If your mission is to rank the “Mission: Impossible” movies from best to worst, relax: I have you covered. Here’s a definitive list — of course, this is just my opinion, but it is definitive.

1. “Ghost Protocol” (2011) This is the one in which Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is required to climb up the outside of the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, with just a pair of technologically advanced gloves, because — well, I forget the reasons why. But the climbing sequence is just the beginning of an absurdly entertaining half-hour stretch that includes a ridiculously complicated bit of business with a briefcase that doubles as a printer, a contact lens that doubles as a camera, a mask-making device that breaks down mid-mask, death by defenestration and a gonzo chase through a sandstorm. Did I mention that the Kremlin explodes shortly after the movie starts? Or that it ends with a nuclear missile fired at San Francisco? Also, this is the only “Mission: Impossible” movie directed by a graduate of Corvallis High School, Brad Bird.
2. “Fallout” (2018) This is the one in which Hunt and another agent decide to crash a party, for reasons that are unclear, by making a high-altitude parachute jump during a thunderstorm. Naturally, an agent is struck by lightning but survives. This one ends with perhaps the best finale of any “Mission: Impossible” movie, a ludicrously entertaining helicopter chase cross-cut with a desperate search for yet another nuclear weapon, which in the “M:I” world are so common that they apparently can be purchased at Amazon. Sign up for Prime and your nuke can be at your door tomorrow.
3. “Mission: Impossible” (1996) The film that launched the series was panned by critics, but it holds up surprisingly well. Suspense wizard Brian De Palma directed this one, which features the second-most iconic stunt in the series, in which Hunt — for reasons that are somewhat vague — must access a locked CIA room without touching the floor. The finale, which involves a helicopter tethered to a speeding train inside a tunnel — where helicopters usually are encouraged not to fly — is fun. As a bonus: This is the one with the explosive chewing gum.
4. “Rogue Nation” (2015) This is the one in which Hunt clings to the outside of an airborne cargo plane in order to — well, who cares, really? The movie does introduce arguably the series’ strongest female character, Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust. And it has a bit of business in which Hunt nearly drowns in an underwater vault in an attempt to retrieve — something important, I guess. But I can remember almost nothing else about this installment. It’s fun while it lasts, though. 
5. “Dead Reckoning — Part One” (2023) This is the one in which Hunt drives a motorcycle off a cliff. But the best thing about the movie is the hilarious way in which that stunt pays off — beyond that, though, my lips are sealed. The elaborate bit of business near the end in which a train plunges, car by car, into a deep gorge is thrilling. But the movie feels very much like an unfinished work, as moviegoers might have guessed by the use of the phrase “Part One” in the title.
6. “The Final Reckoning” (2025) This is the one in which the villain, just before he tries to jumps out of a stricken biplane, says there’s only one parachute on the plane. Then another parachute shows up. Of course, that parachute catches on fire on the way down, but still. Nevertheless, the movie is entertaining enough, even if it takes a long time to get rolling, in part because of the numerous flashbacks to previous “M:I” movies.  
7. “Mission: Impossible III” (2006) The third installment features the best villain in any of the movies — a deliciously dry Philip Seymour Hoffman — but the movie still seems a little flat, and the finale is a bit of a dud. However, the sequence near the start in which an explosive device implanted in her brain kills Felicity (Keri Russell, who actually is not playing Felicity in the movie), is reasonably diverting.
8. “Mission: Impossible II” (2000) John Woo directed the outlier in the series, in which Cruise teams up with a jewel thief (Thandiwe Newton), and the two actually generate some romantic chemistry. But Woo, for all his gifts, turns out to be a bad fit for the series, and the movie always feels as if it’s playing for low stakes, even though it starts with a jetliner crashing into the side of a mountain.