This checklist comprises spoilers for the Mission: Impossible franchise.
A brand new Mission: Impossible film is hitting theaters this month – the ultimate one within the franchise, if we’re to imagine Tom Cruise and the fits at Paramount – and in the event you’re like us, you’re in all probability knee deep in a collection rewatch proper now.
The focus of the movies, spectacular action set items apart, has been Cruise’s lead spy, Ethan Hunt. Fellow crew brokers have usually come and gone, and supposedly not possible missions have different time after time, however Ethan has remained. The solely different fixed has been a regular provide of villains – women and men with large plans fueled by greed and/or malice, who assume they’ll be the one to outwit, outsmart, and outrun Hunt. Fools.
It may appear counterintuitive rating the Mission: Impossible villains below the banner of “best,” however each great hero wants an equally great villain. Numerous parts come into play when figuring out one of the best villain, however we’re zeroing in on the size of their risk, the load of the violence (each bodily and emotional) they commit in opposition to Hunt and his crew, and the palpable degree of villainous charisma they exhibit.
So cue up that basic Lalo Schifrin theme, listed below are the 10 Best Mission: Impossible Villains, Ranked!
10. A.I. The Entity (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One)
“A self-aware, self-learning, truth-eating digital parasite infesting all of cyberspace” feels like a fairly cool risk in another high-octane thriller, however within the Mission: Impossible franchise it’s solely good enough to land at quantity ten. It underwhelms in comparison with its human counterparts, as a result of let’s be actual – zeroes and ones ain’t obtained shit and insanity and weapons – however its energy and immense attain are simple. The Entity started “life” as a digital weapon designed by the U.S. authorities earlier than going rogue and hopping by way of our on-line world with the giddiness of a pet experiencing its first snowfall.
Most villainous act of villainy: While toying with and killing a submarine crammed with Russian sailors is an act of murderous cruelty, it’s the Entity’s larger, broader acts of deception that mark it as a true villain. Its early days of online manipulation noticed it shifting public opinion and habits by way of social media, and it’s a brutal reminder of occasions in the true world. We reside in a current the place people with nefarious agendas are influencing simply formed minds, and with the elevated use of A.I. in our online dealings, it’s not onerous to think about one thing just like the Entity stepping in and actually turning our every day lives into a nightmare.
9. John Musgrave (Mission: Impossible III)
Not each villain has direct blood on his fingers, however that doesn’t imply they’re any much less harmful. Musgrave is Hunt’s Operations Manager on the IMF, and it’s urged they could even be minor pals – comprehensible as he’s performed by Billy Crudup, and who wouldn’t need to be pals with Billy Crudup. He brings Hunt in on a mission to rescue one of his proteges, Lindsey Farris, and when that goes flawed and Hunt is blamed for the fallout, it’s Musgrave who helps the agent escape to pursue justice. See? A buddy.
Surprise! It’s all a ruse, and Musgrave is definitely a traitor working with a man named Owen Davian on some elaborate plan to retrieve a piece of tech nicknamed “the rabbit’s foot.” Musgrave’s a hero in his own thoughts, although, as he’s hoping to make use of this as motivation for first strikes in opposition to enemy forces. He needs the U.S. and the IMF to play a more aggressive function within the fight in opposition to terrorism, and if which means supporting terrorists alongside the best way, properly, he’s all for it.
Most villainous act of villainy: Musgrave may assume his coronary heart is in the appropriate place right here, however along with enabling a murderous terrorist in Davian, he crosses an equally large line by pulling Ethan’s spouse, Julia, into danger. Worse, he lets Davian shoot Julia within the head proper in entrance of Hunt. Sure, she’s revealed to have been a minor henchwoman in a masks, however the emotional harm is actual.
8. Kurt Hendricks (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol)
While some villains act out of greed and others trigger distress merely for the enjoyable of it, Kurt Hendricks is a man who solely needs one of the best for humanity. What is one of the best, you ask? Well, in Hendricks’ thoughts, our species would benefit from one thing of a cleanse. From the great biblical flood to the atomic bombing of Japanese cities during World War II, immense disasters result in rebuilding, restoration, and actual enchancment… apparently.
