With Mission: Impossible — Fallout arriving in theaters today, I decided this week to rewatch all of the M:I movies to prepare myself for what looks to be the best in the series.

I figured it would be a fun experiment to rank them while I was at it.

5) Mission: Impossible III
The third movie in the series starts strongly, with a menacing Owen Davian (played perfectly by Philip Seymour Hoffman) threatening hero Ethan Hunt with a life or death situation. It's all downhill from there. Director J.J. Abrams and co-editors Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon combine for some disorienting, epileptic action photography, and a talented supporting cast is wasted in meager roles. A few amusing heist scenes and an energetic turn by star Tom Cruise aren't enough to buoy what is ultimately a pedestrian, surprisingly bland popcorn movie.

4) Mission: Impossible
There's a great movie buried somewhere in the premiere Mission: Impossible entry. Part House of Games, part License to Kill, Mission: Impossible never quite finds its thematic or emotional footing, despite some truly extraordinary set pieces, including a CIA infiltration that ranks among cinema's best.

3) Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol
Brad Bird's take on the spy series is a consistently competent action flick, with warm characters and a few stand-out stunt sequences, including a thrilling final-act chase in a elevated parking garage. Yet the movie refuses to stop and develop its thinly-sketched characters or develop a theme, choosing instead to leap from one action set-piece to the next.

2) Mission: Impossible II
Often considered the black sheep of the franchise, John Woo's vision of Mission: Impossible is actually one of the best, thanks to two things: Woo's action photography — say what you will about his self-indulgent camera flourishes and fetish for doves — the man can stage and film an action scene like no other; and something that is missing from almost every M:I movie, good character writing. At long last viewers get a sense of who Ethan Hunt is, and that characterization is drawn into stark contrast with his opponent Sean Ambrose, a dark mirror version of our hero. A dynamic score by Hans Zimmer doesn't hurt, either.

1) Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation
It took five movies, but director Christopher McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun, Jack Reacher), finally found the formula for success. Yes, Rogue Nation includes all the fixtures typical of the series — a globe-trotting storyline, a mysterious MacGuffin, plenty of "impossible" heists and stunts — but adds to it a brilliant co-star in Rebecca Ferguson (in many ways, this is her movie); supporting characters with agency; a hero who is vulnerable and flawed; and smaller-scale, personal stakes beyond all that end-of-the-world stuff.

That's my list! Thanks for reading. Please sound off with your favorites!

Nope.

I guess the first one will stay my favourite film. It's just iconic (the wire scene with the sweat dripping off is well known). Also the train scene was dope af.

For me the first one set the franchise so its hard to go past it.

I do agree however that they were getting worst than suddenly they got better again.

The new one coming out looks to be even better than the last. Fingers crossed.

Oh yeah, the NOC list heist is just a work of art.

20 years from now, Oscar reels will still be showing clips from the first Mission: Impossible movie.

5. Mission Impossible 3
Ethan is in the search for the rabbits foot...enough said.

4. Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
I would rank it higher if it wasn't for the damsel in distress all the time.. and the damsel is Ethan.

3. Mission Impossible II
It's a little bit of a convoluted mess with a bad villain, but the great action scenes make almost up for all that. John Woo makes all the action flow and glow literally.

2. Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol
I think this is the most consistent one except the original MI. It has the thrills,stunts and all what makes this franchise great, and the long on foot chase which I'm a sucker for.

1. Mission Impossible
From start to finish you're glued to the screen. It's more of a mystery/thriller combined with a great summer action blockbuster, and because of that its the only in the franchise you can watch over and over again.

This is a hard one! Not because there isn't an answer, but because 4 out of 5 of the films are excellent, and the 5th is still pretty good. Mission Impossible 5 IMO solidifies Mission Impossible as the most solid blockbuster series of the past 50 years - arguably of all time if you find the first 9 Bond films from Dr. No to Live and Let Die too much out of date.

1. Mission Impossible 3 - it's the darkest spy film I've ever seen by far, best acted on both Cruise's part and the supporting cast. It's also unique when compared to most blockbusters *(unlike say MI2, 4, and 5). In spirit, it's the closest to the first MI film.
2. Mission Impossible 1 - iconic, has that Brian De Palma magic. Also perhaps the darkest spy film outside of MI3.
3. (tie) Mission Impossible 4 - a great and well put together film, unfortunately it didn't do anything largely unique like the first two films. It was a very safe blockbuster - but as far as the pile of formulaic blockbusters go, this is near the top of the heap; better than pretty much every super hero or disaster film.
3. (tie) Mission Impossible 5 - same as Mission Impossible 4, I'll add that this film is SPECTRE if SPECTRE were actually good.
5. Mission Impossible 2 - This film is kind of brain dead and more or less similar to your formulaic superhero/disaster film/blockbuster. Still better than half the post-Dalton Bond films (Skyfall, Casino Royale, Goldeneye, and Tomorrow is Not Enough are better than MI2). In spirit, this is the furthest thing from the original MI film in the series.

One of my favourite scenes from the whole franchise, from MI3:

Mission Impossible is also heavy with Hitchcockian themes and references, hard to go wrong. The first MI is directed and has a very similar feeling to what a Hitccock directed film in the 90s would feel like; De Palma also replicated several classic Hitchcock scenes in the first Mission Impossible. Mission Impossible 2 virtually copies the plot of Hitchcock's Notorious. And of course, this scene from MI5

Agree with the SPECTRE comment. Rogue Nation did a lot more with the premise or an "anti-IMF."