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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-THE FINAL RECKONING

2025

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Written by Erik Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie

Spoilers: moderate

He's a mind-reading, shape-shifting incarnation of chaos!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE

2023

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Written by Erik Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie

Spoilers: moderate

You're selfish, you're crazy, and you're scared

DAYS OF THUNDER

1990

Directed by Tony Scott

Written by Tom Cruise and Robert Towne

Spoilers: high

The need for speed

TOP GUN: MAVERICK

2022

Directed by Joseph Kosinski

Written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie

Spoilers: moderate

I feel the need

TOP GUN

1986

Directed by Tony Scott

Written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.

Spoilers: high, I guess

I'm jumping out a window!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—FALLOUT

Parts of it are every bit as world-class as everyone's saying, but Fallout is, in the end, only a good M:I movie.  That means it's great by regular movie standards, and it does amazing things the series has never done before (which itself is in the best tradition of its best forebears); but it's also a Mission: Impossible that sometimes almost drops down to "boring," and that's a sin this franchise has never committed.

Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie

With Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Alec Baldwin (Sec. Alan Hunley), Angela Bassett (Director Erica Sloane), Henry Cavill (August Walker), Vanessa Kirby (White Widow), and Sean Harris (Solomon Lane)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Winter is coming—oh shit, wait... it's here

LEGEND

Practically two movie reviews in one!  Great.  (Luckily, each movie is almost great.)

1985 (them)/1986 (us)

Directed by Ridley Scott

Written by William Hjortsberg

With Tom Cruise (Jack), Mia Sara (Lili), David Bennent and the voice of Alice Playten (Honeythorn Gump), Annabelle Lanyon (Oona), Bill Barty (Screwball), Cork Hubbert (Brown Tom), Kiran Shah (Blunder), Peter O'Farrell (Pox), Alice Playten again (Blix), Robert Picardo (Meg Mucklebones), and Tim Curry (Darkness)

Spoiler alert: mild

Tommy the Mummy Slayer

THE MUMMY

It's mostly a waste of a perfectly good all-powerful resurrected corpse, but it does have a few nice compensations.

2017

Directed by Alex Kurtzman

Written by (deep breath) Jon Spaihts, Jenny Lumet, Dylan Kussman, Christopher McQuarrie, David Koepp, and Alex Kurtzman

With Tom Cruise (Nick Morton), Annabelle Wallis (Jenny Halsey), Jake Johnson (Chris Vail), Russell Crowe (Dr. Henry Jekyll), and Sofia Boutella (Ahmanet)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Steven Spielberg, part XXIX: Vast and cool and unsympathetic

WAR OF THE WORLDS

Spielberg tries his hand at the end of the world, and by dint of making his adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel in 2005, manages to go very far in capturing all the spectacle and the horror of it.  Yet although this War of the Worlds succeeds, on average, as a film that might well be retitled Scenes From the Martian Apocalypse, it also mishandles almost as much as it gets right.  Its undeniable triumphs thus stand next to its great and glaring ineptitudes.

2005

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp (based on the novel by H.G. Wells)

With Tom Cruise (Ray Ferrier), Dakota Fanning (Rachel Ferrier), Justin Chatwin (Robbie Ferrier), Miranda Otto (Mary Ann), Tim Robbins (Harlan Oglivy), and Morgan Freeman (The Narrator)

Spoiler alert: once again, they die of germs; but as for the original content, severe

Steven Spielberg, part XXVI: If there's a flaw, it's human—it always is

MINORITY REPORT

Much smarter in some ways than others, Minority Report is just smart enough for you to avoid thinking about it too much while one pure image after another lands upon your eyes.  But, hey, if you do want to think about it—well, that's okay too!

