Top 10 Favorite Mission Impossible Characters
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is supposed to be the final film with Ethan Hunt and his team. But is that actually the case? Time will tell. If this is truly the final film then I’m doing a whole lot of Mission Impossible rankings. So today I’m looking at my 10 favorite Mission Impossible characters. Let’s get started!
NOTE: This post will contain SPOILERS for the entire Mission Impossible franchise, mainly The Final Reckoning. If you haven’t seen that film, I will be spoiling specific plot points from the films. If you’re a newer fan or haven't seen all of the films, don’t read this.
10. Paris: This scene stealing side character from the last two Mission Impossible films. There’s three things about her that I really like. First up, Pom Klementiff does a great job of playing her. In Dead Reckoning, she’s really just a henchmen but her mannerisms and how she’s played makes her this memorable henchmen. She doesn’t really talk in that film but the noises she makes gives her this personality. Second, I thought her moments with Benji in The Final Reckoning were sweet. They have some banter moments between the two of them and when she’s stitching him up in the third act some of those moments put a smile on my face. It’s a fun combination because they’re two very different characters. One of them is very talkative and comedic and the other one doesn’t talk a lot, so going back and forth worked for me. Third, she is given a character between Dead Reckoning & The Final Reckoning where she starts off as this assassin whose mission is to kill Ethan Hunt. By the end of The Final Reckoning, she’s one of Ethan’s friends, on his team, and plays a part in saving the world in the third act of the film. When you put the pieces together you get a really solid and fun side character.
9. Alan Hunley: One of our governmental figures in the Mission Impossible films. All of them are played by this Hollywood veteran, whether that’s Jon Voight, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence Fishburne, Tom Wilkinson, and in Hunley’s case, Alec Baldwin. Of these governmental figures, Hunley is the best of the bunch. I think it’s helped that he’s in Rogue Nation & Fallout, my two personal favorite Mission Impossible films. The writing and direction in those films were when the franchise was in its prime. Like Paris, his relationship with Ethan does change and evolve over two films. He’s not a villain in Rogue Nation but he’s an antagonist towards Ethan. He’s not wrong in his actions, we just don’t like him because he’s trying to stop the hero. What he’s saying and him closing down the IMF because of Ethan’s past actions makes sense given all of the chaos that Ethan and his team have caused. Once you get into Fallout, he’s the leader of the IMF and helping Ethan. He’s willing to help Ethan do this dangerous stuff because the world is at risk. His death in that film has a certain emotional weight because he went from Ethan’s antagonist to his friend. Also, his line in Rogue Nation about Ethan being the living manifestation of destiny is one of the franchise’s best lines.
8. August Walker: A character in pop culture that was able to make a mustache cause divide in pop culture. In all seriousness, August Walker is one of the franchise’s best characters and easily one of the best villains. He’s a villain that shouldn’t be as good as he was. The reveal of him being the main villain happens 60% of the way through the film. It’s not even all that surprising of a reveal, I mean everybody that twist coming they marketed the film as him being the main villain. But the predictability doesn’t at all affect your enjoyment of the film but the franchise was firing on all cylinders and it was in its prime. What makes him a memorable villain is you have Henry Cavill playing him. He always has this movie star energy about him. He has this presence about him, you remember him in this film. He has all of these little moments whether it’s a physical or something he says that sticks in your head. Of course him reloading his arms during the bathroom fight is awesome and one of the most iconic shots of the franchise. The fact that he’s involved in the bathroom fight, one of the best fights of the franchise, helped put him on this list.
7. Solomon Lang: The first villain in the franchise to return for a second film and I think that really elevates him. He was a great villain in Rogue Nation and continued that into Fallout. Once again, with him being in the earlier McQuarrie era of Mission Impossible this gave him a lot of room to be really good. What works so well about this character is that he’s the villain mastermind of the franchise. He’s not the character throwing punches with Ethan in the battlefield. He’s more of the mastermind manipulating everything trying to take over the world. I love those characters in franchises like this that are the masterminds manipulating everything but not the ones out there fighting with our heroes. Lang is a great version of this character, he’s appropriately creepy and unsettling. This is most present in Fallout when he’s talking with Ethan about the fallout of his choices from the previous Mission Impossible films. We’ll talk about one more Mission Impossible villain later on, so he’s not the best villain of the franchise but he is one of the best.
6. Luther Stickell: One of two Mission Impossible characters that appeared in every single film. He’s not a character that’s given a big character arc, he doesn’t drastically grow and change but he’s just a solid character. You enjoy seeing him on screen, he has fun banter with Ethan and Benji in the film. Actually, I love him being paired up with Jeremy Renner in Rogue Nation. It provided some of the funniest moments. What makes Luther a great character is his friendship with Ethan. They meet going back to the original film where Ethan basically just hires him for the Langley vault sequence and their friendship goes from there. He’s one of the characters that knows Ethan the best. In several of the films, he delivers exposition about Ethan to other characters because he knows him on a more personal level. His usage in The Final Reckoning was very weird and you can tell his arc was being reworked. But it was still emotional to say goodbye. You know how good of a friend Luther has been to Ethan so when he dies you feel the weight of it.
