Some SPOILERS are ahead for all of the Mission: Impossible movies, now streaming with a Netflix subscription (except for The Final Reckoning, which is in theaters).
I’m still in shock over here. Are the Mission: Impossible movies really over and done with? Watching Tom Cruise hang off a biplane and try to recover a module in the depths of the ocean on the big screen really awakened something in me. And that something was going back over the Mission: Impossible movies now that they recently joined the 2025 Netflix releases.
And I have to say… I really forgot how many incredibly talented actors have shown up in the movies over the years! Of course, I had remembered Ving Rhames’ Luther being there from the beginning, and it only made knowing his death in Final Reckoning hit harder. And, there’s no way I’m ever forgetting Philip Seymour Hoffman’s role as Owen Davian. But, there were quite a few appearances that genuinely shocked me. I’ll break them down below:
watching it for the first time when I kicked it on first. I’ll be honest, the last time I watched it before this, I found it boring in comparison to the newer installments, so I kind of have been sleeping on it, but I really enjoyed going back to basics with it this time around.
One of the reasons I actually decided to watch it was because Final Reckoning had a flashback to Jon Voight’s role as the leader of the IMF, Jim Phelps, and I had no memory of him in the movie. But, what a great role for the Oscar winner. He plays an excellent first villain for the M:I franchise.
The Breakfast Club’s Emilio Estevez! He plays an IMF agent who dies in an elevator shaft, but what a treat. It’s a fun little role for the actor because both Cruise and Estevez were in The Outsiders together over a decade earlier.
Steve Martin. He’s so solid in Mission: Impossible as an ex-IMF agent who is the man who’s holding up Ethan during his iconic scene where he’s suspended by a wire.
Harry Potter movies, The Banshees of Inisherin, and 28 Days Later. He plays a CEO who gets kidnapped in the 2000 sequel.
Anthony Hopkins at the very end of the movie. I never would have guessed him showing up late in the action movie just to play Mission Commander Swanbeck for a little scene with Tom Cruise, but it definitely exists. I read that he was actually uncredited in the movie in order to give audiences at the time a shock when he made his appearance, and I find that fun.
J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible 3, I thought I had this one figured out, but yet again I was short-sighted by a few unexpected actors in the mix. This is a great rewatch because it has the first appearance of Simon Pegg’s Benji, and I loved seeing Ethan and him interact for the first time. But Laurence Fishburne being the IMF director? It’s literally perfect casting, and I had no memory of it.
Aaron Paul being in a key scene just a couple of years before he officially became Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad. He plays Ethan Hunt’s future brother-in-law, Rick, whom he calls during a pivotal scene where the agent is worried about the safety of his fiancée, Julia (played by Michelle Monaghan). Rick is completely clueless; he just aids the movie’s villain in capturing his sister, but Ethan ultimately saves her, so it all turns out OK.
unexpectedly funny, and full of great talent that have continued to do some great work after being in these movies.