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- Mission Impossible III
- Paramount Pictures
19 'Mission: Impossible' Villains Who Take Being Evil To The Next-Level
Vote up the most evil Mission: Impossible villains.
The Mission: Impossible franchise is doing better than ever, especially after the latest installment, Dead Reckoning Part One, nabbed two Academy Awards nominations in 2024 in the Best Sound and Best Visual Effects categories. Based on the popular 1966 TV series created by Bruce Geller, these seven spy action blockbuster films grossed $4.13 billion cumulatively, but that success is not only due to Tom Cruise’s stunts and compelling portrayal of the main protagonist, Ethan Hunt, a highly capable and inventive agent for the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) governmental agency. Or to the adrenaline-fueled action sequences helmed by veterans like J.J. Abrams, John Woo, and Christopher McQuarrie.
It’s also the effect of the charismatic villains and their henchmen, with their constant double-crossing, diabolical master plans, and ruthless execution. Those Mission: Impossible antagonists are shrewd, captivating, and intriguing, but how do they fare against one another, based on how much trouble they give Hunt and his team and how much screen presence they have?
- 145 VOTES
Solomon Lane
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- Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible - Fallout
What's His Master Plan? As the leader of the Syndicate, a notorious and powerful criminal organization, Lane aims to destroy the IMF and take down governments to usher in a new world order under his sole control.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? Since he is a former MI6 agent and a master manipulator, he possesses the knowledge, not to mention the tactical and combat skills, to be one step ahead and coldly remove obstacles, via blackmail, kidnapping, torture, sabotage, and what have you. Because Hunt and his crew are the thorn in his side, he also attempts to eliminate them and frame him for his own terrorist acts.
Standout Moment: It’s a tie between bringing down a plane full of passengers just to kill one target and gassing a village of 2000 people by setting fire to a chemical plant.
You should have killed me, Ethan. The end you've always feared is coming. It's coming! And the blood will be on your hands.
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- 247 VOTES
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- Mission Impossible III
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible III
What's His Master Plan? As a seasoned black-market and arms dealer, Davian aims to find a destructive device called the Rabbit’s Foot in order to sell it to terrorist organizations.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? Not only does he have great wealth and numerous connections, but he is also a master manipulator who completely lacks morals. He enjoys torturing his victims a little too much and stops at nothing to reach his goals, which include fueling the Middle Eastern front and destroying the IMF.
Standout Moment: Davian captures Hunt and threatens in a calm voice and chilling tone to torture and kill his wife, Julia. It is a testament to his calculating mind, determination, and sadistic tendencies.
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- 36 VOTES
John Musgrave
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- Mission: Impossible III
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible III
What's His Master Plan? Musgrave has mastered the art of the long con. He infiltrates the IMF in order to discredit its leader and feed intel to Davian, hoping to eventually land the position of Executive Director himself.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? A brilliant and corrupt strategist and manipulator, he is able to fool Hunt with his friendly demeanor, all the while working closely with Davian to deliver the Rabbit’s Foot to terrorist factions. His crimes include abuse, murder, smuggling, and attempted political unrest.
Standout Moment: Musgrave eloquently explains his motives to Hunt by not only making fun of the IMF Executive Director, “an affirmative action poster boy,” but by also comparing his own ally, Davian, to a weed that should be used, and not cut out.
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- 431 VOTES
Sabine Moreau
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- Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
What's Her Master Plan? Moreau is a beautiful, cold-hearted French contract killer and thief who has worked for Kurt Hendricks. She particularly likes getting paid in diamonds.
What Makes Her A Great Villainess? She is a resolute and highly skilled martial artist and shooter who displays sadistic tendencies. Besides eliminating single targets, she feels no remorse contributing to mass murder, too.
Standout Moment: Moreau’s violent fight scene with her archenemy, Jane Carter, is quite memorable. It involves slapping, punching, vase breaking, and attempted stabbing. It ends with Carter accidentally kicking Moreau out the window.
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- 545 VOTES
August Walker, AKA John Lark
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- Mission: Impossible - Fallout
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission Impossible: Fallout
What's His Master Plan? The impossibly dashing and well-mannered Walker is a prominent agent in the Special Activities Division of the Central Intelligence Agency. His apparent mission is to track Hunt’s every movement and assassinate him, should he deem it necessary, but his long-term plan is a new society through nuclear destruction.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? Walker is actually working with Lane and the Apostoles, a group of terrorists for hire who were formerly with the Syndicate. Besides his indisputable charisma and assassin skills, he manages to get his hands on the much-coveted plutonium and to break Lane out of prison. In his twisted logic, he truly believes that the rebirth of a peaceful world is only possible through chaos, terrorism, and murder.
Standout Moment: He is usually composed and polite, but after failing to kill Hunt multiple times and suffering skin burns in a helicopter crash, he is unable to hide his frustration when he asks him, “Why won’t you just DIE?”