2002

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Written by Scott Frank and John Cohen (based on the story by Philip K. Dick)

With Tom Cruise (Chief John Anderton), Samantha Morton (Agatha), Steve Harris (Officer Jad), Neal McDonough (Officer Fletcher), Patrick Kilpatrick (Officer Knott), Jessica Capshaw (Officer Evanna), Daniel London (Wally the Caretaker), Kathryn Morris (Lara Clarke), Colin Farrell (Danny Witwer), Lois Smith (Dr. Iris Hineman), Peter Stormare (Dr. Solomon Eddie), and Max von Sydow (Director Lamar Burgess)

Spoiler alert: high, and severe for the source material

Impossible Week, part V: Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny, and he has made you his mission!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—ROGUE NATION

Is this the end of the Impossible series?  $267 million and counting argues no: but the beginning of its end, it may well be.

2015
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
Written by Drew Pearce and Christopher McQuarrie
With Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Alec Baldwin (Alan Hunley)

Spoiler alert: mild

Impossible Week, part IV: And I'll catch you!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—GHOST PROTOCOL

As the Impossible series continues to take new, strange forms, we turn now to Brad Bird's live action debut—in many ways, the finest animated feature he ever made.

2011
Directed by Brad Bird
Written by
With Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Paula Patton (Jane Carter), Jeremy Renner (William Brandt), Miraj Grbic (Bodgan), Lea Seydoux (Sabine Moreau), Michelle Monaghan (Julia Hunt), and Michael Nyqvist (Cobalt)

Spoiler alert: high

Impossible Week, part III: I'll die unless you kill me!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

You've laughed, you've cried, and you've seen them fall in love—but can Ethan and Julia Hunt survive the world's worst honeymoon?  Tune in and find out.

2006
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and J.J. Abrams
With Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Michelle Monaghan (Julia Hunt), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Keri Russell (Lindsey Farris), Maggie Q (Zhen Lei), Jonathan Rhys Davies (Declan Gormley), Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn), Billy Crudup (John Musgrave), Laurence Fishburne (Theodore Brassel), and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Owen Davian)

Spoiler alert: severe

Impossible Week, part II: Just stay alive! I'm not going to lose you!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II

What if Notorious had explosions and kind of sucked?  At the turn of the millennium, Tom Cruise and John Woo answered the question no one asked, and for some reason, we all really loved it at the time.

2000
Directed by John Woo
Written by Robert Towne, Ronald D. Moore, and Brannon Braga
With Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Thandie Newton (Nyah Nordoff-Hall), Anthony Hopkins (Mission Commander Swanbeck), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Dougray Scott (Sean Ambrose), Richard Roxburgh (Hugh Stamp), and Brendan Gleeson (John C. McCloy)

Spoiler alert: high

Impossible Week, part I: Red light! Green light!

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

The collision of one of our greatest actors with one of our greatest directors produces one of the greatest spy films of them all.  Funny how that works.

1996
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by David Koepp, Steve Zaillian, and Robert Towne (based on the show created by Bruce Geller)
With Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Jon Voight (Jim Phelps), Emmanuelle Beart (Claire Phelps), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), Jean Reno (Franz Krieger), Kristin Scott Thomas (Sarah Davies), Emilio Estevez (Jack Harmon), Ingeborga Dapkunaite (Hannah Williams), Henry Czerny (Eugene Kittridge), and Vanessa Redgrave (Max)

Spoiler alert: severe, because the twists are rad

And I'm hanging on a moment with you

EDGE OF TOMORROW

Groundhog Day meets Aliens meets Saving Private Ryan meets the parts of the Halo games where I got frustrated and went back to headshotting n00bs with my BR in multiplayer.  But this is, with some caveats, very good.

2014
Directed by Doug Liman
Written by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth (based on the novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka)
With Tom Cruise (Bill Cage) and Emily Blunt (Rita Vrataski)

Spoiler alert: high

Everybody wants to [destroy] the world, part 1

OBLIVION

Seeing Oblivion for the first time is a lot like seeing a great movie for the second time. 

2013

Directed by Joseph Kosinski

Written by Karl Gajdusek, Michael Arndt, and Joseph Kosinski

With Tom Cruise (Jack Harper), Andrea Riseborough (Victoria), Olga Kurylenko (Julia Rusakova), Melissa Leo (Sally), Morgan Freeman (Beech), Nicolaj Coster-Waldau (some useless character who got all of Zoe Bell's lines), Zoe Bell (criminally wasted)

Spoiler alert: severe