Film
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Ghost Protocol is the movie where the Mission: Impossible series stopped being a competent action franchise and became something genuinely thrilling. Brad Bird's real-world spectacle—Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa, no visible safety net—turns each set piece into a held breath. It's disavowed spies, gadgets that fail at the worst moment, and a plot that exists mostly to get you from one impossible stunt to the next. Perfect popcorn.
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Mission: Impossible - Fallout2018
The series doubles down on everything Ghost Protocol perfected: practical stunts, double-crosses, a ticking clock that never lets up. Cruise's HALO jump and the mountain chase finale are the franchise at its most breathlessly committed.
But The plot mechanics get so knotted with double agents and MacGuffins that following the story becomes secondary to just watching Cruise run.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation2015
Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust is the best thing to happen to this franchise in years, and the opera house sequence rivals anything Ghost Protocol pulled off. Tighter, meaner, more paranoid than most entries.
But It leans harder into shadowy conspiracy plotting than pure spectacle, which some viewers find slower going than the sandstorm-and-skyscraper thrills of Ghost Protocol.

Skyfall2012
Bond gets the prestige treatment here—gorgeous Roger Deakins cinematography, a genuinely unsettling villain in Javier Bardem, and a script willing to make Bond himself feel old and breakable for once.
But It's moodier and more melancholy than the globe-trotting fun of Mission: Impossible, with long stretches of brooding instead of gadget-driven set pieces.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
North by Northwest1959
Ghost Protocol's entire engine—an innocent operative disavowed by his own government, forced to clear his name through increasingly outrageous stunts—is a direct descendant of this film's plot. Hitchcock got there first, sixty years earlier, with a crop-duster instead of a skyscraper.
Hitchcock's fizzy, elegant thriller about a man mistaken for a spy, chased across the country with nothing but his wits and a suit that never wrinkles. The crop-duster and Mount Rushmore sequences invented the modern action set piece.
But It's talkier and slower by modern standards, with none of the physical stunt work that makes contemporary spy films so kinetic.

More like this (8)
Casino Royale2006
The reboot that made Bond feel dangerous again: a poker game with genuine tension, a torture scene that still makes people wince, and Daniel Craig playing the role rawer and crueler than ever.
But It's a slower burn built on card games and betrayal rather than stunts, so if you want more Burj-Khalifa spectacle, this isn't it.

The Bourne Ultimatum2007
Shaky-cam espionage at its most propulsive—Bourne outmaneuvering entire intelligence agencies through sheer improvisation. If Ghost Protocol's appeal is watching professionals think fast under pressure, this is the purest version of that.
But The handheld camerawork is aggressive even by action-movie standards and can genuinely induce motion sickness for some viewers.

Kingsman: The Secret Service2015
A gleeful, ultra-violent spoof of the spy genre that still delivers real thrills—Colin Firth in a bespoke suit doing things a gentleman spy should never do. Funnier and bloodier than you'd expect.
But The tone swings wildly between satire and shock violence, which can feel jarring if you want something that plays it straight.

True Lies1994
Arnold Schwarzenegger as a secret agent whose wife has no idea what he really does for a living—big, dumb, hugely entertaining 90s action-comedy with a genuinely spectacular Harrier jet finale.
But It's very much a product of its decade, tonally and politically, and the comedy hasn't all aged gracefully.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.2015
Guy Ritchie's stylish, split-screen take on Cold War spy games, with Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer trading barbs as rival agents forced to cooperate. All style, gorgeous suits, and easy charm.
But It prioritizes cool over stakes, so if you want to feel genuinely worried for anyone, this won't scratch that itch.

Jack Reacher2012no page yet
Cruise again, but stripped of gadgets and teams—just a former military investigator solving a sniper case through pure deduction and brutal efficiency. A leaner, colder showcase for his physical presence.
But It's a much smaller, grittier film with none of the globe-trotting spectacle or ensemble chemistry that makes Ghost Protocol so fun.
The Incredibles2004
Brad Bird directed Ghost Protocol as his live-action debut, and you can see his animation instincts everywhere in its clean geography and comic timing. This is the cartoon version of the same director's brain, minus real stunt danger but somehow just as thrilling.
A superhero family forced back into secret spy-craft, complete with gadgets, disguises, and a villain with a lair. Brad Bird directed both this and Ghost Protocol, and it shows—every set piece has the same clean, propulsive logic.
But It's an animated family film with jokes about parenting and puberty, which is a big tonal jump from Ethan Hunt's grim disavowal plotline.

