History YMMV / MissionImpossible

* CompleteMonster: Sean Ambrose in the second movie. He plans to poison 17 million people in Australia with the deadly virus Chimera - injected in his former girlfriend Nyah - so he could make a fortune when the cure's prices sky - rocket.
** Owen Davian in the third movie, as well. His actions [[spoiler:- selling weapons to terrorists, killing agents by bombs implanted in their heads, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beating up]] the defenceless hero in front of his equally defenceless wife -]] are bad enough, but still things to be expected from a villain in a spy movie. It's his complete lack of any redeeming qualities and incapablility of showing any other emotion than annoyance, anger, and a really creepy combination ''of DullSurprise and sadistic glee'' that really makes him qualify for the title. Hearing him count to ten while holding Ethan's wife hostage execution-style is pants-shitting scary.

-->''''What I did to your friend was....fun. It was fun."''

-->''What I did to your friend was....fun. It was fun."

** Owen Davian in the third movie, as well. His actions [[spoiler:- selling weapons to terrorists, killing agents by bombs implanted in their heads, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beating up]] the defenceless hero in front of his equally defenceless wife -]] are bad enough, but still things to be expected from a villain in a spy movie. It's his complete lack of any redeeming qualities and incapablility of showing any other emotion than annoyance, anger, and a really creepy combination ''of DullSurprise and sadistic glee'' that really makes him qualify for the title.

** Oven Davian in the third movie, as well. His actions [[spoiler:- selling weapons to terrorists, killing agents by bombs implanted in their heads, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beating up]] the defenceless hero in front of his equally defenceless wife -]] are bad enough, but still things to be expected from a villain in a spy movie. It's his complete lack of any redeeming qualities and incapablility of showing any other emotion than annoyance, anger, and a really creepy combination ''of DullSurprise and sadistic glee'' that really makes him qualify for the title.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment - The trailer for the fourth film [[spoiler: shows the bombing of the Kremlin, a major symbol of the Russian government]]. The trailer was played on the same day as the terrorist attacks in Oslo, Norway, making this troper cringe.

* RecycledScript: Both the first and third movie involve [[spoiler: Ethan being set up by [[TheMole a mole]] in [=IMF=] who isn't revealed until near the end, and who tries to frame the boss of the organization who spends time as an AntiVillain trying to [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment hunt down Hunt]], with the audience left unclear if its becausethe boss really thinks Hunt is a traitor or because the boss ''is'' the traitor. In both their actions force Ethan to go rogue and steal the MacGuffin that the bad guys are after for them, and in both TheMole is in league with an arms dealer. Each movie sees Hunt's family being dragged into the plot to get at him, sees a fairly traditional [=IMF=] plot go off without a hitch only for the team to be ambushed after the fact, and features a reference ot Ethan evading airport security despite [=IMF=] putting "a guy at the airport".]]

* RecycledScript: Both the first and third mvovie involve [[spoiler: Ethan being set up by [[TheMole a mole]] in [=IMF=] who isn't revealed until near the end, and who tries to frame the boss of the organization who spends time as an AntiVillain trying to [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment hunt down Hunt]], with the audience is left unclear if its because he really thinks Hunt is a traitor or because the boss ''is'' the traitor. In both their actions force Ethan to go rogue and steal the MacGuffin that the bad guys are after for him, and in both TheMole is in league with an arms dealer. Each movie sees Hunt's family being dragged into the plot to get at him, sees a fairly traditional [=IMF=] plot go off without a hitch only for the team to be ambushed after the fact, and features a reference ot Ethan evading airport security despite [=IMF=] putting "a guy at the airport".]]

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome
** Tom Cruise's ongoing pattern of unbelievable commitment to the projects, from risking his life to do various stunts to meeting fans at four different premieres for ''Mission Impossible III'' within four hours, having personally piloted his helicopter between them, to conducting the freaking orchestra for the ''Mission Impossible'' theme.
** The effects department gets a big one for the Owen Davian mask scene. Pure movie magic.
** The CIA heist in the first film, showing that an intense scene in a summer blockbuster can be done without explosions and body count, but with an emphasis on silence.

** The CIA heist in the first film, showing that an intense scene in a summer blockbuster can be done without explosions and body count, but with nothing but absolute silence.

* ValuesDissonance: Originally, the IMF were a group of people choosing to use their specific talents in spy work purely for the good of their nation. (Starting in 1966, still the era of "[[JohnFKennedy Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country]].") This wouldn't have worked in the 1996 movie, so it made the IMF a deeply covert part of the US intelligence services. Even in the time of RichardNixon, the idea of American agents covertly manipulating foreign events as heroes was going out of fashion, and the IMF spent some time working their wiles on organised crime.

* EnsembleDarkhorse (Landau quickly eclipsed star Steven Hill, even though he was only intended as an occasional guest star)
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel ("Mindbend")
* MagnificentBastard (So ''very'' many)

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome - The Mission: Impossible theme, of course. The version in the first film even made it onto top-ten charts around the world.
* EarWorm - You're now hearing the theme song in your head, and it will be stuck there for quite some time.

* HilariousInHindsight - After ''ShaunOfTheDead'' became a big hit, an interviewer asked Simon Pegg if he was going to do the whole Hollywood thing now, to which he replied "it's not like I am going to be in ''Mission: Impossible III''". Guess again, Simon!

* CharacterDerailment: In the first movie, [[spoiler:Phelps goes traitor and murders most of the team. Again, this was a source of outrage to Peter Graves and the rest of the TV show's cast. Graves was offered to reprise the role, and refused because of how out of character it was.]]

* CharacterDerailment: In the first movie, [[spoiler:Phelps goes traitor and murders most of the team. Again, this was a source of outrage to Peter Graves and the rest of the TV show's cast.]]

!!The movies

* AdaptationDecay: The movies have little in common with the TV series, starting with killing off the only returning character from the series, Jim Phelps, near the beginning of the first movie, before later [[spoiler:bringing him back, revealing him to be a traitor, and killing him again.]]
** YourMileageMayVary, regarding the first film, which was far closer in tone to the original series than the following movies.
** The movie has a BrokenBase. The original cast of the 80s and 60s TV series were invited to the premiere of the movie. They walked out halfway through, calling it terrible. Also, many fans cited that they didn't like how [[spoiler:Phelps was turned into a traitor]], and claimed that it has too many action scenes which will look out of place in a Mission: Impossible episode and that the franchise was RuinedForever with the move towards action. Others claimed it the best action flick they've seen in a long time and MI should've been like this from the start.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel ("Mindbend")