10 Reasons Why Mission: Impossible Is The Best Film Franchise Ever

While several of cinema's biggest franchises are typically united by an overriding directorial vision (The Lord of the Rings and The Dark Knight Trilogy) or a relatively unified house style (the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the pre-Craig era James Bond entries), M:I has often sought to push itself outside of the general spy movie template by bringing a unique voice on behind the camera for every entry.

In six films so far, the franchise has been helmed by five directors - and even then, the man who took charge of two of them only returned with the express desire to switch up his style for his follow-up.

From the sweat-drop suspense of its Cold War thriller-tinged first foray, to the Hong Kong-indebted hyperstylisation of its follow-up, to the third entry's techno-crime trappings, M:I consistently reinvented itself as a series, akin to the early adaptations of the Harry Potter series.

Even with more connective tissue than ever before in style - and, echoing Potter, with Christopher McQuarrie to have taken charge of the final half of the series by its end - Cruise and company keep finding ways to create distinctive tonal identities, from popcorn caper to emotional action drama and in-between.