The 5 Best Mission: Impossible Trailers Ranked

Everyone thinks of grand stunts or Tom Cruise running when contemplating the Mission: Impossible franchise’s artistry. And while it’s true that those qualities are integral to the Mission: Impossible mythos, they’re not the only standout element of the franchise. For one thing, there are iconic supporting characters like Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg); then there are the consistently strong trailers that get cranked out for these movies. The pre-release hype for a Mission: Impossible installment always gets a major jolt from a great trailer.

Trailers for Mission: Impossible movies have inevitably evolved over the 30 years of their run. What worked for marketing a major blockbuster in 1996 won’t work in 2025; however, the five best Mission: Impossible trailers exemplify what great marketing this series has had over its lifetime, as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoninig hits theaters.

5) Mission: Impossible

The first major trailer for a Mission: Impossible movie starts quietly. Intriguing imagery from the film plays out onscreen, with a familiar voice-over recounting the classic “your mission, should you choose to accept it…” rhetoric. Then, suddenly, everything gets big, right down to the text font used in the trailer. It’s the kind of grandiose maximalism that was common in trailers for 90s blockbusters. Contrasting these two atmospheres makes the Mission: Impossible trailer such an interesting ride. Sure, it spoils too much of the film, but as a standalone trailer, this first promotional launch for Mission: Impossible stands tall as an extraordinary trailer.

4) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Trailer #1

14 months before Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning hit theaters, a trailer dropped alongside Tom Cruise’s other big blockbuster sequel, Top Gun: Maverick. That was a lengthy lead-up to this 2023 tentpole, but even with the wait, the first Dead Reckoning trailer had plenty of exciting footage to offer. A largely dialogue-free affair in its second half, this Dead Reckoning trailer was also bolstered by a fantastically propulsive Lorne Balfe orchestral track that eventually bleeds into an epic rendition of the classic Mission: Impossible theme. Ingeniously, that track concludes with what sounds like eerie electronic heartbeats, thus suggesting that the nefarious Entity had infiltrated the franchise’s famous leitmotif. There were tons of jaw-dropping grandeur to go around in this trailer, which quickly made that 14-month-long wait for the final film seem like an eternity.

3) Mission: Impossible III Trailer #1

The 96-second announcement trailer for Mission: Impossible III does something other Mission: Impossible trailers don’t: it focuses on the villain. This is a series known for emphasizing in trailers how Ethan Hunt is “the living manifestation of destiny” rather than highlighting the Mission: Impossible equivalent of The Joker or Thanos. That trend went out the window with a teaser that focuses intensely on Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian, who delivers an intense monologue in a close-up shot. This starkly different area of focus immediately suggested Hunt was about to be challenged like he never had been before, and that Hoffman’s acting chops would be utilized in the blockbuster’s more intimate moments. It’s a distinctly different trailer in the franchise’s history, but in a very complimentary fashion.

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2) Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Trailer #1

In 2011, Paramount marketers contended with a problem that would’ve been once unthinkable. How do you make Tom Cruise cool again? Any movie attached to him was going to run into post-2004 problems related to his Oprah Winfrey Show shenanigans and box office bombs like Knight & Day. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’s initial trailer opted to forego dancing around Cruise’s performance and instead dive head-first into a blisteringly fast-paced atmosphere. Driven by the relentlessly speedy vibes of Eminem’s drum and cymbal-clashing “Won’t Back Down”, the trailer is jam-packed with quick cuts and strikingly expansive imagery of Hunt fighting bad guys and outrunning a sandstorm.

This needle drop immediately injected a much-needed sense of confidence into the proceedings. Concluding with jaw-dropping glimpses of the Burj Khalifa set piece, this Ghost Protocol trailer’s editors could firmly announce “mission accomplished.” It made Cruise cool again.

1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout Trailer #1

Shoehorning an Imagine Dragons song into the first Mission: Impossible: Fallout trailer should’ve dethroned the Limp Bizkit Mission: Impossible II theme as the most embarrassing musical moment in the entire saga. Staggeringly, this maneuver instead informed the greatest trailer in the entire Mission: Impossible saga. Thankfully, the editors and producers of this trailer opted not to set Ethan Hunt’s antics against “Radioactive” or “It’s Time.” Instead, the darker, more aggressive track “Friction” is deployed. This particular tune does have a good, catchy beat that fits well with the uncertain but exciting atmosphere of Fallout’s trailer.

Beyond the song, Fallout’s first trailer is also just fantastically edited and full of excitingly fun touches, like that “dun-dun” noise that goes off when Henry Cavill first draws out his fists. There’s also the engrossing climactic montage of Hunt getting tossed around like a ragdoll, which deftly demonstrates both Fallout’s impressive stuntwork and the tangible humanity of the man tasked with saving the world. This smorgasbord of exciting action work concludes with glimpses of that helicopter chase scene, including a great bit exclusive to the trailer of Hunt in a helicopter driving straight into an oncoming truck. “Welcome to the new age” of great movie trailers, Hunt (as the Imagine Dragons crew would say), because the Mission: Impossible – Fallout trailer is a breathlessly exhilarating work of art.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is now streaming on Prime Video and Paramount+.