Every Mission: Impossible Film, in Order

With Tom Cruise named for the AFI Life Achievement Award, here are all eight Mission: Impossible films in order, who directed them and where to stream.

By Andrew Lovesey October 27, 2026 5 min read

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise will receive the 52nd Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute at a gala tribute at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday 24 April 2027. The AFI’s announcement runs through a career from Risky Business to Top Gun: Maverick, and it names the Mission: Impossible series among the work it is honouring. That series is the single longest thread in the career: eight films over 29 years, all made for Paramount Pictures, with Cruise as Ethan Hunt in every one.

Kathleen Kennedy, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees, said: “It is AFI’s honor to present him with the 52nd AFI Life Achievement Award.”

Here is the full run in release order, which is also story order, with the director of each and where to stream it. For more of the institute’s year, see our guide to AFI Fest.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in a close-up from Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning — In pictures 1

The order at a glance

Mission: Impossible (1996), Brian De Palma
Mission: Impossible II (2000), John Woo
Mission: Impossible III (2006), J.J. Abrams
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011), Brad Bird
Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015), Christopher McQuarrie
Mission: Impossible: Fallout (2018), Christopher McQuarrie
Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning (2023), Christopher McQuarrie
Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025), Christopher McQuarrie

The films, one by one

Mission: Impossible (1996). Ethan Hunt is set up for the deaths of his own espionage team and hunted by his government, and has to clear his name against the clock. Paramount describes Brian De Palma’s film as a “reimagining of the same-titled 1960s TV series,” and the hunted, disavowed agent at its centre is the template for the seven films that follow.

Mission: Impossible II (2000). Hunt partners with Nyah Hall to stop a renegade agent, Sean Ambrose, from unleashing a new kind of terror. John Woo directs, and Paramount’s own guide says he puts “his stylish stamp” on the series.

Mission: Impossible III (2006). From Rome to Shanghai, Hunt races to rescue a captured agent and stop Davian, whose next target is Ethan’s wife. J.J. Abrams makes it, in Paramount’s words, a “darker, more emotional installment.”

Ghost Protocol (2011). The IMF is shut down after it is implicated in a bombing of the Kremlin, sending Hunt and a new team rogue to clear its name. Brad Bird directs; Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner are alongside Cruise.

Rogue Nation (2015). With his organization shut down by the CIA, Hunt races to stop the Syndicate, a network of rogue operatives, and has to work with a disavowed agent played by Rebecca Ferguson. Christopher McQuarrie writes and directs, the first of his four films in the series.

Fallout (2018). Hunt chooses to save his team over the mission, letting stolen plutonium fall into the wrong hands, and is then paired with a CIA agent played by Henry Cavill to stop a nuclear threat. Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris and Alec Baldwin all return from Rogue Nation, so watch that one first; Angela Bassett and Michelle Monaghan are also in the cast.

Dead Reckoning (2023). Paramount sends Hunt and the IMF on “their most dangerous mission yet,” tracking a weapon that threatens all of humanity before a mysterious, all-powerful enemy can control it. McQuarrie again directs, and Paramount’s release for the next film names that enemy as the Entity, a dangerous artificial intelligence.

The Final Reckoning (2025). Set two months after Dead Reckoning, it follows Hunt and the IMF as they hunt the Entity through the world’s intelligence networks while governments, and figures from Hunt’s past, close in. McQuarrie co-wrote it with Erik Jendresen and produced it with Cruise. It opened in theatres on 23 May 2025.

Where to start

Release order is the right order: each film follows the last, and nothing was made out of sequence. Short on time? The four McQuarrie films, Rogue Nation through The Final Reckoning, share a writer and director, and The Final Reckoning picks up two months after Dead Reckoning, so watch those two back to back. In February 2024, before the final film, Paramount said the series had earned more than US$4 billion at the worldwide box office. For other long franchises taken in order, see our guides to the Star Trek films and the Mad Max saga. For what Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros. means for streaming, see our explainer.

Where to watch

Streaming rights move by market, so this list states only what Paramount’s own pages confirm.

US: All eight films have title pages on Paramount+, the streaming home Paramount named for the complete series when The Final Reckoning arrived on 4 December 2025.
Canada: Paramount announced both Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning for Paramount+ in Canada. Check the Canadian app for the first six films.
UK: Paramount+ UK lists Mission: Impossible III, Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. Check your region for the other five.
Australia: Check your region on Paramount+ and other services.
New Zealand: Check your region.
Everywhere: Paramount sells The Final Reckoning on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital.

Sources

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