A Guide to Watching Mission: Impossible Movie Series in Order in India

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One — out Wednesday in theatres — is filled with utterly insane practical stunts, some of which are callbacks to sequences from previous films, albeit with higher stakes. Tom Cruise will once again be fighting atop a running train, one that was built from scratch for this particular film since there’s not a surplus amount available to be wrecked by some movie studio. The plot generally takes a backseat in these movies, something director Christopher McQuarrie totally understands and therefore, the focus is directed in a way that best serves the audience — cinematic ambition.

At this point, it’s no secret that Cruise cares about the future of Hollywood, preventing his last collaboration with McQuarrie – Top Gun: Maverick – from debuting on streaming services, despite how many roadblocks it hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From playing the vulgar and aggressive dating guru in Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically-acclaimed Magnolia to a descent into an infidelity-obsessed doctor in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Cruise has established himself as one of the most exciting actors working in the late 1990s. It was around this time, he also built a reputation for performing his own stunts, eventually expanding on that brand through several Mission: Impossible follow-up films. In Dead Reckoning Part One, he’s taking it to a whole other level by riding a motorcycle off a cliff and parachuting down to the base with grey, rocky walls surrounding him. Not many actors can do that, and you’ve got to hand it to Cruise for it.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Advance Booking Now Open in India

Considering that this is the seventh instalment in the franchise, some of you might be planning to binge-watch all the previous Mission: Impossible films before heading to theatres. Maybe you’ve never seen any of them, which is sad because these movies have only gotten better with each sequel, and now might be a good time to start. So we’ve listed them in order, alongside where you could stream them in India.

Where to watch Mission: Impossible movies in order?

Mission: Impossible (1996)

The first Mission: Impossible film was based directly on CBS’ 1966 eponymous TV series, with director Brian De Palma turning the espionage onto its head to spawn a multi-billion dollar franchise. In it, we’re introduced to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, a highly-skilled agent working within the Impossible Mission Force (IMF), who is suspected to be a mole when his entire team gets killed on a mission in Prague, Czech Republic. On a mission to find the real traitor, the disavowed agent then puts together a team of outcasts, including the hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), the helicopter pilot Franz Krieger, and IMF agent Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Béart). Among those, Stickell is the only character to reappear in all Mission: Impossible films, besides Cruise of course.

Hunt is bombarded with the added task of protecting the identities of IMF spies on a compromised disc, sought out by arms dealer Max Mistopolis (Vanessa Redgrave), which culminates in an incredible action sequence atop a running train. The film also stars Henry Czerny as IMF Director Eugene Kittridge and Jon Voight as Hunt’s mentor Jim Phelps. It is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

In my opinion, Mission: Impossible 2 is the low point of the series, as it sacrificed its sweeping spectacle to drag out an already lacklustre plot with heavy use of slow motion and forming chemistry between Cruise and co-star Thandiwe Newton by simply bringing their faces close together. The sequel from filmmaker John Woo (Face/Off) tasks the duo with recovering a dangerous bioweapon called ‘Chimera,’ created by Biocyte, which is also responsible for the antidote. IMF-agent-gone-rogue Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) aims to get hold of the strain and kickstart a pandemic, only so he can then earn billions by manufacturing and selling the cure. Pretty straightforward plot with uber-cool bike chase sequences, but it meanders a lot with unneeded information dumping, that at times feels like a B movie.

Mission: Impossible 2 also stars Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin) as Biocyte CEO John C. McCloy, Richard Roxburgh as Ambvrose’s right-hand man, Hugh Stamp, and returning hacker Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames). The film is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Mission: Impossible III marked the longest wait for a sequel — six years — cutting down Ethan Hunt’s retirement plans to prevent an arms and information broker Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) from getting hold of a mysterious object called ‘Rabbit’s Foot,’ which has the potential of killing millions. You might be noticing a trend here by now — it’s all ‘Tom Cruise saves the world’ stuff, but it’s the eye-popping stunts and presentation that matter in these films. Hunt, who is already aided by Luther, gets a team upgrade by way of Simon Pegg’s (Hot Fuzz) Benji Dunn, an IMF technician; Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Match Point) as agent Declan Gormley, and Maggie Q (Divergent) as agent Zhen Lei.

