Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It
Mission:
Impossible
Eight films. Three decades. $3.5 billion in worldwide box office. Each installment more dangerous, more ambitious, and more insane than the last. Tom Cruise built the greatest action franchise in cinema history by refusing to let anyone else do the hard parts.
You're here for the running, right? Of course you are. 8.3 miles. 26 films. Zero body doubles. The arm pump index. Go.
Back to the runningEvery Film
From Brian De Palma to Christopher McQuarrie — the evolution of an action franchise.
Mission: Impossible
Box Office
$457M
Ratings
63% RT / 7.1 IMDb
Signature Stunt
CIA vault wire descent — suspended inches from the floor in a silent room
Reinvented the spy genre for the 1990s. The mask-pull reveal became an M:I signature. Established Cruise as a producer-star who controlled the franchise's creative direction.
Mission: Impossible 2
Box Office
$546M
Ratings
57% RT / 6.1 IMDb
Signature Stunt
Free-climbing a 2,000-foot cliff in Utah without a stunt double
The most divisive entry. Woo's slow-motion style clashed with the franchise's identity. Cruise's rock climbing was genuinely insane, but the film leaned too hard into romance. Still made $546M.
Mission: Impossible III
Box Office
$398M
Ratings
70% RT / 6.9 IMDb
Signature Stunt
The Shanghai bridge sprint — the greatest running scene in cinema
Philip Seymour Hoffman delivered the best villain performance in franchise history. Abrams brought emotional stakes. The bridge run became iconic. Lowest box office but highest emotional impact.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Box Office
$694M
Ratings
93% RT / 7.4 IMDb
Signature Stunt
Climbing the outside of the Burj Khalifa — the tallest building in the world
The turning point. Bird (The Incredibles) brought a sense of fun and escalation that redefined the franchise. The Burj Khalifa sequence in IMAX was a religious experience. Box office nearly doubled M:I III.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Box Office
$682M
Ratings
93% RT / 7.4 IMDb
Signature Stunt
Hanging off the side of an Airbus A400M during takeoff (8 takes)
McQuarrie became the franchise's permanent director. Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust became the best female character in action cinema. The underwater breath hold was six minutes of real breath-holding. The opera sequence was pure cinema.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Box Office
$791M
Ratings
97% RT / 7.7 IMDb
Signature Stunt
HALO jump from 25,000 feet + helicopter canyon chase + broken ankle rooftop jump
Widely considered the greatest action film of the 21st century. 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. The bathroom fight with Henry Cavill. The helicopter chase. Cruise broke his ankle and kept running. The franchise peaked — and then somehow kept climbing.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Box Office
$571M
Ratings
86% RT / 7.7 IMDb
Signature Stunt
Motorcycle cliff jump with freefall into parachute deployment (500+ training jumps)
The motorcycle cliff jump was the single most complex stunt ever filmed. The Orient Express finale was practical filmmaking at its peak. Box office underperformed due to post-COVID market shifts, but critics and audiences agreed it was extraordinary.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Box Office
TBD
Ratings
TBD
Signature Stunt
Biplane wing walk, underwater submarine sequence, reported to be the most dangerous stunts of the franchise
The conclusion of the Dead Reckoning saga. Cruise has said each film must top the last. At 62, he's still doing every stunt himself. The franchise ends not with a whimper but with the most ambitious action filmmaking ever attempted.
You're here for the running, right? Of course you are. 8.3 miles. 26 films. Zero body doubles. The arm pump index. Go.
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