Mission: Impossible

Few franchises have reinvented themselves as completely as this one. It began in 1966 as a television series built on cool tradecraft: the self-destructing briefing tape, the elaborate con, the team that toppled regimes without ever firing a shot. A 1988 revival kept that ensemble spirit alive before the property changed shape entirely.

The 1996 film recast it around Ethan Hunt and Tom Cruise, and from there the saga became something the original never was: a showcase for real, unfaked physical danger. Each entry exists partly to top the last stunt, from the Burj Khalifa climb in Ghost Protocol to the practical mayhem of Fallout and the final two-part Reckoning.

The series even crosses into gaming through a LEGO Dimensions appearance, but its identity lives in the tension between gadgetry and the human body pushed to its limit.

The Mission: Impossible franchise spans 2 series, 8 films in the CrossBinge catalog.