The Mission: Impossible franchise has been around for a long time. It started off in 1966 as a TV show that lasted for seven seasons and then came back in 1988 for two seasons as well. However, it’s best known now as the Tom Cruise-starring blockbuster movie franchise that kicked off in 1996 with the release of the first film, Mission: Impossible. That was more than 25 years ago, so you would think there would be a ton of Mission: Impossible movies out by now. However, the franchise has taken long breaks between sequels, leaving it with fewer than you’d expect. So here is the answer to how many Mission: Impossible movies there are in total.
Explaining How Many Mission: Impossible Movies There Are in Total
The answer to that question depends a bit on what you’re counting. In the very literal sense, there are nine total movies in the Mission: Impossible franchise as a whole. However, one of those films is not part of the Tom Cruise era of M:I. The first Mission: Impossible film was called Mission: Impossible vs. The Mob and was actually two episodes of the original TV show stitched together and released in theaters in 1968 in Europe and Australia. The movie never made its way over to US shores, mostly because the episodes were seen on TV already. Of course, most people don’t count that as an M:I film, so the answer then becomes eight, two of which have yet to be released. The full list of Mission: Impossible movies, in order of release, are as follows:
- Mission: Impossible (May 22, 1996)
- Mission: Impossible 2 (May 24, 2000)
- Mission: Impossible III (May 5, 2006)
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (December 16, 2011)
- Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (July 31, 2015)
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout (July 27, 2018)
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12, 2023)
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two (June 28, 2024)
As the list shows, there is still one M:I film left to release starring Tom Cruise, meaning only seven movies are viewable right now. You can check out our rankings of those movies.
Will There Be More Mission: Impossible Movies After Dead Reckoning – Part Two?
With eight movies in total and Tom Cruise aging out of the role of action movie star, it’s unclear if the M:I franchise will carry on from here or not. At one point it seemed that Jeremy Renner would be the heir apparent to Cruise after his casting in Ghost Protocol, but the actor was not in Fallout and does not appear in Dead Reckoning – Part One either. That leaves Paramount, the production company behind the franchise, with a big question mark on how to carry on a franchise so closely tied to its star.
Then again, one might have argued the same for James Bond when Connery left the role, and he’s still kicking. Paramount could recast the role of Ethan Hunt or, more likely, continue on with stories of the Impossible Mission Force with a new lead character. The likelihood of Paramount getting rid of one of its most successful franchises is highly unlikely though, so while there may only be eight (or nine) films now, there’s a very good chance there will be even more in the future.
But to summarize, in total, there are currently eight mainline Mission: Impossible movies.
Related: How Old Was Tom Cruise in Every Mission Impossible Movie on We Got This Covered
