How Many Mission: Impossible Movies Are In The Franchise?

In the case of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, what started off as a bit of a cultural oddity — a film series based on a popular TV show of the same name — has slowly but surely grown into one of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster properties. Much like 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick," the logic-defying success of the "Mission: Impossible" movies is a testament to not only the charisma and talent of the franchise's central star, Tom Cruise, but also the filmmaking acumen of the directors who have worked on it. Beginning with Brian De Palma and extending all the way to Brad Bird and Christopher McQuarrie, the "Mission: Impossible" franchise has recruited more than its fair share of iconic filmmakers over the years.

But just how many "Mission: Impossible" movies are there? As of this writing, only six "Mission: Impossible" films have actually been released in theaters. However, that number is going to grow in just a few short months when the franchise's seventh film installment, "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One," hits theaters this July. The film is coming five years after its predecessor, 2018's "Mission: Impossible — Fallout," was originally released to widespread acclaim and attention.

As its title suggests, "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" won't be the franchise's final installment. Indeed, a sequel, titled "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two," is already in the works. In case that wasn't exciting enough, it's worth noting that "Mission: Impossible" fans also won't have to wait as long to see the franchise's eighth installment as they have for its seventh.

Both this year's "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" and its sequel promise to break new ground for the long-running franchise, and in more ways than one. Together, the films represent the first two-parter in the history of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. 

For a long time, the series' installments all told largely self-contained stories. 2018's "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" broke that trend, though, when it not only brought back Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the primary villain of "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," but also directly addressed some of the lingering plot threads from that 2015 film and some of the franchise's other installments. With that in mind, "Dead Reckoning Part One" and "Part Two" now promise to fully embrace the increasingly serialized, interconnected nature of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.

Filming has already begun on "Part Two" as well, which makes it the first "Mission: Impossible" film that has gone into production before its predecessor has even been released. There will, consequently, be a much smaller window of time between the two "Dead Reckoning" films. As a matter of fact, "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two" is currently set to hit theaters on June 28, 2024, less than a year after "Part One."

Notably, that means the "Mission: Impossible" franchise will have grown from six movies to eight by the time the summer of 2024 has come to an end.