Our list of the best quotes from the action spy Mission: Impossible movies that focuses on Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), an agent of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), based on the 1960s television series of the same name created by Bruce Geller.
Best Quotes from all Mission: Impossible Movies
1. Mission: Impossible (1996)
'I can understand you're very upset.' - Kittridge, 'Kittridge, you've never seen me very upset.' - Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible) Click To TweetDirected by Brian De Palma. We follow Ethan Hunt, as he goes on the run after being framed for the murder of his IMF team during a botched mission, and is seeking to uncover the real mole and clear his name.
Flight Attendant: Would you like to watch a movie, Mr. Phelps?
Jim Phelps: No, I prefer the theater.
Flight Attendant: Would you consider the cinema of the Ukraine?
Jim Phelps: Perhaps you’ll choose one for me.
Kittridge: [as Phelps listens to the recording] As always, should you, or any member of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.
Jim Phelps: [after explaining their mission] Any questions?
Ethan Hunt: Yeah. Can we get a cappuccino machine in here? Because I don’t know what you call this.
Jack Harmon: I call it cruel and unusual.
Claire: I made that coffee.
Ethan Hunt: Exactly.
'Red light. Green light. You come up against a lock you can't pick, you mash them together... Hasta lasagne, don't get any on you.' - Jack Harmon (Mission: Impossible) Click To Tweet
Jack Harmon: Stick of gum, right?
Ethan Hunt: No?
Jack Harmon: No. Red light. Green light. You come up against a lock you can’t pick, you mash them together… Hasta lasagne, don’t get any on you. You’ll have about five seconds. Just don’t chew it.
2. Mission: Impossible II (2000)
'Every search for a hero must begin with something that every hero requires, a villain.' - Dr. Nekhorvich (Mission: Impossible II) Click To TweetDirected by John Woo. We follow Ethan as he is tasked with stopping rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) from stealing a deadly biological weapon, and selling the antidote to the highest bidder, with the help of professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton), Ambrose’s ex-girlfriend.
Dr. Nekhorvich: It seems we have a problem, Dmitri.
Sean Ambrose: [disguised as Ethan] You keep calling me Dmitri. You really shouldn’t.
Dr. Nekhorvich: You are not Dmitri?
Sean Ambrose: [after he knocks out Nekhorvich] No.
Mission Commander Swanbeck: Good morning, Mr. Hunt. Your mission, should you choose to accept it involves the recovery of a stolen item designated Chimera.
'To go to bed with a man and lie to him? She's a woman. She's got all the training she needs.' - Swanbeck (Mission: Impossible II) Click To Tweet
Mission Commander Swanbeck: As always, should you, or any member of your IMF team be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. And, Mr. Hunt, the next time you go on holiday, please be good enough to let us know where you’re going.
Recorded Voice: This message will self-destruct in five seconds.
Ethan Hunt: If I let you know where I’m going, then I won’t be on holiday.
'This is not Mission: Difficult, Mr. Hunt. It's Mission: Impossible. Difficult should be a walk in the park for you.' - Swanbeck (Mission: Impossible II) Click To Tweet
Nyah Hall: What are you doing here?
Ethan Hunt: Think you’re the only one who can pick a lock?
Nyah Hall: Not just a pretty face after all.
Nyah Hall: [as they’re hiding in the bathtub] Do you mind if I’m on top?
Ethan Hunt: Either way works for me.
'We've just rolled up a snowball and tossed it into hell. Now we'll see what chance it has.' - Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible II) Click To Tweet
Nyah Hall: I’m missing something here, aside from my half million pound necklace. Even after I screwed up the job, I could have walked out of there with the bloody thing.
Ethan Hunt: At least you walked.
Nyah Hall: If you weren’t going to let me get away with it, why did you watch me go through with it?
Ethan Hunt: I wanted to see how good you were.
3. Mission: Impossible III (2006)
'There's a point where bold becomes stupid.' - Luther (Mission: Impossible III) Click To TweetDirected and written by JJ Abrams. Ethan is now engaged to Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan), retired from active duty, and training recruits for the Impossible Mission Force. However, he’s sent back into action to track down information broker Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who intends to sell a mysterious dangerous object known as “The Rabbit’s Foot”.
Ethan Hunt: I study traffic patterns. You hit the brakes for a second, just tap them on the freeway, you can literally track the ripple effect of that action across a two hundred mile stretch of road, because traffic has a memory. It’s amazing. It’s like a living organism.
'It's unacceptable that chocolate makes you fat, but I've eaten my share. And guess what?' - Theodore Brassel (Mission: Impossible III) Click To Tweet
Musgrave: [to Ethan] I know we joke about it, but I am always this close to begging you to stop training our people, and get your a** back in the field. But that’s not what you do anymore, and so I respect that choice. You know I do. Family’s everything.
'Please don't interrupt me when I'm asking rhetorical questions.' - Theodore Brassel (Mission: Impossible III) Click To Tweet
Musgrave: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find Lindsey and bring her home. I’ve already assembled a team. I have them standing by, awaiting your word. This message, let’s call it my excellent engagement gift to you, will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Ethan, and thanks again.
'You can always tell someone's character by the way they treat those they don't need to treat well.' - Owen Davian (Mission: Impossible III) Click To Tweet
Luther: [to Ethan] Well, well, well. Now, if it isn’t Mr. “Those Who Can’t Do, Teach” back in the field.
Luther: Hey, Ethan, don’t worry. We’re going to get the girl. Or have you been away so long you’ve forgotten how good we are?
'I have a charge in my head. I'm going to die unless you kill me.' - Ethan Hunt, 'What?' - Julia (Mission: Impossible III) Click To Tweet
Luther: So, Raider One, at some point, we got to go over this whole “getting married” thing.
