It’s not clear when it happened — sometime in the past 30 years — but the Mission: Impossible movies gradually evolved into Hollywood’s most dependable modern action franchise. Figuring out how this happened is far easier: Star Tom Cruise ‘s legendary willingness to do anything and everything to make each film a blockbuster while — as the franchise’s most powerful producer — savvily finding creative partners that bring out his best.

The Final Reckoning is said to conclude, story-wise, the awesome ride this film franchise has been on for the past 30 years, though that doesn't mean this will be the last Mission: Impossible movie as the title is,

These are all nine — yes, nine (everybody forgets there’s one without Tom Cruise) — “Mission: Impossible” movies, ranked from worst to best. Tom Cruise and Thandiwe Newton in ‘Mission: ...

The supporting cast — including Jon Voight, Henry Czerny, Emmanuelle Béart, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Vanessa Redgrave — was wonderful. Rhames is the only person, besides Cruise, to appear in every Mission: Impossible movie, and Czerny made a surprising reappearance for the latest two films in the franchise.