15 Best Action Movies Of The Last 10 Years

The rebirth of the Mission: Impossible franchise defies all logic. The first two films were perfectly fine spy thrillers; the third was pretty stupid (remember the face swapping plot?) and seemed to kill off the series.

Then, it returned, with star Tom Cruise older, weirder, but somehow better than ever. Each film in the revitalised series bested the previous one in terms of scope, ambition, and action setpieces. The sixth in the run, with 55 year old Ethan Hunt at its core, sees the superspy on a typically globetrotting adventure from London to Paris to sparse icecaps.

Mission: Impossible’s strength is in its freewheeling glee with which it commits to its own ludicrousness. Ethan Hunt has a death wish – he recklessly pilots all manner of vehicles without the proper protective equipment, and launches himself off buildings with alarming regularity.

And yet no one ever suggests that he’s a troubled man filling a gap in his life with a lust for danger. He’s just a cool, all action spy. The films don’t bother to examine the workings of their characters, and somehow they’re all the better for it.