Sounds logical, so Hendricks units out to set off simply such a international debacle beginning with a huge assault on the Kremlin in Moscow and resulting in the acquisition of nuclear codes. He proves himself to be one of the best threats Ethan Hunt has confronted to that time.
Except, and that is the place casting comes into critical play, the movie needs us to see him as a bodily risk to Hunt – however that’s almost not possible. Michael Nyqvist was a incredible actor, and he makes for a compelling villain by way of dialogue and intent. But a critical contender in a fight with Cruise? It’s troublesome to purchase, however that doesn’t stop director Brad Bird from letting him go toe to toe with the movie’s star for a weirdly long fight. (To be truthful, Chad Stahelski began it by letting Nyqvist seemingly maintain his own for a bit with Keanu Reeves in John Wick.) So, whereas Hendricks is a grand risk on the world stage, he tumbles some within the rating right here as an unserious brawler in opposition to the extremely educated and in much better form Hunt.
Most villainous act of villainy: Like Musgrave above, Hendricks significantly thinks he’s doing the world a favor by inflicting hurt. His last act ends in a nuclear missile being fired in direction of San Francisco, one thing that will have killed tens of 1000’s of people instantly earlier than triggering the dying of thousands and thousands more. That’s no small factor, and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for these meddling IMF brokers.
7. August Walker (Mission: Impossible – Fallout)
Hunt and his IMF crew have been betrayed by double brokers and traitors on quite a few events, however most of them are grasping middle-aged males in fits who don’t pose an instant bodily risk to our intrepid hero. August Walker is one thing totally different fully. He towers over Hunt and is jacked from his mustache on down. Henry Cavill’s portrayal ensures that he’s already menacing even whereas pretending to be on Hunt’s aspect, however as soon as the reality comes out, the gloves come off.
Walker is revealed to be working in cahoots with the good Solomon Lane, and collectively they body Hunt and as soon as again pull the love of his life, Julia, into hurt’s approach. His motivation for all of it is a bit excessive and dramatic – he needs the outdated world to implode and provides rise to one thing higher – however what else would you count on from a man who appears to cock his arms like weapons during fist fights.
Most villainous act of villainy: Walker and Lane are planning to detonate nuclear bombs, and whereas the latter stays behind to die in his biggest act of terror, Walker is on a chopper heading to security. Hunt, of course, catches up to him in pursuit of the detonator that’s needed to stop the countdown. While Walker might have simply escaped by giving up the detonator, his want to trigger struggling – particularly Hunt’s struggling if Julia had been to die – leads him to a one-on-one fight to the dying with the agent. It’s a resolution constructed on rage and self-righteous justification, and it rightfully ends in his painful demise.
6. Paris (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One)
When it involves villains within the Mission: Impossible universe, few can contact Pom Klementieff’s Paris on fashion and charisma factors. A henchwoman to Gabriel, she lets her gleefully murderous skillset do most of her speaking, and it’s a refreshing change of tempo from baddies who appear compelled to share their life tales earlier than pulling a set off.
Her costume and face make-up see her stand aside from the group, however don’t let her doll-like look idiot you. Paris is a cruel fighter who refuses to give up regardless of the chances, as evidenced by a shootout and automotive chase in Rome that sees her actually plowing by way of obstacles each human and in any other case in her pursuit of Hunt.
Most villainous act of villainy: While Paris makes mincemeat out of quite a few threats, she in the end succumbs to Hunt during an alleyway brawl. He spares her life, although, and after being punished by Gabriel – he principally tries to kill her – she chooses to betray each him and her villainous tendencies by saving Hunt’s life. Maybe I’m stretching the definition right here, nevertheless it takes a actual badass to show your back on villainy with the invention of surprising morals and a change of coronary heart.
5. Gabriel (Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning)
The mysterious Gabriel arrives within the penultimate entry of the franchise, and he’s a man with lethal abilities and an alliance with the Entity. He additionally comes with a backstory suggesting an integral function in Ethan Hunt’s life. It appears Gabriel killed a lady named Marie thirty years in the past, somebody Hunt was apparently fond of, and it’s that homicide that landed Hunt on the IMF – the place he went on to avoid wasting 1000’s of lives. Hundreds of 1000’s, even. So possibly Gabriel is a hero? I child, I child.
