Mission: Impossible Villians, Ranked

The Mission: Difficult brand is built on amazing feats, complicated plot twists and reveals, and powerful Tom Cruise gaze. However, it is not based on powerful narratives. If anyone were interested in the plots, the majority of the Mission films did feature renegade agents and poorly defined MacGuffins. Lack of a story, though]…

The article Mission: Impossible Villians, Ranked appeared initially on Den of Geek.

The Mission: Difficult brand is built on amazing feats, complicated plot twists and reveals, and powerful Tom Cruise gaze. But, it is not based on powerful narratives. If anyone were interested in the plots, the majority of the Mission films did feature scoundrel agents and poorly defined MacGuffins. Lack of story quality does not, however, translate to a lack of tension. The majority of the movies feature superb villains who make Ethan Hunt, Cruise’s character, struggle and perform incredible feats, giving rise to the stunts we all adore.

So as the franchise winds down ( maybe ) with Mission: Impossible &#8211, The Final Reckoning, let&#8217, s take a look at the best of the worst: the villains who literally drove Ethan Hunt up a wall or into a giant turbine or hanging from a biplane. Second, precision. While the series does feature some entertaining henchmen like Paris ( Pom Klementieff ) and some stories feature shadowy baddies pulling the strings, like the evil duplicitous IMF director John Musgrave ( Billy Crudup ) or the Entity, we’re just looking at the main bad guys, the people who dare to match wills with Ethan Hunt.

7. Sean Ambrose ( Mission: Impossible II )

Mission: Impossible II nearly ended the franchise’s early years. It seemed like a good idea to take on director John Woo, a Hong Kong filmmaker with just as much style as the first picture &#8217, s producer, Brian De Palma. Additionally, Woo and writer Robert Towne, a legendary Hollywood star who co-wrote the first film, based their relationship on the Alfred Hitchcock film Notorious, casting Thandiwe Newton in place of Ingrid Bergman as the dishonest detective who captures our hero’s heart.

The mixture ended up being fatal. Woo&#8217, s dramatic approach clashed with poor characterizations, a problem particularly evident with M: I2&#8216, s main antagonist, past IMF agent Sean Ambrose, played by Dougray Scott. The myth of how Scott, the second person cast in the role of Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men, lost the role due to an on-set injuries has been repeatedly refuted, overshadowing the worse affront, that he was quite poorly used in this movie. Ambrose is meant to be Hunt’s black partner, so much so that he appears in the movie as Cruise’s character. But he never has the power nor the personality of his enemy, very frequently coming off as a brooding man-child than anyone who could harm Hunt, let alone the earth.

6. Kurt Hendricks ( Ghost Protocol from Mission: Impossible )

Kurt Hendricks, aka Cobalt, is so much better in conception than in murder. Dick, who is played by Swedish artist Michael Nyqvist, is the kind of enemy who really concern Ethan Hunt. Hendricks wants to start a nuclear war between the United States and Russia because he is a real believer in a misanthropic philosophy. That radical idea gives the IMF no choice but to join in the form of over-the-top activity that makes the company so unique.

Hendricks ‘ threat may cause Ethan to scale the Birge Kalifa, but he is nothing on as a person. Nyqvist has nothing to do with this film other than influences, as evidenced by his numerous music roles in his native Sweden and in American films like John Wick. Worse, he&#8217, s overshadowed by his minion Sabine ( Léa Seydoux ), whose personal connection to Hunt &#8217, s colleague Jane Carter ( Paula Patton ) gives her an edge that Hendricks never achieves.

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5. Gabriel ( Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning )

The agent known only as Gabriel ( Esai Morales ), who plays the main antagonist in Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning, is portrayed as Ethan Hunt’s greatest foil. He was immediately accountable for Ethan joining the IMF, not only does he appear to have spy abilities even greater than those of our hero. We learn that Gabriel killed Ethan&#8217, s girl Marie and framed him for the crime, which put him on the IMF&#8217, s sensor. Even worse, Gabriel reappears as an follower of the all-powerful AI known as the Entity, giving him a driving philosophy that is comparable to Ethan&#8217’s desire to save everyone.

There&#8217, s everything wrong with this description on paper. In process it stinks. The Final Reckoning, particularly The Dead Reckoning, suffer from a self-mythologizing that makes dragging the film forward rather than forward, and Gabriel embraces that forward desire. Morales enjoys playing the villain role, but Gabriel’s worst sin bores the audience. In some shocking instances, Gabriel directly kills fan favorites Ilsa Faust ( Rebecca Ferguson ) and Luther Stickell ( Ving Rhames ).

