{"id":660944,"date":"2026-05-23T19:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660944\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:00:09","slug":"mission-impossible-has-always-been-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660944\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mission: Impossible’ Has Always Been Important"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of the first\u00a0Mission: Impossible<\/a>,\u00a0which released on May 22, 1996. A reboot of the 1966 and 1988 series, the film helped cement Tom Cruise as a movie star during his domination period in the 80s and 90s, and spawned a massive franchise that seems unlikely to go on without him<\/a> anytime soon.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not the only\u00a0Mission\u00a0movie to celebrate an anniversary in 2026. Mission: Impossible 3\u00a0turned 20 years old earlier in May, and Mission: Impossible\u2014Ghost Protocol will hit its 15th birthday at year\u2019s end. Everyone has their own rankings of the series, but for anyone looking to understand it, this particular trio will show Mission\u2019s evolution and endurance.<\/p>\n

The first movie introduced the world to Ethan Hunt, a wholly new character and the last of his IMF team to not die or go rogue. Anyone attached to (or was in) either of the two Mission shows<\/a> was certainly not happy<\/a> to see Cruise\u2019s OC headlining a big action flick with the show\u2019s name over it. But to everyone else, it was a thrill ride thanks to his performance and Brian De Palma\u2019s direction, and it\u2019s no wonder it became 1996\u2019s third-highest-grossing movie. It may have come out a decade before the trend really took hold<\/a>, but\u00a0Mission\u00a0really ushered in Hollywood\u2019s reboot craze and set a standard that most others<\/a> haven\u2019t been able to reach, or at least not with the same consistency.<\/p>\n

Depending on who you ask, Mission: Impossible II\u00a0is either a misfire or misunderstood genius. However one feels, Mission 3\u00a0and\u00a0Ghost Protocol\u00a0feel like direct responses to the second film, with both trying to humanize Ethan through one relationship or near-death experience after another. They\u2019re also a package deal where the franchise fully grows into itself\u2014the idea of \u201cthe\u00a0Mission\u00a0stunt<\/a>\u201d that makes these worth seeing in theaters, or seeing who Ethan\u2019s next formidable enemy will be, begin with this pair of films. If the first Mission\u00a0helped cement Cruise as a star, the third and fourth make clear he\u2019s a man ready to do anything for you to buy a ticket, even at the cost of his own life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having landed a producer credit on the first\u00a0Mission,\u00a0Cruise has used directors to shape his character as he sees fit. Thrillseeker, ladies man, best friend, prick you can\u2019t help but like\u2014there\u2019s a good amount of vanity at play here, but the movies mostly get around that strain of criticism by turning Ethan into a walking crash test dummy everyone has to keep up with. That he\u2019s actually died a handful of times and can\u2019t not hurt himself<\/a> makes for some great comedy in the later installments, even more when he\u2019s aware he just has to let fate decide what\u2019ll happen to him.<\/p>\n

That Ethan and Cruise are ready to risk it all are born from\u00a0Ghost Protocol, which is easily the most important entry in the series. Other than its killer trailer that still holds up, Ghost\u2019s\u00a0biggest impact was introducing Christopher McQuarrie into the franchise. His relationship with Cruise first started with the 2009 film Valkyrie, but it was mid-production rewrites on Ghost where McQuarrie officially became Cruise\u2019s guy\u2014not only did the two team on every Mission\u00a0movie going forward, they also partnered on Edge of Tomorrow<\/a>, The Mummy<\/a>,\u00a0and both\u00a0Jack Reacher\u00a0films. And on its own merits,\u00a0Ghost Protocol was a hit that revitalized the franchise to its current state and stood as its highest-grossing entry for nearly a decade until 2018\u2019s Mission: Impossible\u2014Fallout.<\/p>\n

After last year\u2019s\u00a0Mission: Impossible\u2014The Final Reckoning,\u00a0the series seems to be done for the forseeable future. Cruise is at Warner Bros. working with other directors<\/a> (and trying to reignite some other franchises<\/a>), while McQuarrie\u2019s set his sights on\u00a0Conan the Barbarian<\/a>.\u00a0The movies\u2019 track record is solid enough that Final is a good note to end on, but if there were another one\u2026well, I don\u2019t think it\u2019d be turned down so long as the right filmmakers and stunts came along.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of the first\u00a0Mission: Impossible,\u00a0which released on May 22, 1996. A reboot of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,20808,40139,289233,206,4520],"class_list":["post-660944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-mission-impossible","tag-mission-impossible-the-final-reckoning","tag-mission-impossible-dead-reckoning","tag-movies","tag-tom-cruise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}