5. Owen Davian: I’m not the biggest fan of Mission Impossible III, but I still really like the film but the villain is the best of the franchise. The big thing working for the third film is that it’s a more focused story. It’s built around Ethan’s personal and love life so they’re able to create a villain that ruins that. You don’t like Davian because he’s harming our hero on a more personal level. The other thing to talk about here is of course the late great Phillip Seymour Hoffman who is just fantastic in this film. He’s able to be so villainous, you want to see Ethan take him out. He doesn’t have this big vibrant personality. A lot of lines are delivered very monotone and one note but since Hoffman is a world class actor he’s able to make the character so villainous and memorable. The way that he delivers certain lines is so memorable and weirdly quotable. We’ve always gotten fun actors to play Mission Impossible villains, but they didn’t get a lot of world class actors. But they did for the third film and I think that paid off and elevates the movie to being the best of the franchise.
4. William Brandt: This is an interesting character because there were rumors for a long time that he was meant to be Tom Cruise’s replacement for the franchise. Jeremy Renner has since denied those rumors. I don’t know what’s true or not but it’s just a fun fact about the character. I’ve always really liked this character. I'm a big fan of Renner and he fits really well into blockbusters like this. He’s able to have fun chemistry with everybody. As I mentioned earlier, I love his dynamic with Ving Rhames in Rogue Nation. One of the things that I really like about him is his relationship with Ethan. In Ghost Protocol they establish that he’s an analyst but they discover that he’s a very good fighter which means maybe he’s not who he says he is. It builds this mystery surrounding him given the plot of the film. You realize that he was responsible for whatever went down with Ethan’s wife. His relationship with Ethan and how he fits in with it all works really well. I really like him for that reason, his connections to the world have more layers. I wish we had more of him in the franchise.
3. Benji Dunn: One of our Mission Impossible leads that has been in six of the films. At face value, it might not seem like Benji got a big character arc. In a sense that’s true, the Benji we meet in Mission Impossible III is the same one we see in The Final Reckoning. But in The Final Reckoning, we spend time with the idea that he’s been friends with Ethan for a very long time. Some of his dialogue with Ethan wouldn’t work if he hadn’t been in so many of these films. Even little moments of Ethan telling Benji “this is your team” and promoting Benji to team leader was powerful stuff. Benji might have this self-doubt, but both the audience and Ethan knows that he’s ready. He went from nerdy computer guy in the third film to one of the most important and fundamental characters of the franchise. I really thought they were going to kill him off in the third act and that would have had this emotional punch. Beyond that, he’s designed to be the comedic relief character. Simon Pegg is so naturally funny and able to find the humor in the smaller moments. A lot of the franchise’s funniest bits are from him.
2. Ilsa Faust: This seems to be one of the fan favorite characters of the franchise. I’ve seen people on the internet saying Mission Impossible died when she did. And saying the back half of Dead Reckoning and all of The Final Reckoning never recovered. Regardless, what you think about the choice, she’s a fun character. Of course, this was the star-making performance for Rebecca Ferguson. When you watch Rogue Nation, she’s holding her own against Tom Cruise. Having a break-out star holding her own against the biggest movie star on the planet means you have talent. What works so well about her is that you don’t always know who’s side she’s on. In Rogue Nation especially she’s on the side of whoever will help her the best. Sometimes she’ll be working with Ethan to stop the villain but she’ll only do it if it benefits her. Her agenda is a bit more foggy in Fallout but ultimately is on the side of good. She sees how good of a person Ethan is and how far he’s willing to go in order to save his friends. When you get to Dead Reckoning, she’s friends with Ethan with romantic chemistry. The audience not knowing much about and constantly toying with the side she’s on is what makes her this great character.
1. Ethan Hunt: You probably could have guessed this but yes, Ethan Hunt is my favorite Mission Impossible character. I think he’s so elevated by Tom Cruise. He’s one of the biggest movie stars on the planet and dedicates years of his life to do stunts and entertain the audience. I know there’s a difference between Tom and Ethan, but through Tom’s dedication it makes Ethan this fun character. You want Ethan to get put into these crazy insane situations. When you watch The Final Reckoning, there’s a lot of madness taking place. Through the films and lines of dialogue you understand so much about how Ethan cares about his friends. In Dead Reckoning, Luther has this line about how Ethan will sacrifice everything to make sure his friends are safe. When you know that’s so much of the driving factor in these films it adds weight to it. Especially when he failed in the original film and his entire team got killed, that changed his perspective on things and set him on this journey for the rest of the franchise. If The Final Reckoning is truly our final mission with Ethan Hunt, I’m satisfied. I chose to accept the mission.
Comments