Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol not only rescued the franchise but also pulled Tom Cruise's career out of a lean period. Mission: Impossible 2 may have aged poorly, but it was a major hit back in 2000 and helped establish Cruise as an action star. The sequel was sold on the setpieces and Cruise's willingness to perform his own stunts. Mission: Impossible 3 arrived six years later and is notable for being J.J. Abrams' directorial debut and while not regarded as one of the franchise's best, it's a solid spy adventure with a great villain performance by the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
While Mission: Impossible 3 was a success, its less than $400 million box-office haul was seen as a disappointment. The movie's performance also saw Paramount cut its long-standing relationship with Cruise, with the actor's public persona being specifically cited as a reason for the sequel's underperformance. The third Mission: Impossible movie was released following Cruise's infamous couch jump on Oprah, his advocacy of Scientology and publicly critiquing actor Brooke Shields after she revealed she took antidepressant medication following a battle with postpartum depression. Cruise later apologized to Shields, but his image took a major hit from the episode.
Paramount felt the negative publicity surrounding Cruise during this period affected M: I 3's box office and choose to cut ties. Cruise had some lean years following this, and while movies such as Valkyrie and Knight And Day did modest business, his war drama Lions For Lambs was a dud. His most acclaimed work during this period was his cameo as horrid producer Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. When Paramount decided to see if there was life left in the Mission: Impossible series, they did so with the understanding it would be Cruise's final outing as Ethan Hunt. The original plan for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was to have Hunt retire and Jeremy Renner's character inherit the series. However, neither director Brad Bird nor Cruise took this direction seriously, and it was clear during production the latter was still very much the star of the series.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was very much sold on Cruise's star power, including his incredible Burj Khalifa stunt. The sequel also helped establish key components of how the series would evolve, including putting more of a focus on the IMF team surrounding Hunt. Ghost Protocol was met with glowing reviews, and not only did it earn nearly $300 million more than the previous outing, but it was also Cruise's biggest financial success as a leading man up to that point.
Following this, Cruise enjoyed more hits like Oblivion, Jack Reacher and Edge Of Tomorrow (which might get a sequel), in addition to the continued success of the Mission: Impossible movies. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was a pivotal film for the series and Cruise, with the sequel proving that both were still on top.
