The $4.7 Billion Spy Franchise That Was Just ‘Okay’ Until Movie #4

Whenever a long-running film franchise enjoys consistent success at the box office, one of two things usually happens. Either the franchise in question completely escapes criticism, proving popular with the public but never really managing to convince critics, or the series starts strong before gradually declining in quality with each episode.

It’s very rare that a film franchise starts somewhere between “average” and “good” and then rises to true greatness over the course of several films. The aftereffects traditionally lead to diminishing returns; it is exactly the opposite, and the best example of such a rare phenomenon belongs to an intellectual property that, in almost three decades, has transformed into a cinematic powerhouse.

The First Mission: Impossible movie is good, but never great

Mention the Mission: Impossible mark to anyone in 2025, and their minds will immediately turn to Tom Cruise running as hard as any human can run. They will imagine a ubiquitous bastion of cinema, deeply rooted in pop culture and that shines as an undeniable symbol of the theatrical experience. As such, it’s easy to forget the fact that Mission: Impossiblethe first three films were nothing special.

Like the entry that started it all, 1996’s Mission: Impossible was by no means a bad film. It’s a really enjoyable spy game with an intriguing conceit, some really great sequences (the Langley heist being the most obvious), and action that still holds up today.

But Tom Cruise’s first mission as Ethan Hunt turned out to be far from great. Hunt himself felt ill-defined beyond the basic “betrayed spy” archetype, and only Ving Rhames’ Luther stood out from the supporting players, and then only on the strength of his charisma.

Mission: ImpossibleThe plot was both unambitious and absurd, but the real problem lay in the tone. Brian De Palma found himself stuck between modernizing the original Mission: Impossible TV show and directing its version of a Timothy Dalton Bond film. This wasn’t a movie that felt like the start of a $4.7 billion behemoth (via The numbers).

After a bad sequel, Mission: Impossible 3 became the prototype of the franchise

Unlike its predecessor, Mission: Impossible II is not an easy film to enjoy. Granted, Tom Cruise eased up a bit more in his role and the sequel deserves credit for attempting to completely abandon the tone of the TV series, but the execution was all wrong. Mission: Impossible II relied heavily on a chemistry between Cruise and Thandiwe Newton that simply didn’t existwhile Newton herself waded through some of the franchise’s most painful dialogue.

Compared to the first film, the team dynamic seemed weaker, the story made less sense, and Ethan Hunt’s abrupt transformation into a martial arts hero felt jarring. Director John Woo’s status as an action genre legend was already assured, but his distinctive style rubbed awkwardly against a film built for something entirely different.

With JJ Abrams on board, Mission: Impossible III This is where the ship began to stabilize. A big improvement over the second film, Abrams leaned more into the bombastic action set pieces, but mostly left room for the ensemble to shine.. Not only did Julia (Michelle Monaghan), Benji (Simon Pegg), and Zhen Lei (Maggie Q) make massive improvements to Hunt’s previous allies, but Philip Seymour Hoffman gave Mission: Impossible his biggest villain at this point.

Promising an adrenaline rush better than anything else on the big screen and the prospect of proper characterization, with heroes the audience could become emotionally invested in, Mission: Impossible III provided the rough prototype for all future applications.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol then I took those ingredients and perfected them. A new chapter for Ethan Hunt was written, as the missions became more interconnected (the first three films share very little continuity), the list of recurring characters grew, and Cruise’s ambitious stunts became a central selling point.

The film industry is a cutthroat field where judgments are handed down quickly, but even the most patient viewer would have been forgiven for passing it by. Mission: ImpossibleCritical references from after this initial trio of releases. Ethan Hunt and his gang are living proof that it’s never too late for a film franchise to turn opinion in its favor.

Sources: figures