8. Mission: Impossible II
Not only is it the worst Mission: Impossible, it’s also the least impossible mission. Rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) wants to infect the world with the highly contagious Chimera virus, in order to profit from selling the cure. To stop him, Ethan Hunt has to break into Biocyte Pharmaceuticals’ high-security lab. Hunt recruits Ambrose’s ex, Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton), to seduce the villain into uncovering his plan, where she makes a heroic move, injecting herself with the last vial of Chimera to prevent its being unleashed.
That leaves Hunt with a 72-hour deadline, before the virus in Nordoff-Hall becomes irreversible, and while that does add a level of suspense, this was very much Mission: Difficult. Given the challenges described over the next seven entries, you’ll see what made this mission feel so pedestrian in hindsight.
