5. Mission: Impossible

The impossibility of this mission hinges heavily on one of the most iconic infiltration scenes in movie history. Mission: Impossible set the bar for the minimum acceptability of mission complexity, and most films have succeeded at exceeding it.

While trying to clear his name and unmask a mole in the IMF, Hunt has to silently descend from a ceiling into the most secure vault in America, inside CIA headquarters, to retrieve a list of secret agent identities. Since this first Mission: Impossible relied less on death-defying stunts and advanced CGI, the 1996 film leaned more into human-engineered suspense. The vault is pressure and temperature sensitive, so a droplet of sweat from Hunt’s forehead, running down his glasses, has to be caught while he hangs from the ceiling to prevent it from hitting the ground. In fact, this mission should’ve failed five separate times. That’s a good sign an all-time impossible feat.