MISSION IMPOSSIBLE MOVIES: RANKINGS and REASONS
THE RANKINGS:
1) Mission Impossible 3
2) Rogue Nation
3) Mission Impossible
4) Ghost Protocol
5) Mission Impossible Fallout
6) Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
7) Mission Impossible 2
8) Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1
THE REASONS:
1) Mission Impossible 3
The absolute best in the series for a whole ton of reasons, this was the first movie JJ Abrahms ever directed and boy was he out to prove himself. The villain, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is by far the best, scariest, and most charismatic villain the series has to offer. The story, involving Ethan Hunt having a life outside of the missions, and a wife, is creatively great. The locations and heists, including one in Vatican City and another in Shanghai, China, are top notch. And the stunts, including a gunfight in a warehouse with the tossing of a gun from one person to another, a bridge bombing and prisoner escape, and the hanging upside down from a moving truck, practically scraping the street as a canister goes sliding by, are all terrific.
This movie doesn’t have the biggest stunts in the series (after all, the series ended up hanging its star from the Burj Khalifa and blowing up the Kremlin in other films,) but it has the stunts that look the coolest and are filmed the best. This is the movie where the action, story, and locations all work seamlessly together. It also ends up feeling like the most grounded and down to earth movie in the series. Just look at how its climax goes for its smallest and most personal fight yet, as our heroes duke it out on the first floor of a tiny house in Shanghai. This one is smart and creative the whole way through. On top of that, it might be the only movie in the series that is actually easy to follow, without having to deal with the slightest hint of a confusing plot. It is the movie that pulls back the curtain the most to show us a different angle or perspective on the series. Maybe that means Ethan has a wife and picks up his mission recorded message from a throw away camera at a convenience store. Maybe it means we get to see one of those cool disguise masks created from the very beginning for once. Whatever it is, this movie has it and this movie does it.
2) Rogue Nation
The next best movie in the series has got to be the one that is also relatively grounded. Rogue Nation might not give Ethan a life outside of the missions the way that MI 3 did, but it does feature smaller set pieces in more intimate locations, such as an underground record store and an Opera Theater with a cool fight on the catwalks. Also like the third movie, this one features another memorable and menacing villain. That villain is played by Sean Harris and features the creepiest of looks and voices.
This is the first movie in the series directed by Christopher McQuarie, (the man who would go on to direct every movie afterwards,) and it is definitely his best. It’s the entry he made before he started getting comfortable with the material and just repeating the same tone and ideas. Here, he was actually making something cool.
This movie also feels like a turning point in the series. Starting with this one, all the movies begin to feel connected. Now, despite how it sounds, that turns out to not be a good thing, since what made these special before was that each movie had a different director and a uniquely different style.
But Rogue Nation as the movie that sort of resets the series, is definitely better than anything that comes after it. Not only is Harris established here, but so is his organization (the Syndicate, not to be confused with Spectre from the Bond movies,) and so is Rebecca Ferguson’s character, Ilsa Faust. All are nice additions to the series.
But what really makes this movie great, aside from the grounded feel and the villain, are the action scenes. Tom Cruise hanging off the side of a plane while it takes flight, Cruise holding his breath while swimming underwater in a massive tank with an electric arm that threatens to crush him as it rapidly spins around the tank. An incredibly thrilling motorcycle chase that easily puts everything done on motorcycles in John Woo’s MI2 to shame. The plot here might be a little confusing from time to time (just as it is in almost all of these movies,) but other than that, this one is pretty great.
3) Mission Impossible
4) Ghost Protocol
5) Mission Impossible Fallout
6) Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
7) Mission Impossible 2
8) Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1