It took Paramount Pictures 30 years to consider turning the hit CBS television series Mission: Impossible into a motion picture for the first time in 1996, and neither the studio nor the franchise’s star, Tom Cruise, have ever looked back. That has everything to do with the fact that Cruise has starred in seven very successful entries, which have generated over $4 billion at the worldwide box office and turned Mission: Impossible into one of the most popular action franchises ever.

At the time of this writing, audiences patiently await the release of Mission: Impossible’s eighth entry, the formerly titled Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 2. Some believe this upcoming entry might finally mark the end of Tom Cruise’s time as Ethan Hunt. If that is indeed the case, then now’s the perfect time to look back across the franchise and revisit the endless thrills each film has provided in the proper viewing order for the franchise.

How Many Mission: Impossible Movies Are There, and What Is The Proper Viewing Order?

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It, Is to Watch Eight Films Back to Back

Unlike some big-time action movie franchises, figuring out the proper viewing order for Mission: Impossible is as simple as watching the films in order of release. This means the narrative chronology of the entire franchise tracks from its beginnings with Mission: Impossible in 1996 to Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning’s timeframe in 2023.

Mission: Impossible Franchise Filmography

Title
Year

Mission: Impossible
1996
7.2

Mission: Impossible II

Mission: Impossible III
2005
6.9

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
2011
7.4

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
2015
7.4

Mission: Impossible – Fallout
2018
7.7

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
2023
7.7

Mission: Impossible VIII
2025
N/A

The first three entries in the Mission: Impossible franchise are the easiest to keep track of, numbered as they are with Roman numerals. When Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was released in 2011, it changed the naming convention, but the series continued to move forward chronologically in time as Brad Bird took over the directing duties in an entry that was meant to provide Ethan Hunt with an exit strategy to make way for Jeremy Renner’s new agent, but plans changed soon afterward and Cruise remained the franchise’s flagbearer.

With Mission: Impossible —Rogue Nation, director Christopher McQuarrie joined the franchise for the first time after working with Tom Cruise on films like Valkyrie and Jack Reacher. This entry also introduced audiences to Rebecca Ferguson’s soon-to-be fan-favorite character, Ilsa Faust, in an entry that rejuvenated the franchise. Perhaps because of Rogue Nation’s immense popularity, McQuarrie became the first director to return in back-to-back entries, helming Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which was even more well-received critically and financially than the last.

That set the table for where audiences are now, having waited some five years (not to mention surviving a pandemic and outlasting a series of Hollywood strikes) to see Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning finally hit theaters in 2023. Originally pitched as the first of a two-part story, Dead Reckoning has since been retrofitted to serve as its own story as McQuarrie and Cruise work on bringing us the franchise’s eighth (and perhaps final?) entry. Now, without any further ado, here’s how to watch each Mission: Impossible film in the proper order.

Mission: Impossible Is Where Audiences Fell for Ethan Hunt

Release Date: May 22, 1996

Based on the IP of the TV series of the same name, Mission: Impossible exploded into theaters in the mid-90s, becoming the first in what would eventually become a billion-dollar franchise. This first film took the television series’ initial premise and cleverly turned it on its head by introducing audiences to an entire team of IMF agents before killing almost all of them in the film’s blood-drenched first act.

From that point forward, it’s up to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt to avenge his friends and root out the mole who set his team up in the first place. Co-starring Vanessa Redgrave, Jon Voight, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Emilio Estevez, to name but a few, this first film was also directed by the master of suspense, Brian De Palma, giving this entry an artistic pedigree that many of the other entries in the franchise have been lacking ever since. The action scenes might not be as epic here as they grow to become later, but the tension is top-notch, and this is the only entry that genuinely feels like an actual spy film.

Mission: Impossible II Substituted Spy Games for Explosive Action

Release Date: May 24, 2000

Action maestro John Woo directed this sequel four years after the first Mission: Impossible. Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt, and this time, IMF has tasked him with finding and disposing of a new biochemical weapon, codenamed Chimera. Standing in his way is the former IMF agent, Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), who plans on starting a pandemic with the new bioweapon so that he can, in turn, make billions by selling the antidote, Bellerophon.

To stop him, Hunt teams up with Ambrose’s former lover, Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Netwon), and tries to secure the virus before it’s too late. This second entry in the franchise severely upped the action sequences with John Woo behind the camera, and while many of those scenes hold up better than some of us might remember, there’s no question that the rest of the film suffers.

Mission: Impossible III Gave Us The Franchise’s Best Villain

Release Date: May 5, 2006

It took six years for Mission: Impossible III to hit theaters, directed by wunderkind J.J. Abrams. This third outing attempted to gild the lily between the franchise’s first two entries by returning to the series’ roots of espionage while not shortchanging the action scenes, and, for the most part, it was successful. This time, Ethan Hunt is ready to retire from active duty and settle down with his fiancée, Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Unfortunately, after one last job revolving around an arms dealer named Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) goes disastrously wrong, Julia ends up in danger, and Ethan might not be capable of saving her.

When fans think of Mission: Impossible III today, they think first and foremost about Philip Seymour Hoffman’s incredible performance as Owen Davian, an unhinged lunatic who steals every scene he’s a part of. As directed by J.J. Abrams (his first feature film!), there are plenty of high-concept ideas, thrilling set pieces, and, of course, lens flares. This film might not be the best entry in the franchise, but it’s up there, and it also introduced audiences to the teammate that Hunt has worked alongside the most ever since, Simon Pegg’s IMF technician, Benji Dunn.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Was Supposed to Reboot the Franchise

Release Date: December 16, 2011

For many, including a brand-new generation of audiences, Mission: Impossible —Ghost Protocol is where the franchise hit its stride. Dropping the Roman numerals in favor of subtitles, Ghost Protocol was meant to serve as Ethan Hunt’s swan song for the franchise. In this high-octane adventure, IMF is disowned by the American government following a mission in the Kremlin that goes horribly wrong, leaving Hunt and his team hanging in the wind without backup while trying to prevent a potential nuclear war.