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- 620 VOTES
James Phelps
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- Mission: Impossible
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Imposible
What's His Master Plan? Phelps, the former director of the IMF, becomes disillusioned with the field of espionage and decides to betray the organization by selling sensitive information to an arms dealer.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? They say that the worst enemy is the one who was once a friend. Phelps not only betrays his principals and his country, but he also has no problem framing Hunt, a junior agent, for a failed mission, and goes as far as to fake his own death.
Standout Moment: After realizing the man he looks up to is a traitor, Hunt asks him about his reasons, and Phelps gives him a speech about how people start to feel obsolete as they age and therefore decide they should no longer answer to any authority but their own.
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- 742 VOTES
Gabriel
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- Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
What's His Master Plan? Gabriel is the messenger and henchman of the mysterious, sentient, and destructive artificial intelligence power known as the Entity. He seeks to uncover its secrets and empower it further in order to help it run the world.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? Gabriel’s fanatical goal aligns perfectly with the Entity when it comes to mass control; he does its bidding without question, clearly enjoys causing pain, and displays masterful tactical and combat abilities. Like many other villains, he, too, wants to eliminate Hunt and his team, and he is specifically selected by the Entity to carry this task because of his past connection to him.
Standout Moment: When he talks down to the Chief Inspector at the police headquarters in Rome, boasting that he knows all about his corruption and thieving habits.
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- 840 VOTES
Kurt Hendricks, AKA Cobalt
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- Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
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Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
What's His Master Plan? Hendricks wishes to provoke a nuclear war between the US and Russia. Inspired by the rebirth of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, he is under the misguided notion that mass destruction is a “necessary part of evolution.”
What Makes Him A Great Villain? He is a genius physicist with an IQ of 190 and extensive experience in nuclear strategy. Add to that his complete disregard for human life and his superior disguise, hacking, and combat abilities, and you’ve got yourself a formidable opponent.
Standout Moment: He cold-bloodedly eliminates Leonid Lisenker, a Russian cryptographer he has coerced into helping him, after deciding he has served his purpose. It's a rather pointless murder, as he could have easily released him.
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- 942 VOTES
The Entity
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- Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
What's Its Master Plan? The Entity is the only non-human villain in the franchise. It is an enigmatic, self-aware AI program that has gone rogue and seeks world domination by any means necessary.
What Makes It A Great Villain? The fact that this enemy is invisible, fast, and unpredictable is precisely what makes it so powerful and dangerous. As an artificial intelligence, it has the means to hack into any secure or insecure website or program, access top-secret information, and falsify data to wreak havoc and harm potential threats.
Standout Moment: Since it has the power to impersonate people, the Entity brilliantly tricks Hunt by impersonating Benji Dunn, an IMF technician, and feeding him fake information.
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- 1037 VOTES
Sean Ambrose
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- Mission: Impossible II
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible II
What's His Master Plan? Ambrose is a rogue IMF agent who has morphed into a bio-terrorist. He is hell-bent on releasing a lethal virus called Chimera and then selling the cure to the highest bidder.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? As long as his deadly plan makes him wealthy, Ambrose doesn’t care how many people have to be eliminated in the process, Hunt included. He is an intelligent and temperamental leader and fighter, with a predilection for disguise and torture.
Standout Moment: Ambrose is strong, agile, and ruthless, as evident by the swift movements he uses to effortlessly break the neck of the Russian scientist who created the Chimera virus.
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- 1117 VOTES
Atlee
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- Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
What's His Master Plan? Atlee is the apparent Chief of MI6. He is also the mastermind behind the establishment of the Syndicate terrorist organization, whose purpose is to forcibly create a “reformed” society. That is, before Lane decides to go rogue and take it up a notch.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? Atlee is an excellent strategist and psychological manipulator, with ample resources and wealth at his disposal. He fools a great deal of people and doesn’t hesitate to risk the lives of good agents in order to hide his true nature and goal.
Standout Moment: He manipulates Ilsa Faust, an MI6 operative, into infiltrating Lane’s organization. He then indirectly asks her to assassinate Hunt in order to “regain his trust.”
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- 1230 VOTES
John C. McCloy
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- Mission: Impossible II
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Appears In: Mission: Impossible II
What's His Master Plan? McCloy is an intelligent and ruthless entrepreneur whose sole goal is to gain more money and more power. It’s no wonder he sees a great opportunity in purchasing the Chimera virus and its cure.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? Besides his connections, resources, and wealth, he has a way with words and will stop at nothing, even murder, to reign supreme. He is selfish, greedy, and determined.
Standout Moment: McCloy gives a compelling speech to the scientist Nekhorvich (who is actually Hunt in disguise) in order to convince him to sell him the cure to the deadly virus. He flat out tells him he’s only in it to make money and doesn’t care about anything or anyone else.
