Tom Cruise’s Instagram bio reads: “Actor. Producer. Running in movies since 1981.” And the Mission: Impossible star has been doing just that as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. Running from being wrongly captured as the traitor in the first film; running from the baddies with the antidote to “Chimera” in hand in the second; running to save his abducted wife in Shanghai in the third; chasing a terrorist through a sand storm in Dubai in the fourth; and running to hop on to a airplane about to take off in the fifth. So, before we — the MI fans — run to the theatres to catch Tom jumping across rooftops (and run, hopefully) in Friday’s Mission: Impossible — Fallout, The Woods ranks the missions starting with the best.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Ethan climbs the rockface, up to the mountain and receives his mission. “Recovery of a stolen item designated Chimera” which baddie Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) has stolen. He has one mandated team member, a pro thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall, a.k.a. Thandie Newton. She injects herself with the deadly virus, giving herself 20 hours to live and us some amazing action sequences to see.
Cool quotient: The mask, used in all the films, is one of the trademarks. The bike sequence with Ethan and Sean.
Stunts & special effects: The mountain climbing, the car chase between Tom and Thandie, and Ethan dropping down the light shaft to get into the lab and destroy the Chimera vials in the second half.
USP: The climax. The use of the pigeons, Tom’s slo-mo walk through the fire and smoke, the mask trick on Sean, and his final run — what else — out of the complex with Bellerophon in hand. All with the trademark MI music in the background.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Ethan is on the hunt for the mole within the IMF after his team is blown up during a mission in Prague. This, after he is mistaken for the traitor by the bosses. The mask comes on — no surprises there — to not only reveal Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) to be behind the entire deception but also Claire (Emmanuelle Béart), his wife.
Cool quotient: Video camera on the bridge of a pair of glasses, and explosive disguised as a piece of chewing gum.
Stunts & special effects: The scene at Langley where Ethan is suspended from the cable in the sensor-sensitive room, trying to retrieve the list of CIA agents he needs to clear his name. Second, the climax where Phelps climbs to the roof, trying to escape and Ethan goes after him.
USP: The scene at Langley, where the slightest change in temperature; any noise; and even a sweat drop can set the “intrusion countermeasures” off. Those few seconds when Ethan is almost dropped to the ground before being pulled up by Jean Reno are quite the nail-biter. This is where the series trademark — of a character being suspended in air or descending by wires in some form — starts.
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
Part of the Kremlin is blown up and IMF is charged with it. Ethan is ordered to keep tracking terrorist Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist). The hunt leads the team, including Jeremy Renner as analyst William Brandt, to the Burj Khalifa. Then to Mumbai where we meet a telecom entrepreneur from closer home.
Cool quotient: The rear-projection screen in the Kremlin; all the spy gadgetry taken to Dubai; the skyscraper sequence. Ethan climbs up to the hotel server room from the outside of the world’s tallest building with electronic gloves, while a sand storm approaches. This makes the MI 2 climb look like child’s play. The hi-tech supercar (an actual prototype of the BMW i8 plug-in hybrid) in Mumbai which has a computer for a windscreen.
Stunts & special effects: Tom performed the entire Burj Khalifa sequence — the climb and the descent — without a stunt double. If that’s not enough, he dangled outside at roughly 518m.
USP: The stunts in Dubai, spy tricks on the baddies, Ethan chasing a disguised Hendricks through the storm. Anil Kapoor, as the playboy entrepreneur Brij Nath, generates some uneasy laughs.
Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Semi-retired, Ethan Hunt comes back for a rescue mission. His fiancée, Julia (Michelle Monaghan) believes him to be a transport official. Ethan plans a mission to capture arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
Cool quotient: The camera delivering the mission at the beginning.
Stunts & special effects: The scene on the freeway when Ethan and team are attacked, the bridge blasted off, and Davian’s escape goes off too fast but makes an impact.
USP: The yellow Lamborghini. Small throwbacks to MI, including the IMF mole and Luther (Ving Rhames) remembering the Langley job while planning an infiltration into a Chinese lab. This is where Ethan starts jumping and sliding off roofs.
Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015)
Ethan is out to end international rogue organisation Syndicate, while IMF is under investigation. Alec Baldwin, playing CIA boss Alan Hunley, gets the IMF disbanded. Ethan still goes after Syndicate leader Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), determined to prove the organisation’s existence. We meet disavowed MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) for the first time.
Cool quotient: Ilsa, backstage during the opera in Vienna; the bike segment in Casablanca.
Stunts & special effects: Tom performed the airplane stunt without a double. There were times he was suspended 5,000ft in the air. To get the shot done, a custom frame was built for the camera and special lens developed for Tom so that his eyes could be open in spite of the wind. All that crazy driving in Casablanca... yes, also him.
USP: By now, crazy sequences and stunts in the series are no secret. So those looks of surprise on Brandt and Luther’s faces as he sets off on a motorbike in Casablanca is funny. Revealing the truth about the Syndicate before the CIA chief and the British PM is nicely done, as is putting Lane in a box.
We will find out what Lane, Ilsa, the IMF, and hopefully Julia are up to once Fallout reaches us this week — with Tom Cruise performing the HALO (high altitude low opening) jump, a military airdrop never heard of being done in a film before.