By Spencer Coile
;)
Anytime the latest entry in an action movie franchise is released, it is celebrated as 'the best' in the series. No film series has better exemplified this than the Mission Impossible franchise. What makes this series particularly special is that it set the standard for filmed reboots of classic television shows. It may not have been the first, but it certainly is the most consistent. Perhaps most importantly, it knows when to take a break.
The release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a clever reminder in the age of comic book adaptations arriving every month that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) will always be there to save the day. But how exactly has the series evolved over time? And is Fallout actually the best in the series thus far?
;)
06. Mission: Impossible II (2000, dir. John Woo)
The less we say about this the better. While the first film was slow burn of a spy thriller, the second throws everything but the kitchen sink into the plot. Complete with a story involving the outbreak of a deadly virus, Thandie Newton walking around aimlessly, and shots that are repeated but from different angles to demonstrate how cool they were, Woo did not seem to grasp that the action setpieces are supplemental to the characters and plot. It is definitely the most cringe-inducing in the series, but still not without some spectacle.
;)
05. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011, dir. Brad Bird)
Bird, notable for his classic animated features like Iron Giant and The Incredibles, takes a stab at live-action with his entry into the Mission Impossible universe. There is so much to admire about his effort. We finally have a somewhat complicated female protagonist in Paula Patton, sequences that truly take the breath away, and a larger scale than the three films that came before it. Still, it ranks so low because of its pitiful villain (Michael Nyqvist). The high stakes involve nuclear missiles sent to attack the United States, but Kyqvist’s Kurt Hendricks does not feel like a crucial part of the story. Had we been given more of Léa Seydoux as the malicious assassin Sabine Moreau, then the film might have been more memorable.
;)
04. Mission: Impossible III (2006, dir. J.J. Abrams)
The first two films feel completely separate to the rest of the series. It's the third film in the franchise that began to cement its current identity. Mission: Impossible III finds Ethan Hunt finally settling down with a kindhearted nurse, Julia (Michelle Monaghan). It’s not that simple, however, and Ethan is forced to grapple with dedication to his job or his fiancé. This negotiation helps to raise the drama and to humanize Ethan in ways the previous films did not. But it also has a secret weapon: Philip Seymour Hoffman. Playing the primary villain, Owen Davian, Hoffman is a menacing figure throughout the entire film.
;)
03. Mission: Impossible (1996, dir. Brian De Palma)
It’d be easy to write the first Mission Impossible entry off as insignificant to what the series eventually became. However, that would be denying its sheer inventiveness. We are introduced to the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team, a rag-tag group of individuals who are great at their jobs feature some notable cast members like Kristin Scott Thomas and Emilio Estevez. And then within the first half hour, everyone (excluding Cruise) is promptly killed. Having only seen the first film recently, I can say that I was shocked by this decision. It is a testament to the risks this film takes and then De Palma allows the tension to escalate slowly again after that stunning first 30 minutes. It’s not wholly an action film, but a spy thriller; one that is smart and suspenseful.
;)
02. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015, dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
Rogue Nation takes the problems from Ghost Protocol and turns them into strengths. We now have a compelling villain in Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane and finally have a central female character, Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, who is very much Ethan’s equal (and actually returns in subsequent films). The set pieces and action sequences are more elaborate and more imaginative. But what makes Rogue Nation especially rewarding is the ways in which Tom Cruise’s superstar persona is challenged. Ethan Hunt is known to be the smartest, most daring agent at IMF, but Rogue Nation let's us see Ethan at his goofiest and his most vulnerable.
;)
01. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018, dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
If the insane action scenes aren't enough to sway you -- seriously, one scene features Cruise and Henry Cavill jumping from a plane and into Paris, and it's meant to look like one shot -- then it could be the ways in which McQuarrie and Cruise work to find different dimensions to Ethan Hunt. After 22 years, it'd be enough to simply give audiences an action flick with plenty of stunts and thrills, but the Mission Impossible seems interested in developing the mythology of Ethan. Who is this man? What makes him tick? What defines his morality? The thrills are the draw, but it's the exploration of its leading character that sticks.
It’s intriguing to trace the timeline of the Mission Impossible series. On the surface, they're only blockbuster action films, but when you dig a little deeper, you see the work of multiple auteurs coming together to craft a mosaic of one man across multiple decades. While not all of them work, it’d be hard to deny the ambition of this franchise. Let's see what Cruise's Ethan Hunt has planned for us in future installments.