Ethan Hunt: Negative, Observer. I don’t respect you nearly enough to have that conversation.
Luther: You may not respect me, but for now you’re stuck with my voice in your head.
4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
'Every two or three million years, some natural catastrophe devastates all life on Earth. But life goes on. And what little remains is made stronger. Put simply, world destruction is an unpleasant, but necessary part of evolution.' Click To TweetDirected by Brad Bird. Ethan and his team (Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Paula Patton) are blamed for the bombing of the Kremlin while investigating an individual known only as “Cobalt” (Michael Nyqvist), forcing the President to enact “Ghost Protocol”, disavowing the organization. So the team are left on their own to stop him from starting a global nuclear war.
Benji: Okay, I’m set. How’s things going down below?
Jane: How do you think? I’m in a sewer.
Benji: [referring to Ethan] I don’t know what he’s doing, and for some reason, I’m helping him.
'I don't mean to bring up the elephant in the room, but what's with the big, hairy Russian?' - Benji (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) Click To Tweet
Ethan Hunt: Benji, how is it you’re here?
Benji: Oh, I passed the field exam. Crazy, right?
Ethan Hunt: Yeah. Crazy.
'Easy way to remember, blue is glue.' - Benji, 'And when it's red?' - Ethan Hunt, 'Dead.' - Benji (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) Click To Tweet
Jane: Mind telling me what you were doing in a Russian prison?
Ethan Hunt: Mind telling me why you broke me out?
Jane: This wasn’t a rescue mission?
Ethan Hunt: Let me put it this way. If the Secretary wanted me out of there, it must be pretty bad out here.
'Failure to a terrorist is just a rehearsal for success.' - Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) Click To Tweet
Ethan Hunt: We’re going into the Kremlin.
Benji: I thought you said The Kremlin. I thought you said The Kremlin. Okay.
Benji: [to Ethan] This is very exciting. Being out in the field. With you, you know. It’s a bit of a dream for me. Love your disguise, by the way. You look just like him. It’s a shame we’re not wearing masks. You know like full masks. Everybody gets to wear a mask but Benji. Sorry. I’m tense. I babble when I’m nervous. I’m doing it again. Shut up, Benji.
'Why am I Pluto? It's not even a planet anymore.' - Benji (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) Click To Tweet
Sidorov: [to Ethan] Our media is no more truthful than yours, American.
5. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
'We only think we're fighting for the right side because that's what we choose to believe.' - Ilsa Faust (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) Click To TweetDirected and co-written by Christopher McQuarrie. Ethan comes under threat from the Syndicate, a global terrorist organization, led by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), composed of many ex-government agents from many different nations and its ‘ledger’. Faced with the IMF’s disbandment, Ethan assembles his team (Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ving Rhames) for their mission to prove the Syndicate’s existence and bring the organization down by any means necessary.
Brandt: The package is on the plane.
Benji: Yeah, I know. We’re currently formulating a plan B. Although, technically, it’s a plan C.
Brandt: This isn’t going very well.
Benji: I am aware of that, Brandt. You’re not helping.
Luther: Benji needed my help.
Benji: I didn’t need help I needed assistance. It’s a different thing.
'Desperate times, desperate measures.' - Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) Click To Tweet
Ethan Hunt: I’m on the plane. Open the door!
Benji: How did you get in the plane?
Ethan Hunt: Not in the plane. I’m on the plane! Open the door!
'Join the IMF! See the world! On a monitor. In a closet.' - Benji (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) Click To Tweet
Ethan Hunt: [as Benji opens the rear door of the plane] That’s the wrong door!
Luther: Benji, not that door. The other door.
Benji: The other door, right! Yes, the other door. Okay. Yes, yes, yes! Sorry, my bad. My bad!
Record Shop Girl: [to Ethan] It really is you. I’ve heard stories. They can’t all be true.
'We can be anyone. We can do anything. It's only a matter of going.' - Ilsa Faust (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) Click To Tweet
Recorded Voice: Normally, you and your team would be tasked with infiltrating and disrupting this terrorist network. But we have taken steps to ensure that this will not happen. Because we are the Syndicate, Mr. Hunt. And now we know who you are. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to face your fate. Pursue us, you will be caught. Resist us, you will be killed. And your precious Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Mr. Hunt. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.
'She tried to shoot me!' - Benji, 'That doesn't make her a bad person.' - Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) Click To Tweet
Alan Hunley: Mr. Chairman, the so-called Impossible Mission Force is not just a rogue organization. It is an outdated one, a throwback to an era without transparency and without oversight. Time has come to dissolve the IMF, and transfer their salvageable assets to the CIA.
6. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
'We need people like you who care about the one life, as much as they care about the millions.' - Erika Sloan (Mission: Impossible - Fallout) Click To TweetWritten and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Ethan and his team (Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson) must track down missing plutonium after a mission goes wrong, while being monitored by the Apostles, a terrorist organization formed by former members of the Syndicate.
Ethan Hunt: What’s done is done when we say it’s done.
Alan Hunley: We need reliable intelligence, and we need it now. And this scenario is precisely why the IMF exists!
Erika Sloan: The IMF is Halloween, Alan. A bunch of grown men in rubber masks playing trick-or-treat.
August Walker: [to Ethan] Hope is not a strategy!
Ilsa Faust: Oh, you must be new.
Ethan Hunt: You should’ve stayed out of the game.
Ilsa Faust: You should’ve come with me.
Lane: There cannot be peace without first a great suffering. The greater the suffering, the greater the peace.
See more Mission: Impossible – Fallout Quotes
7. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. We follow Ethan and his IMF team on another mission. We’ll add the best quotes once the movie is released, but for now, here’s a small teaser.
Kittridge: Your days of fighting for the so-called greater good are over. This is our chance to control the truth.
See more Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Quotes