He’s clearly a villain, and he might even be one thing of a seer (?), however whereas his late-to-the-party franchise arrival unavoidably undercuts his dramatic weight, the character’s casting lifts Gabriel proper back up again. Esai Morales brings actual appeal and a calm menace to the character, and it’s instantly made clear that he’s not somebody to be trifled with. You imagine each his bodily talents and lethal intentions, and Morales’ added dramatic weight makes him a actual risk to Hunt. He additionally earns a bump within the rankings by gifting viewers with one of the best, most unforgettable villain dying in the whole franchise.
Most villainous act of villainy: Gabriel’s killed a lot of people, and he even destroyed a rolling Agatha Christie landmark, so it’s clear he’s a unhealthy man. His most vicious act, although, comes as a bookend to having “fridged” Marie three many years earlier. Gabriel threatens to do it again by killing both Ilsa or Grace – Hunt’s present love curiosity or the lady who simply landed in his lap mere hours in the past – and whereas the movie needs to trick viewers into pondering it’s going to be the latter, it’s Ilsa who dies by Gabriel’s blade as a substitute. McQuarrie and Cruise are clearly the true villains right here for introducing this drained trope of a lady’s dying being chargeable for a man’s life, nevertheless it’s in the end Gabriel who thrusts the knife into Ilsa’s intestine. It might have been Grace who died. Hell, it ought to have been Benji. Instead, Gabriel extinguishes the franchise’s brightest flame this aspect of Hunt himself. J’accuse!
4. Jim Phelps (Mission: Impossible)
Jim Phelps wasn’t the one buddy/fellow agent to betray Hunt through the years, however he was the primary – and arguably essentially the most surprising. The character, as performed by Peter Graves, was the IMF’s lead agent for the majority of the tv collection’ seven-season run from 1966 to 1973. He was unquestionably a good man, so there was no purpose to suspect that his presence within the first Mission: Impossible movie can be something totally different – properly, Jon Voight within the function was in all probability a clue.
Audiences anticipated Phelps to primarily hand the reins over to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, however whereas he did simply that, he did so with a main act of betrayal. As he tells Hunt as soon as his ruse is found, the tip of the Cold War threatens to finish the need for the IMF – that is as naive a assertion as ever uttered within the entirety of the franchise – and he was frightened about turning into a relic barely scraping by on sixty-two thousand {dollars} a yr.
Most villainous act of villainy: The betrayal itself is already brutal as Phelps turns his back on pals and brokers who’ve risked their lives collectively through the years, nevertheless it’s the specifics of his traitorous act that hits hardest. In his effort to border another person for his crime, Phelps kills off three members of his crew during an operation after which fakes his own dying. What might have been a easy theft, as a substitute turns into an act of cruelty making his betrayal sting even more.
3. Sean Ambrose (Mission: Impossible II)
“That was always the hardest part of having to portray you,” says ex-IMF agent Sean Ambrose to a overwhelmed and angered Ethan Hunt, “grinning like an idiot every fifteen minutes.” That line alone makes Ambrose a high villain because it’s a terrific zing at each Hunt and Cruise himself. He’s equally dismissive of girls as evidenced by his remark that they’re like monkeys in terms of the boys of their lives, that they “won’t let go of one branch until they get a grip on the next.” Say what you’ll about his grasping wishes, however Ambrose (Dougray Scott) understands the task in terms of being a charismatic villain.
That greed has led him to steal a lethal plague with plans to unleash it on complete populations if his calls for aren’t met. While money money is his major motivator, although, Ambrose additionally appears fueled by a splash of jealousy in direction of Hunt. That makes their faceoffs all of the more entertaining whether or not they’re jousting on bikes or sharing beatdowns within the sand as solely the great John Woo can seize it.
Most villainous act of villainy: The movie opens with Ambrose masquerading as Hunt with a purpose to purchase the Chimera plague, however relatively than simply kill one man, Ambrose and his crew crash an whole passenger jet crammed with harmless civilians. Acts of terror would declare greater physique counts in later movies, however this places faces to the lifeless in a far more direct approach making it more private and affecting.
