Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch every single one of the groundbreaking Mission: Impossible movies from beginning to end before Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits theaters in at the end of May. This blog post will self-destruct in five seconds.
Just kidding! But The Final Reckoning really is just around the corner, with the release date set for May 23, 2025. Much of the action in the newest Mission: Impossible movie builds on the events of the previous entries in the franchise, and it’s a direct sequel to Dead Reckoning.
If you’re ready to catch up on the globe-trotting spy adventures of Tom Cruise’s iconic character Ethan Hunt and his team of seasoned Impossible Mission Force (IMF) operatives, including Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and but you’re not sure where to start, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how to watch all seven Mission: Impossible movies in order, from the OG in 1996 to Dead Reckoning.
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‘Mission: Impossible’ Movies in Order
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Directed by: Brian de Palma
This is the film that started it all. The iconic theme song, the self-destructing mission briefing and other ingenious gadgets, the daring raid on the CIA headquarters and Tom Cruise’s famous cable-assisted decent into a laser-guarded, sound and pressure sensor-equipped vault — this film introduced all of the elements that make the Mission: Impossible movies some of the best the action-thriller genre has to offer.
The film kicks off with a bang: IMF agent Ethan Hunt is on a mission in Prague when his team is attacked and killed. Turns out, someone leaked a list of undercover agents, and Hunt recruits a new team of disavowed agents to track down the mole.
If you’re jumping into the Mission: Impossible franchise, there’s no better place to start than at the beginning.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Directed by: John Woo
The first film was so successful and memorable that it launched a bona-fide franchise. Mission: Impossible 2 was the second entry, and while not as well-received as the first (many consider it the weakest film of the bunch), it brought a new level of energy to the franchise with loads of high-speed action scenes and globe-trotting adventures as Ethan Hunt worked to stop a rogue agent from releasing a deadly, bioengineered virus to profit from the cure.
Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Mission: Impossible 3 was J.J. Abram’s directorial debut. He’s now a household name for directing blockbusters like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the fir two Star Trek reboot movies, so it makes sense that MI:3 was better received than its predecessor.
Ethan Hunt is back, but this time he’s retired from the field and engaged. When one of his proteges is killed, he jumps back into the fire to hunt down the murderer, arms dealer Owen Davian (the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman).
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Directed by: Brad Bird
When the IMF is blamed for blowing up the Kremlin, Hunt and his team go rogue to stop a terrorist from setting off a nuclear weapon and provoking a nuclear war to reset the global balance of power.
This film features another iconic scene: Hunt’s scaling of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building. Tom Cruise, known for performing many of his own stunts, made the climb himself!
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
The concept in Ghost Protocol worked well, and it didn’t take long for the franchise to try it again. Hunt goes off radar once more in this entry after the CIA shuts down the IMF entirely, leaving him without the resources he needs to expose the sinister Syndicate, a terror organization sowing chaos around the world.
Like its predecessor, this film also features a daring stunt by Cruise: hanging off of a cargo plane during takeoff.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Hunt took down the Syndicate in Rogue Nation, but that wasn’t the last we heard from them in the Mission: Impossible movies. In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, a group of former Syndicate members make off with a load of plutonium cores for nuclear weapons and a plan to set them off in the Himalayas to taint much of the global water supply.
Fallout is generally considered one of the best Mission: Impossible movies to date, offering a direct sequel to Rogue Nation and bringing back multiple well-received characters from previous films. This one also includes one of the most mind-blowing stunts Cruise has ever performed: a 25,000-foot HALO (high altitude, low opening) jump over Paris!
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Dead Reckoning hits on a very timely theme: the rise of artificial intelligence and the risks it could pose to the world if allowed to operate out of control. Hunt has squared off with many cunning villains throughout the Mission: Impossible movies, but he’s never gone up against one that’s not a living, breathing human.
And that’s what makes this film’s big bad, a rogue AI known as The Entity, one of the scariest yet, presenting Hunt with a threat so great that it’s going to take two Mission: Impossible films to resolve the story.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
And that leads us to the latest entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise: The Final Reckoning. This film, set to be released on May 23, 2025, will pick up two months after where Dead Reckoning left off as Hunt continues his mission to stop The Entity.
Ranking the ‘Mission: Impossible’ Movies from Best to Worst
So, which of the seven Mission: Impossible movies are considered the best and the worst the franchise has to offer? Let’s take a look at how both fans and movie critics have voted across popular review sites:
| Rank | Film | Rotten Tomatoes (Critics) | Metacritic (Critics) | IMDb (Audience) |
| 1 | Fallout | 97% | 86 | 7.7/10 |
| 2 | Rogue Nation | 94% | 75 | 7.4/10 |
| 3 | Ghost Protocol | 94% | 73 | 7.4/10 |
| 4 | Dead Reckoning | 96% | 81 | 7.6/10 |
| 5 | Mission: Impossible III | 71% | 66 | 6.9/10 |
| 6 | Mission: Impossible | 66% | 59 | 7.1/10 |
| 7 | Mission: Impossible II | 57% | 59 | 6.1/10 |
Notably, all of the most recent films directed by Christopher McQuarrie, a long-time collaborator of Cruises’, have been the most highly rated films in the franchise. Ghost Protocol was the only one in the top four that wasn’t McQuarrie-directed.
Watch ‘Mission: Impossible’ Movies in Order on DIRECTV
So, what’ll it be? Did you accept the mission? If so, you can dive (or HALO jump, if you prefer) right into one of the best action-adventure spy franchises of all time on DIRECTV!
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Mission: Impossible movies are there?
There are currently eight Mission: Impossible movies.
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