Oh, and this is also where Hunt gets married to nurse Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan), who is unaware of his real job. J.J. Abrams directs Mission: Impossible III, which also includes an impressive cast, namely Keri Russell, Laurence Fishburne, and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad). It’s up for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

The new decade changed things up for Mission: Impossible, not just in terms of adding subtitles to the title but escalating the action-set pieces to a tremendous scale. Publicly blamed for a terrorist attack on the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt and his team, now without resources, are forced to go off the grid and try to clear out their names and prevent another such attack. With the US government disavowing them in what’s called the ‘Ghost Protocol’, Hunt must prevent a nuclear war while teaming up with a group of fellow IMF fugitives whose motives are quite suspicious. Before you ask, yes, this is the one where you see Cruise climbing atop the then newly-constructed Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol also takes an ensemble-driven approach, adding acclaimed actors such as Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) as IMF intelligence analyst William Brandt, Paula Patton (Hitch) as agent Jane Carter, Léa Seydoux (No Time to Die) as assassin Sabine Moreau, Michael Nyqvist as Russian nuclear strategist Kurt Hendricks, and Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire) as a Mumbai-based media tycoon Brij Nath. Directed by Brad Bird (Ratatouille), MI Ghost Protocol is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

This is where fan-favourite Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) is introduced to the MI franchise, an MI6 agent who works undercover at the Syndicate, a crime organisation composed of international spies gone rogue, who want to bring on the new world order through a series of escalating terrorist attacks. As you might’ve guessed, Ethan Hunt gets entangled with her and has to prove the existence of the shadowy group and stop them, all the while struggling to trust Faust, who may or may not be an actual member of the Syndicate. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation also brings longtime Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie on board to direct, keeping the tried and tested events fresh through creative action sequences and essentially cementing his position as the helmer for oncoming MI films.

Much of Hunt’s IMF team — Ving Rhames’s Luther, Simon Pegg’s Benji, and Jeremy Renner’s William — returns in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, adding new cast: Sean Harris (Prometheus) as the Syndicate leader Solomon Lane, Simon McBurney as the Syndicate founder Atlee, Alec Baldwin (Beetlejuice) as the CIA Director Alan Hunley, and Tom Hollander (Bohemian Rhapsody) as the UK Prime Minister. Mission: Impossible 5 can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Review

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

So far, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the highest-grossing film in the franchise, collecting a total of $791.1 million (about Rs. 6,535 crore) at the global box office. In it, Ethan Hunt and his IMF team join forces with CIA assassin August Walker (Henry Cavill) to eliminate whatever’s left of the Syndicate, which has now rebranded to the ‘Apostles,’ planning to use three plutonium cores to lead direct attacks on the Mecca, the Vatican, and Jerusalem. However, when the bombs go missing, they’re directed on a race against time to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. An arms dealer Alanna Mistopolis aka the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) seems to have gotten hold of one of them, demanding Hunt to bring MI Rogue Nation’s villain Solomon Lane to her if he wants to claim the bomb. It’s best to watch these two films back-to-back since they’re quite intertwined.

Pegg, Rhames, Ferguson, Baldwin, and Monaghan, all reprise their existing roles, while Mission: Impossible – Fallout also adds Angela Bassett (Black Panther) into the mix as the new Director of the CIA Erika Sloane. Just like the others, the film is up for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout Review

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

All roads finally lead to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, releasing July 12 in theatres, which is tracking to earn a franchise-best of $90 million (about Rs. 744 crore) during its opening five days in the US and Canada. In it, Ethan Hunt is yet again thrown into a globe-trotting mission to track down a bioweapon from… (you guessed it) falling into the wrong hands. Upping the tension is the return of Eugene Kittridge (Czerny) from the first film, putting the task in jeopardy as Hunt is forced to prioritise the mission over the allies he cares so deeply about.

New addition Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter) joins the cast as Grace, the ambiguous pickpocketing frenemy to Hunt, while Esai Morales (Titans) portrays the terrorist Garbiel, and Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) plays a clown-like French assassin called Paris.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two (2024)

While Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One suffered multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its sequel is now being held up due to the ongoing writers’ strike in Hollywood. “We’ve shot all but one of our international locations,” director McQuarrie said in an interview, talking about the progress. “We’ve shot our big action except for the biggest set piece, the central set piece of the film, which is massive and unlike anything we’ve done, and, I think, unlike anything you’ve seen.” Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is slated to open June 28, 2024 in theatres worldwide.