Burn After Reading2008no page yet
Same bones as Ghost Protocol—disavowed agents, stolen secrets, a plot spiraling out of anyone's control—but played entirely for comedy and cruelty instead of heroism. It's what happens when you ask what if none of these people were any good at their jobs.
The Coen brothers take the exact ingredients of a spy thriller—stolen intelligence, double agents, a disavowed operative—and run them through a wood chipper of stupidity and bad decisions. Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand are magnificently dim.
But It's a pitch-black comedy where nobody is competent and nothing goes right, the polar opposite of watching professionals execute a flawless plan.
People
Cast
Tom CruiseEthan Hunt
Paula PattonJane
Simon PeggBenji
Jeremy RennerBrandt
Michael NyqvistHendricks
Vladimir MashkovSidorov
Samuli EdelmannWistrom
Ivan ShvedoffLeonid Lisenker
Anil KapoorBrij Nath
Léa SeydouxSabine Moreau
Josh HollowayHanaway
Pavel KřížMarek Stefanski
Directing
- Gauri ChadhaAssistant Director
- Ian RobinsonAssistant Director
- Jakub DvorakAssistant Director
- Mihir LathAssistant Director
- Shelraj PatelAssistant Director
- Sunny TikuAssistant Director
- Brian SepanzykAssistant Director Trainee
- Emma DayAssistant Director Trainee
- Brad BirdDirector
- Chris CastaldiFirst Assistant Director
- Geoffrey HansenFirst Assistant Director
- Michael SalvenFirst Assistant Director
- Raj AcharyaFirst Assistant Director
- Tommy GormleyFirst Assistant Director
- David HefflerScript Supervisor
- Evan GodfreyScript Supervisor
- Kimi WebberScript Supervisor
- Brandon LambdinSecond Assistant Director
- Geoff DibbenSecond Assistant Director
- Jakub DvorakSecond Assistant Director
- Jason RobertsSecond Assistant Director
- Mark BuntingSecond Assistant Director
- Misha BukowskiSecond Assistant Director
- Udayan BaijalSecond Assistant Director
- Gordon PiperSecond Second Assistant Director
- Kevin O'NeilSecond Second Assistant Director
- Kubhaer T. JethwaniSecond Second Assistant Director
- Lucie BurianováSecond Second Assistant Director
- Manjari MakijanySecond Second Assistant Director
- Martina GötthansovaSecond Second Assistant Director
- Ana Oparnica SebalSecond Unit Director
- Dan BradleySecond Unit Director
- Jeffrey LynchSecond Unit Director
- Kasia TrojakSecond Unit Director
- Aditya TendulkarThird Assistant Director
- Baris CangokceThird Assistant Director
- Carl De VilliersThird Assistant Director
- Chad BelairThird Assistant Director
- David StrangmüllerThird Assistant Director
- Eddy SantosThird Assistant Director
- Jiří KolárskýThird Assistant Director
- Mimi CroweThird Assistant Director
- Prince ShahThird Assistant Director
- Rhonda TaylorThird Assistant Director
- Samarth SahniThird Assistant Director
Writing
- Bruce GellerOriginal Series Creator
- André NemecWriter
- Josh AppelbaumWriter
Production
- Ben RosenblattAssociate Producer
- Pravesh SahniAssociate Producer
- Alyssa WeisbergCasting
- April WebsterCasting
- André NemecCo-Producer
- David MinkowskiCo-Producer
- Josh AppelbaumCo-Producer
- Matthew StillmanCo-Producer
- Tom C. PeitzmanCo-Producer
- Tommy HarperCo-Producer
- Luca ParacelsConsulting Producer
- Kirby AdamsExecutive In Charge Of Production
- Dana GoldbergExecutive Producer
- David EllisonExecutive Producer
- Jeffrey ChernovExecutive Producer
- Paul SchwakeExecutive Producer
- Tabrez NooraniLine Producer
- Bryan BurkProducer
- J.J. AbramsProducer
- Tom CruiseProducer
- Jan CibochProduction Assistant
- Ali SadoonProduction Manager
- Jana HrbkováProduction Manager
- Manish ChajlaneProduction Manager
- Sachin AgarwalProduction Manager
- Stewart BethuneProduction Manager
- Dmitriy ShutkoProduction Supervisor
- Lynn AndrewsProduction Supervisor
- Pavel DouvidzonProduction Supervisor
- Sanjay KumarProduction Supervisor
- Bonnie BenwickUnit Manager
- Silvia JančulováUnit Manager
- Aleksandr SamokhvalovUnit Production Manager
- Leigh ClarkeUnit Production Manager
- Scott ThalerUnit Production Manager
- Tommy HarperUnit Production Manager
Recommended by
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Salt