Every Mission: Impossible Movie Ranked Worst To Best

The first chapter of Mission: Impossible's (potential) two-part finale, Dead Reckoning Part One features some of the franchise's most egregious flaws, but it might also be its most narratively daring and emotionally resonant, throwing Ethan Hunt's team into a mission with new allies and unstoppable foes.

Once again helmed by McQuarrie, Dead Reckoning groans under some amusingly ham-fisted exposition and a slow opener, but once it picks up pace it soon hits the highs promised in its epic trailers. Hunt has never felt so beaten-down, and welcome newcomer Hayley Atwell steals the show at every turn.

It's admittedly too twisty, even for a Mission: Impossible joint, but it takes big risks and lets Hunt's friends take more of a central role, in a film that finally lets its characters feel mortal and outgunned. Hunt can't keep up this fight forever, after all, and there's a strong chance he may finally have met his match.