Ranking | From Worst to BEST Film of the 'Mission: Impossible' Franchise

The big day is coming! 'Mission: Impossible - Reckoning: Part 1' arrives in theaters on July 14th of this year.

Riding on this hype wave, we decided to create a new list. Here we rank all the franchise films - in descending order, from worst (or "least good", since there isn't exactly a bad one here) to best.

Come and see.

Mission: Impossible 2

Four years after critics and audiences alike deemed the first film too complex for a general audience, Paramount opted for a simpler, more direct plot, excelling in stylish action scenes - courtesy of genre master John Woo. Despite beautiful moments in its visuals, the proposal of what is truly Mission: Impossible (a spy plot focusing on a team) was lost, emphasizing only the charismatic character of protagonist Tom Cruise. Thus, the second installment of the franchise moved away from the vibe of the TV show it was based on, to become a vehicle for the star's action.

Mission: Impossible

Tom Cruise was already a consolidated star in Hollywood in 1996, but he bet his chips on a work that would become his most valuable possession and the stigma by which he would be most remembered. The first Mission: Impossible is also unique within the franchise. Directed by master Brian De Palma (in a great commercial phase), the film adapted from a popular 1960s TV series - which got a second life in the 1980s - invests more in the espionage tints of its counterpart, with an atmosphere more oriented to the suspense of a thriller than to an action and entertainment blockbuster. In fact, De Palma, a known disciple of Alfred Hitchcock, delivered a film that the legendary British director could very well have signed in his career. Precisely because of such an approach outside the standards of popcorn movies, the franchise chose to follow other paths maintained to this day. Ps. Alongside the third one, this is the favorite film in the franchise for yours truly.

Mission: Impossible III

The audience spoke and the producers listened. The show continued to be Tom Cruise's, but the franchise returned to what was the essence of the theme: a story about a team of spies. Although not the majority's favorite, the third episode, directed by J.J. Abrams six years after the second, is the one that most sums up the feeling of the TV show. The film works as a mix between the first two films, using the positive points of both. Thus, we have Cruise's protagonism and the step forward in further humanizing his character (with a love and revenge story) and electrifying action scenes, while the other spies on the team gain faces and personalities, and the script uses a slightly complicated plot. Oh yes, we have the best antagonist of the franchise in this episode, played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman - fresh off his Oscar for Capote (2005).

The first two items, positions 1 and 2, is where things get confusing. What happens is the following: both Ghost Protocol (2011), the fourth film, and Rogue Nation (2015), the fifth, received a 7.4 rating from the general public on IMDB. Then you think, let's break the tie with the critics' score. Ok, we could, were it not for the case that both again have the same score on Rotten Tomatoes - 93% approval. How about then the number of votes? Yes, the more voters, the more the score tends to drop, so the movie with more voters should lead. It happens that while Rogue Nation leads the number of votes with the critics, Ghost Protocol leads with the public. You're messing with me, right!

Well, then we'll do this, the voice of the people is the voice of God. The IMDB survey is more eclectic, as it covers the general public, which can even include critics who want to vote there (and why not?), instead of giving voice only to specialists in renowned vehicles. So, let's go.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

After the third film, the franchise seems to have followed the same winning formula, betting equally on charismatic secondary characters - especially team members - an engaging plot and breathtaking action and suspense scenes. After all, what would a good action scene be without the suspense of the situation. In the opinion of the general public, the last two installments of the franchise were its peak, a path that the sixth film should also follow (the reviews are already extremely favorable). Rogue Nation kept part of the team from each film in the franchise (Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner), in addition to introducing the most interesting female character in the franchise, the ambiguous Ilsa Faust, played by Rebecca Ferguson. With the nature of a good spy, whom we cannot truly trust, Faust should continue this way in the new film, as the trailers indicate. Apart from that, the challenge here is a secret organization formed by former renegade agents, known as the Syndicate. The events presented here will have a direct continuation in Fallout Effect.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

For many, the fourth film in the franchise took everything that had been built in the third and elevated it. Thus, we have an even more developed team with more organic and fun interactions. Simon Pegg's hacker gained more space, as did the female character - role of the stunning Paula Patton - who has a real wound to be healed in her arc. In addition, the mysterious agent played by Jeremy Renner was intimately linked to a personal trauma of Ethan (Cruise) and was prepared to take over the franchise (the same had been attempted with The Bourne Legacy) as a protagonist. Brad Bird, in his first film with real actors, delivers a complete work, which gets it right in all aspects, putting Mission: Impossible on a new level. The plot presents the team needing to act renegade after a sabotage in their last mission in Russia, which almost incites World War III in an international incident. Thus, as in the first film, not only Cruise, but his entire team needs to clear their name and regain the agency's trust.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

It's hard to find adjectives that fit the script written by Christopher McQuarrie, who also directs and produces. With a smart and agile script, which doesn't waste time to engage its story, he uses the very little breathing time between one action scene and another to deepen his characters and their motivations. The greatest success is showing that sometimes the hero can become the villain and vice versa, in addition to bringing strong female characters that escape the "damsel in distress" stereotype. Each character has their due screen time, the plot manages to bring elements from previous films and create a finale for all the loose ends in the franchise - humanizing Ethan Hunt and showing that he is a flesh and blood man, with feelings and a past. It's a masterstroke the way the story moves forward without forgetting the past, but also always looking to the future.

'Mission Impossible: Fallout' is so good that we don't notice its 2 hours and 47 minutes pass, leaving us increasingly intrigued with each twist and revelation that the plot gives us. And even if some of them can be predicted, the way situations unravel is genius.

The sixth film in the franchise comes to show that action alone does not make a film: it takes an interesting script, a confident director, and an actor giving his best. And 'Fallout' has all this and a bit more.