CGI effects on IMAX was exhilarating. The screenplay had no lag. It jumped between setpiece to setpiece effortlessly. The cast was solid, the action was gob-smacking. Heck, even the villain, who is always the weakest point in a M:I movie, was portrayed pretty effectively by Henry Cavill. He’s no Philip Seymour Hoffman, but he got the job done.
The movie also did a pretty good job of reminding people that for all his death-defying shenanigans (and the weirdly cringe dialogue that accompanied it), Ethan Hunt is still a human with fears, flaws and hopes. Not since M:I-3 was that part done well.
2. Mission: Impossible
Two stories shaped my love for spy narratives. John Buchan’s “The Thirty Nine Steps” and the first Mission: Impossible movie. As such, the first M:I movie always holds a special place in my heart.
Compared to the more bombastic movies that came after, the first Mission: Impossible movie was a grounded spy affair than the rest.
And I loved it for it.
Yes, the climax has Tom Cruise destroying a helicopter in a railway tunnel while running on top of a running train. But compared to the crazier stunts of the recent Mission: Impossible movies, it seems so cute and quaint. Brian De Palma’s deft direction provides the movie with the feel of a 70’s neo-noir spy movie. Heck, even the plot sounds a lot more brainy than the rest of the movies. (Again, it’s not John Le Carre, but for a Mission: Impossible movie, it was pretty brainy)
The plot was great, the cast was great, the pacing was great. That heist sequence is an iconic part of cinema. While Jon Voight’s villain isn’t particularly great, he’s way better than the guys in Mission: Impossible 2 and Ghost Protocol.
People who became fans from Ghost Protocol onwards, give this movie a try.
1. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
In the end though, it was the fourth movie that stands out to me as the best of the franchise.
Ghost Protocol shifted the franchise from what was an auteur-driven spy series to an action-oriented spy franchise and gained new recognition, fans and made a lot of moolah in the process. If there’s any movie that the Mission: Impossible franchise should provide its respects to, then it’s the fourth movie.
While the movies before Ghost Protocol were somewhat grounded and cerebral (for a Mission: Impossible movie) and the movies that came after tilted hard on the action lever, Ghost Protocol’s script walked a deft tightrope between action and spy-craft. Brad Bird had already made a name for himself with directing some neat action sequences in Pixar’s The Incredibles and he made a smooth transition to live-action with this movie.
Another way this movie stands out is the ensemble. While the Mission: Impossible movies have always been the Tom Cruise show, Ghost Protocol provided decent screen-time for Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner, with their actions providing a good deal of weight to the movie. Honestly, I would have loved to see Paula Patton as part of the regular cast.
Of course, how I could forget the big thing? The movie that kick started Tom Cruise’s love for death-defying stunts.
While it lacks the craze factor of the stunt sequences in his later movies, his climb atop the Burj Khalifa is an absolutely tense nailbiter with just the right amount of humor sprinkled on top. Heck, Cruise doing that stunt without any graphics was the main selling point in a lot of countries.
The pacing, the acting, the screenplay…Everything was pitch perfect.
If I had to complain about one thing, it was the villain. While villains have always been the weak point of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Ghost Protocol’s villain was the worst of the lot, even by Mission: Impossible standards.
Even with that nitpick, Ghost Protocol is an awesome action movie and, for my money, the best of the Mission: Impossible franchise.