Mission: Impossible (1996) In the first film of the series reboot,
Ethan Hunt is framed for the murder of his Impossible Mission Force (IMF) team during a botched mission in
Prague and accused of selling government secrets to an arms dealer known only as "Max". On the run, Ethan seeks to discover the real traitor and clear his name from the incident.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) In the second film, Ethan Hunt goes back in action and works with a professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (
Thandie Newton). The duo go undercover to stop rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (
Dougray Scott) (who is also Nyah's former lover) from stealing a deadly virus, starting a pandemic and selling the antidote to the highest bidder.
Mission: Impossible III (2006) In the third film, Ethan is engaged to Julia Meade (
Michelle Monaghan), who is unaware of his true job. He assembles a team to face the elusive arms and information broker Owen Davian (
Philip Seymour Hoffman) who intends to sell a mysterious dangerous object known as "The Rabbit's Foot".
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) In the fourth film, Ethan and the entire IMF are framed for the bombing of the
Kremlin while investigating an individual known only as "Cobalt" (
Michael Nyqvist). Ethan and three other agents are left to stop Cobalt from starting a global nuclear war.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) In the fifth film, Ethan Hunt comes under threat from the Syndicate. Faced with the IMF's disbandment, Hunt assembles his team for their mission to prove the Syndicate's existence and bring the organization down by any means necessary.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) In the sixth film, when an IMF mission to recover plutonium goes wrong, the world is faced with the threat of the Apostles, a terrorist group formed by former members of the Syndicate. As Ethan Hunt takes it upon himself to fulfill the original mission, the
CIA begins to question his loyalty and his motives.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) In the seventh film, an
AI called the Entity is responsible for the sinking of the next-generation Russian submarine
Sevastopol. The Entity has since gone rogue and entrenched itself into
cyberspace; the secret to stopping or controlling it lies with the key, which Ethan Hunt and the IMF must track down, as various world powers and nefarious forces race to obtain the key in order to use the Entity for their own purpose.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) In the eighth film, two months later, Ethan Hunt and the IMF, joined by new allies, continue to search for the Entity, aiming to destroy it before it can trigger a
nuclear apocalypse.
Future In June 2023, Christopher McQuarrie stated that
Dead Reckoning Part One and
The Final Reckoning would not end the series, as there are developments for future installments. In July 2023, during promotion for
Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise expressed interest in continuing to make further films in the series as Ethan Hunt, despite both films having previously been billed as a send-off to the character. Inspired by
Harrison Ford's continued success in the
Indiana Jones films, Cruise stated that he would like to keep making
Mission: Impossible films until he is likewise in his eighties. Nevertheless, in May 2025, during the New York premiere for
The Final Reckoning, Cruise confirmed that the film would be his final film in the series, stating "The film is the final! It's not called 'final' for nothing". == Cast and Characters==