“Mission: Impossible” is one of the longest-running and highest-grossing film franchises ever. This article ranks every single film in the series from worst to best.
The ranking comes courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes, and ranges from a lowly 57 percent to a sky-high 98 percent. It represents a spread of movies that are nothing if not unpredictable – but that’s what makes them so fun. Regardless of the critical consensus, Tom Cruise and his band of international agents are a force that can’t be stopped, running towards and indeed away from explosions since the first release back in 1996.
These are the best (and the worst) “Mission: Impossible” movies.
Mission Impossible Movies Ranked
‘Mission: Impossible 2′
- Rotten Tomatoes: 57%
- Year: 2000
- Director: John Woo
- Where to Watch: Paramount+; also available to rent or buy on Prime Video, YouTube, and other digital platforms
Synopsis: “Top action director John Woo brings his own brand of excitement to the mission that finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) partnering up with the beautiful Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton) to stop renegade agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) from releasing a new kind of terror on an unsuspecting world.”
‘Mission: Impossible‘
- Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
- Year: 1996
- Director: Brian De Palma
- Where to Watch: Paramount+; available to rent or buy on Prime Video, YouTube, and other digital platforms
Synopsis: “Fleeing from government assassins, breaking into the CIA’s most impenetrable vault, clinging to the roof of a speeding bullet train, Hunt races like a burning fuse to stay one step ahead of his pursuers… and draw one step closer to discovering the shocking truth.”
‘Mission: Impossible 3′
- Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
- Year: 2006
- Director: J. J. Abrams
- Where to Watch: Paramount+; also available via rent/buy options on standard digital platforms
Synopsis: “Ethan leaps into spectacular adventure from Rome to Shanghai as he races to rescue a captured agent (Keri Russell) and stop Davian from eliminating his next target: Ethan’s wife, Julia (Michelle Monaghan).”
‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘
- Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
- Year: 2025
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Where to Watch: Available for digital purchase on Prime Video
Synopsis: “Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team are tasked with bringing the world back from the brink of annihilation. The mission will require plumbing the depths for a sunken Russian sub, hanging from the wing of a biplane – and no less than an aircraft carrier.”
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
- Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
- Year: 2011
- Director: Brad Bird
- Where to Watch: Paramount+
Synopsis: “No plan. No backup. No choice. Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his elite team (Jeremy Renner, THE AVENGERS and Simon Pegg, STAR TREK) go underground after a bombing of the Kremlin implicates the IMF as international terrorists.”
‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation‘
- Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
- Year: 2015
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Where to Watch: Paramount+; also available for rent/buy on digital platforms
Synopsis: “With his elite organization shut down by the CIA, agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team (Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) race against time to stop the rise of a new global threat, The Syndicate, a dangerous network of rogue operatives turned traitors.”
‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘
- Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
- Year: 2023
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Where to Watch: Paramount+ or via digital rental/purchase
Synopsis: “Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands.”
‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘
- Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
- Year: 2018
- Director: Christopher McQuarrie
- Where to Watch: Paramount+
Synopsis: “On a dangerous assignment to recover stolen plutonium, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) chooses to save his team over completing the mission, allowing nuclear weapons to fall into the hands of a deadly network of highly-skilled operatives intent on destroying civilization.””