The stakes are certainly higher than ever in Ghost Protocol, and there’s no denying that the stunts dreamed up by former The Iron Giant and Incredibles director Brad Bird are memorable, especially Cruise’s iconic climb up the Buri Khalifa. All that being said, parts of this movie (like Michael Nyqvist’s big bad Kurt Hendricks) simply don’t work. Moreover, the story is clearly working toward pushing Ethan Hunt out in favor of Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt, which is something no one in the audience asked for. That no doubt has a lot to do with why those plans were ultimately abandoned, but it leaves Ghost Protocol in the precarious place of having meant to serve a specific purpose, only to have failed at doing so.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Reaffirmed Cruise as the Franchise’s One True Star

Release Date: July 31, 2015

Less than four years later, Christopher McQuarrie (one of Tom Cruise’s closest creative allies) was brought on to get the Mission: Impossible franchise back on track. McQuarrie scrapped the idea of William Brandt replacing Ethan Hunt as the series’ lead and placed Tom Cruise firmly at the center of the film’s story while relegating Renner to the sidelines (so much so that Renner ultimately decided never to return). This entry also introduced Rebecca Ferguson’s MI6 agent, Ilsa Faust, a fellow spy who will soon join Ethan on his hunt to shut down the international crime organization known as the Syndicate.

With Rouge Nation, McQuarrie pulled an old play out of the James Bond handbook by giving Ethan Hunt a shadowy organization to confront and one that would become his ultimate nemesis. The Syndicate’s primary goal is to reconstruct the world through a series of horrifying terrorist attacks while framing Hunt for the crimes. It’s an ingenious ploy that puts Hunt in more danger than ever before, and with the renewed focus on Hunt’s character, Rogue Nation serves as the perfect reset that Ghost Protocol was always meant to be, setting the table for multiple future installments.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout Upped the Ante In Every Conceivable Way

Release Date: July 27, 2018

In what has since become Mission: Impossible’s highest-rated entry, Fallout sees Ethan Hunt, Ilsa Faust, and the rest of Hunt’s crew battle against the remaining remnants of the Syndicate, who reform under the equally auspicious moniker of The Apostles. After a mission to secure some stolen plutonium cores doesn’t go according to plan, CIA director Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) orders August Walker (Henry Cavill) to oversee Hunt and IMF’s missions.

Through a series of unexpected twists and turns, Walker is revealed to be working with The Apostles and alongside an arms dealer named the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) to exchange the stolen plutonium for the release of the Syndicate’s former leader, Solomon Lane. Set just two years after the events of Rogue Nation, Fallout is the first sequel in the Mission: Impossible franchise to truly build off the narrative events of the previous film, something which has since become the standard under McQuarrie’s watchful direction. As such, this film felt bigger, bolder, and better than many of the franchise’s former entries and has since become one of the most popular.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Could Prove to Be the Beginning of the End

Release Date: July 12, 2023

After an incredibly long wait, Mission: Impossible —Dead Reckoning hit theaters in the summer of 2023. It featured the franchise’s biggest stunts yet and added a whole cast of new characters portrayed by some of Hollywood’s best, including Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, and Cary Elwes. This time, Ethan and his team must embark on a dangerous new mission to track down artificial intelligence that could potentially threaten all of humanity.

Dead Reckoning builds upon the franchise by digging deep into Ethan Hunt’s past and introducing audiences to new characters, some of whom have unknown ties to Ethan’s earliest days in the IMF. As the past comes back to haunt him, Ethan must weigh the importance of his mission over the friends he’s made along the way in a manner that he never has before (outside, perhaps, Mission: Impossible III). Once again directed by Christopher McQuarrie, completing this mission comes with an actual personal cost for Ethan Hunt and sets the character and the franchise up wonderfully for what’s next.

Mission: Impossible 8 Could Prove to Be Ethan Hunt’s Last

Release Date: May 23, 2025

What was initially meant to serve as a direct sequel to Dead Reckoning is now being reworked slightly to stand on its own as an entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise. While this upcoming eighth film in the franchise doesn’t have a subtitle quite yet, fans can nonetheless expect it to continue the trend of upping the action, stunts, and dramatic tension, as each of the previous three installments has successfully done.

Some fans are also expecting this to be Ethan Hunt’s last adventure, and while no one has outright confirmed or denied those reports, Christopher McQuarrie, who is once again returning to the series’ directing chair, has suggested that this might not be as close to the end for Cruise as some might think, telling Variety,

“Let me tell you, I’ve been working with Tom Cruise for 15 years, and I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve been standing next to the man, witnessed an event, and then read about it in the trades the next day, and none of what they describe is actually true.”

In other words, it sounds like Tom Cruise’s time as Ethan Hunt isn’t quite ready to self-destruct. And really, what more could longtime fans of the Mission: Impossible franchise ask for? There’s a genuine chance that an updated version of this article ten years from now will include yet another three entries in the franchise, and all of them might very well star Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, even if the last one is inevitably about him trying to escape the confines of whatever retirement home IMF sends him to at last.