Mission: Impossible

Langley, VA

Last updated 8/27/2026

Mission: Impossible, released in 1996 and directed by Brian De Palma, adapted the 1960s television series into a feature film, and its famous vault heist sequence, in which Tom Cruise's character is lowered by wire to avoid triggering pressure-sensitive floor sensors, became one of the most widely referenced and imitated tension sequences in modern action filmmaking. The film launched what became one of the most commercially successful and critically respected action franchises in film history, with Cruise's insistence on performing increasingly dangerous practical stunts himself across subsequent sequels becoming a defining feature of the series' continued reputation for genuine physical filmmaking risk. Its plot, involving a CIA agent framed for betraying his own team and forced to clear his name while uncovering a genuine internal conspiracy, established much of the series' recurring narrative structure of Cruise's character operating against both external threats and internal institutional distrust. Mission: Impossible's combination of genuinely tense practical action sequences and its launch of a sustained multi-decade franchise has made it one of the most commercially and structurally significant spy films of the modern blockbuster era.

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Top 6 Spy Films of All Time
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