9 Movie Franchises That Literally Do The Same Thing Repeatedly

The Mission: Impossible series (and this applies to the original 1960s TV show as well) is absolutely obsessed with backstabbing, betrayal and rogue agents. In Brian De Palma's 1996 entry, IMF chief Jim Phelps, seemingly shot dead early on, turns out to be the villain having gone rogue. Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt has to go rogue himself having been incorrectly fingered as the mole in the IMF. Throughout the film, numerous agents are revealed to have been turncoats as well.

The sequels just can't help but follow suit, either. John Woo's Mission: Impossible 2 centres around Hunt having to track down rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose, who threatens to unleash a near-incurable global pandemic. In M:I 3, IMF head Brassel is revealed to be a mole working for an international arms dealer - except he isn't. This is a setup by another high-ranking IMF director who turns out to have gone rogue himself. The 4th film bucks the trend, but by M:I Rogue Nation we once again have a rogue MI6 agent running some nebulous evil syndicate. Once, again, Henry Cavill stars alongside his Justice League-ruining moustache as - you guessed it - a rogue CIA assassin intent on starting a nuclear war or something. It's almost as if spies are untrustworthy.