20 Declassified Facts About The Mission: Impossible Series
14. Only Two Actors Appear In All Five Films
No points for guessing that the first is Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The second is Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell.
Rhames was cast so far against type it's almost funny. In most heist movies, someone his build would be "the muscle," but he's "the hacker." His longevity in the franchise has been good for its emotional core: he's gone from being just one of Ethan's new recruits to a brother-in-arms.
Staying in the game this long is like living through five installments of a horror franchise. After all, a whole lot of agents died in the first movie's first act, and even being played by star doesn't always protect them. Just keep behind the desk, Rhames: those stunts can get pretty hairy.