4. ( Mission: Impossible ) Jim Phelps

Before we move on, we must become clear that Jim Phelps is a decent monster. The fact that he ranks but small here is a testament to the strength of the other enemies, not a knock against Jim. Jim Phelps transforms Mission: Impossible into a legacy sequel by connecting the beloved television series to a new cast of heroes, Peter Graves being one of the main characters from the 1960s television series ( although Jon Voight was the actor ).

Mission: Impossible does, however, turn the original hero into the new criminal, something that most legacy sequels lack. Phelps initially seems to die in the attack that takes out most of Hunt &#8217, s staff at the start of the video, during a quest that IMF director Kitteridge after reveals to be a &#8220, gram hunt. Phelps makes a late appearance in the movie as Ethan and his ally before becoming the true traitor that Kitteridge seeks. Despite the fact that he was 57 when the movie was shot, a year younger than Cruise when Dead Reckoning was being made, he struggles a little with the stunts at the end.

3. Fallout, August Walker ( Mission: Impossible )

The buzz was all about the mustache that Henry Cavill developed for the film before Fallout. Because he could/would not shave the facial hair for reshoots on Justice League, that movie&#8217, s director Joss Whedon had to digitally remove the &#8216, stache from Cavill&#8217, s face, resulting in an infamously absurd looking Superman. At the time, it seemed like a petty move, but once we saw Fallout together, we were hooked. The mustache appears incredible and is appropriate to continue.

The mustache is important because it sums up Cavill&#8217, s character August Walker. Walker proves to be a force of nature who is just as devasting as our hero when he is referred to as a” blunt instrument””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””” Walker proves a real threat to Ethan even before he&#8217 is revealed to be the malevolent John Lark, the identity of the man the IMF sought in Rogue Nation. He&#8217, s ready to pummel our hero to death at any second—and he looks great doing it.

2. The third installment of Missile: Impossible features Owen Davian.

For all of the death-defying derring-do in the Mission: Impossible franchise, it &#8217, s notable that the scariest moment comes not during one of Ethan Hunt &#8217, s feats, but in a line of dialogue. When Owen Davian awakens to discover that he has been arrested by the IMF, he ignores Ethan and blithely asks his own questions, including:” Do you have a wife or a girlfriend?” Because you already know what I’m going to do next, why? I&#8217, m gonna find her &#8230, and I&#8217, m gonna hurt her. It’s not so much the specific words that Davian says that give you a chill as it does the rest of your body. It&#8217 ;s the way that they &#8217 were re-delivered completely without passion.

Of course Davian is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of the greatest actors of his generation. Hoffman’s ability to play cool and controlled ( and, in one memorable scene, play the ever-energetic Ethan Hunt disguised as Davian ) elevates the otherwise uninteresting third film from J. J. Abrams. In fact, Hoffman does a lot of the acting that it &#8217 makes it difficult to tell how mediocre Davian’s writing is, a demerit that places him in second place despite the utterly mesmerizing performance.

1. Solomon Lane ( Mission: Impossible &#8211, Rogue Nation )

Solomon Lane almost almost killed Ethan&#8217’s loved ones, despite Owen Davian’s claims that he should do so. The pure sorrow and terror on sweet Benji&#8217, s face when he reveals the bomb strapped to his chest tells us more about Lane&#8217, s capacity for evil than any of Davian&#8217, s monologues could do. In fact, Lane perfectly captures the franchise’s past baddies, perfecting everything they attempted to do. He has Gabriel and Ambrose’s espionage skills, Davian’s quiet menace, and Hendricks ‘ twisted worldview. By the time he sends a bomb to the worksite of Ethan&#8217, s estranged wife Julia Meade ( Michelle Monaghan ) out of pure pettiness, Lane even develops a personal animosity like Phelps.

Sean Harris receives a lot of the credit, especially because he uses his sabery voice and dark eyes to enhance the malevolence. Cruise&#8217, who is a genuine on camera, staring out of the screen with yearning blue eyes and a furrowed brow, is responsible for so much of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Harris&#8217, eyes do the exact opposite. We see pools of blackness when he looks out of the screen, drowning us in nothingness. If Hunt is truly the living manifestation of nihilism, as IMF Director Alan Hunley ( Alec Baldwin ) memorably put it, &#8220, the living manifestation of destiny, &#8221.

The article Mission: Impossible Villians, Ranked appeared initially on Den of Geek.