“Mission: Impossible vs. The Mob” wasn’t released in theaters in America. Instead, the two-parter-turned-movie was released theatrically in Europe and Australia. This was a fairly common practice at the time. It also happened to the hit spy series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, which had multiple two-part episodes released as standalone features in Europe, with titles like “To Trap a Spy,” “How to Steal the World,” and “The Karate Killers.”
So the question of whether or not “Mission: Impossible vs. The Mob” actually counts as the first film in the series is a little debatable, but unless you place value judgments on it, the fact is undeniable: There was a “Mission: Impossible” movie in theaters, released only five years after Tom Cruise was born. And while it’s not available as a standalone movie, you can watch both episodes of “The Council” on streaming back-to-back and see it for yourself.
And you really should. The “Mission: Impossible” movies may have largely erased the original series from the public consciousness but it was a tense and exciting television series. It makes perfect sense that it would spawn a blockbuster film series, even if the Tom Cruise movies gradually led the tone further away from intimate spy thrills and into James Bond extravaganza territory.