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- 1323 VOTES
Paris
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- Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
What's Her Master Plan? Paris is a French assassin whose main purpose is to serve the Entity and its goal of world domination. She works closely with Gabriel.
What Makes Her A Great Villainess? She is a charismatic, agile, and athletic fighter who displays cruelty and strong resolve to see her missions through. Terrorism, vandalism, assault, and murder are right up her alley, though she does find redemption in the end by saving Hunt.
Standout Moment: While pursuing Hunt, she ploughs through innocent people and destroys cars and public property aboard her armored vehicle.
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- 145 VOTES
Eugene Kittridge
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- Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible and Dead Reckoning Part One
What's His Master Plan? In the beginning, Kittridge isn’t a villain per se, but the IMF's Deputy Director who antagonizes Hunt because he truly suspects him of being a mole. When he later becomes the Director of the CIA, he works diligently to turn the US into a tyrannical superpower with the Entity at its service.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? Kittridge has decades of experience in the espionage field, and that works in his favor. He is an opportunist and a manipulator who wants to stop Hunt from destroying the Entity by any means necessary, regardless of the harm the latter has caused.
Standout Moment: Like all eloquent antagonists, he tries to justify his reasons to Hunt by using sanctimonious logic, citing the world’s terrible ecological state and dwindling resources as an excuse for him to use the Entity for the US’s benefit.
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- 154 VOTES
Franz Krieger
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- Mission: Impossible
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible
What's His Master Plan? Krieger is a former French agent and IMF operative who is dedicated to assisting James Phelps in all his evil deeds. He is also focused on eliminating Hunt, who was once a team member but is now considered an obstacle.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? He is an intelligent and crooked henchman who is only driven by profit. Other than being an expert helicopter pilot, he also excels in knife and hand-to-hand combat and has no qualms about killing or causing the death of good IMF agents.
Standout Moment: As far as murderous intentions go, it’s hard to compete with Krieger attempting to decapitate Hunt with his helicopter blade.
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- 164 VOTES
Janik Vinter, AKA The Bone Doctor
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- Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
What's His Master Plan? Vinter is a Swedish member of the Syndicate and Lane’s henchman. His mission is to help the latter eliminate Hunt, Faust, and anyone else standing in their way.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? As a former KGB operative with years of experience, he has mastered the art of torturing captives for information. He is arrogant, shrewd, and cruel, with solid fighting skills.
Standout Moment: When Hunt is captured by the Syndicate and chained, Vinter is tasked with torturing him and declares he wants to see how much pain he can handle before caving in. He punches him with all his might, only to realize that the agent is too honorable to be corrupted or swayed.
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- 174 VOTES
Alanna Mitsopolis, AKA The White Widow, And Zola Mitsopolis
Appear In: Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Dead Reckoning Part One
What's Their Master Plan? Alanna and Zola are the daughter and son of an arms dealer who have inherited her business and expanded it into a prolific network of mercenaries, spies, and money launderers.
What Makes Them Great Villains? Alanna navigates prominent social circles as a charismatic philanthropist, while Zola holds the rank of British Army Colonel and is fiercely protective of her. Arms trafficking, embezzlement, terrorism, and murder are made easy thanks to the siblings’ resources, wealth, connections, and fighting skills.
Standout Moment: Alanna and Zola’s dynamic as a whole is always a scene stealer, but Alanna’s prowess in warding off her assassins is particularly memorable.
- 184 VOTES
Claire Phelps
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- Mission: Impossible
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission Impossible
What's Her Master Plan? Claire is James Phelps’s wife and co-conspirator. Her role is to assist him in selling intel while still carrying out missions for the IMF.
What Makes Her A Great Villainess? On the surface, she is an excellent agent with a gentle demeanor. In reality, she is a traitor and a conniving manipulator who cleverly uses Hunt’s feelings for her in order to get what she wants, chiefly a list of names that would put people’s lives at risk.
Standout Moment: Hunt wakes up from a nightmare to find Claire in his room; she has survived the car bombing that supposedly killed her and James. Of course, they have both faked their deaths, but she puts on a good act in front of Hunt, teary eyes and shocked expression included.
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- 198 VOTES
Nils Debruuk
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- Mission Impossible - Fallout
- Paramount Pictures
Appears In: Mission: Impossible - Fallout
What's His Master Plan? Debruuk is a Norwegian scientist working for the Syndicate. His mission is to create a top nuclear weapon in service of the latter, and his personal dream is to have Walker/Lark’s “manifesto” read on air.
What Makes Him A Great Villain? Despite his goofy demeanor, he is an anarchist who can improvise portable nuclear bombs that can detonate anywhere in 72 hours. He doesn’t care how unethical his experiments are, as long as he gets to help the terrorist organization he belongs to topple governments.
Standout Moment: It doesn’t make him look particularly brilliant, but the hospital scene in which Hunt and his team fool Debruuk into giving him his designs in exchange for the promise that a reporter will read Lark’s manifesto on TV is gold.
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