25 best spy movies ever

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Hi-tech gadgets, exploding aquariums and cryptic biblical references: is there nothing Mission: Impossible doesn't have?

Tom Cruise plays agent Ethan Hunt, framed for the murder of his entire team. His fight to be exonerated takes him into the depths of the CIA headquarters and across most of europe, before unlikely face masks and chewing gum explosions save the day.

Still the best of the series, largely because of its twisty-turny plot and for actually forcing Cruise to act as part of a team. Still, fans of the TV series still haven't forgiven the producers for recasting Peter Graves – and for what they did to his character.