2. Solomon Lane (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation)
Whether as a consequence of low pay or poor advantages, the world is seemingly overflowing with ex-government workers prepared and keen to betray their nations and leap on the practice to villain city. Solomon Lane is one such agent, however he goes a step or three additional by serving to create an group known as The Syndicate that’s constructed fully on these bitter, set off pleased ex-agents. They need to sow chaos and reap financial rewards, and so they’ve been doing it for years.
Lane is launched killing a younger, unarmed feminine agent proper in entrance of Hunt, and it’s quickly revealed that he’s chargeable for 1000’s of deaths through the years by way of occasions made to appear to be accidents or the work of wholly unrelated perpetrators. Lane’s historical past of manipulating trust and the world’s varied methods makes him one of essentially the most harmful villains within the franchise. He’s forward of Hunt at each step, and his mantra – “The greater the suffering, the greater the peace.” – marks him as a man keen to do something to perform his targets.
While many actors go large enjoying villains, Sean Harris takes the other strategy and makes Lane a weasel of a man who you simply need to see get overwhelmed mindless. It’s an unusually daring alternative that leaves him with out a darkly interesting persona or persona – he’s simply a very unhealthy man who couldn’t care much less about you or your family members.
Most villainous act of villainy: As the uncommon villain to be an lively risk throughout more than one movie, Lane inflicts a lot of ache, struggling, and stress on Hunt and his crew. The bulk of his evil acts had been dedicated earlier than Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation even begins, however his cruelest and most private action unfolds during the followup, Fallout. Along with August Walker, Lane manages to activate two nuclear bombs threatening not solely the water provide for billions of people, but additionally the life of Hunt’s biggest love, Julia. Seeing her in hurt’s approach is the sort of intestine punch that Hunt felt solely as soon as earlier than, and it’s clear simply how sorry he’s that his selections have as soon as again introduced her so close to dying.
1. Owen Davian (Mission: Impossible III)
(*10*)
There’s a lot of competitors in terms of choosing the right villain within the Mission: Impossible franchise, however there was by no means any doubt who’d land on the high of the heap. Davian doesn’t care about a lot past his own needs and desires, and the movie displays that by by no means revealing precisely what his finish goal is – we all know he needs the so-called rabbit’s foot, however what it’s and what it does are by no means made clear. We simply know that Davian will cut by way of anybody and something to get it, and that makes him an exceptionally harmful man.
J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III is unfairly maligned, however even these underwhelmed by the movie itself can’t help however applaud Philip Seymour Hall’s frighteningly efficient and extremely entertaining portrayal of Davian. His blistering stares, his lightning fast shifts from lifeless silence to raging outbursts, and his deceptively calm approach of threatening every little thing that Hunt holds pricey all work to make him a villain who instructions the display and even steals each scene from Cruise himself.
There is probably not a large, international risk at play right here, however Davian is the person who arguably will get nearer than another villain to truly killing Hunt. He injects the agent’s head with an explosive machine that will get inside seconds of churning Hunt’s mind tissue into ground beef, and he even will get some critical licks in whereas brawling. You wouldn’t assume a Cruise versus Hoffman fight would persuade, however the latter’s pure ferocity paired with Hunt’s incapacitation due to the ache in his head makes for a viciously compelling bout.
Most villainous act of villainy: Davian is a imply bastard who, whereas nonetheless in restraints, coldly threatens to homicide Hunt’s fiance Julia. “I’m gonna make her bleed and cry and call out your name”, he says, and it’s one of the few occasions the place Hunt’s legendary control tips into actual worry and emotion. Davian later comes close to doing simply that after abducting Julia, tying her up, and showing to shoot her within the head. Hunt’s ache is palpable, and it’s enough to wreck his coronary heart to the purpose that he’d go on to by no means let somebody that close again. Davian has actually halted Hunt’s capacity to attach with somebody on a deeply private degree, and it’s the sort of assault that bullets and bombs simply can’t compete with.