6. Kurt Hendricks (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol)
Kurt Hendricks, aka Cobalt, is so significantly better in conception than in execution. Performed by Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, Hendricks is precisely the kind of antagonist who ought to problem Ethan Hunt. A real believer in a nihilistic ideology, Hendricks needs to spark a nuclear warfare between the U.S. and Russia. That extremist perception offers the IMF no selection however to interact within the type of over-the-top motion that makes the franchise so particular.
The menace posed by Hendricks may ship Ethan scaling the Birge Kalifa, however as an individual, he’s a nothing onscreen. Nyqvist is aware of learn how to play menace, as demonstrated in his many style roles in his native Sweden, or in American motion pictures like John Wick, however he has nothing to do right here however glower. Worse, he’s overshadowed by his minion Sabine (Léa Seydoux), whose private connection to Hunt’s colleague Jane Carter (Paula Patton) offers her an edge that Hendricks by no means achieves.
5. Gabriel (Mission: Impossible — Lifeless Reckoning and The Last Reckoning)
The primary antagonist of Lifeless Reckoning and The Last Reckoning, the agent identified solely as Gabriel (Esai Morales) is about up as Ethan Hunt’s biggest foil. Not solely does he apparently have espionage abilities even better than these of our hero, however he was immediately accountable for Ethan becoming a member of IMF. We study that Gabriel killed Ethan’s girlfriend Marie and framed him for the homicide, which put him on the IMF’s radar. Worse nonetheless, Gabriel resurfaces as an acolyte of the omnipotent AI referred to as the Entity, giving him a driving ethos to match Ethan’s want to avoid wasting everybody.
On paper there’s nothing improper with this characterization. In observe it stinks. Lifeless Reckoning and particularly The Last Reckoning undergo from a self-mythologizing that retains dragging the film again into the previous as an alternative of charging ahead, and Gabriel embodies that backwards impulse. Gabriel is given some huge moments of evil, immediately killing fan favorites Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Morales has enjoyable enjoying up the villain position, however Gabriel’s worst sin is boring the viewers.
4. Jim Phelps (Mission: Impossible)
Earlier than we get additional, we should be clear: Jim Phelps is an efficient villain. The truth that he ranks so low here’s a testomony to the power of the opposite baddies, not a knock towards Jim. One of many foremost protagonists of the unique Nineteen Sixties tv sequence (albeit portrayed by Peter Graves as an alternative of Jon Voight), Jim Phelps makes Mission: Impossible right into a legacy sequel, connecting the traditional sequence to a brand new set of heroes.
Nonetheless, Mission: Impossible has a bravery that the majority legacy sequels lack, turning the previous hero into the brand new villain. Phelps initially appears to die within the assault that takes out most of Hunt’s workforce at first of the film, throughout a mission that IMF boss Kitteridge later reveals to be a “mole hunt.” Nonetheless, Phelps returns late within the movie as first Ethan’s ally after which his enemy, the true traitor that Kitteridge seeks. Voight brings loads of gravitas to the position, however he struggles a bit with the stunts on the finish—even though he was 57 when the film was shot, a yr youthful than Cruise was when filming on Lifeless Reckoning started.