Movie

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

Movie number four in the long-running spy franchise that started way back in 1996. Since then, the stunts have become increasingly extravagant and the stakes ever higher. In this outing, the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) led by Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is after stolen nuclear launch codes (that old plot device). Extra complication: the agents were disavowed after a disastrous mission in Moscow.

This film is best remembered for an incredible sequence in (or rather outside) the iconic Burj Khalifa Hotel in Dubai, the world’s tallest building at the time of filming. Tom Cruise performs his own death-defying stunts, climbing the skyscraper’s exterior and swinging about on a cable. After those antics, whatever came next was always going to seem tame. But another highlight is a “double meeting” sequence where the IMF deceives a female assassin into handing over the all-important data.

Despite eight Mission: Impossible movies to date, the series has a poor track record for female villains.

Villainess

Sabine Moreau (Léa Seydoux)

An agent makes a daring getaway, but lowers his guard as a seemingly innocent woman approaches. A fatal error in judgement, since the smartly dressed blonde is a remorseless contract killer who eliminates him with a silenced pistol. She retrieves important documents, later revealed to be the nuclear codes, which she plans to auction to interested terrorist parties. How’s that for an opening sequence?

The murdered man had a partner called Agent Carter (not to be confused with the Marvel comic character), who arrived too late to save him. Naturally, she’s out for revenge, and her personal stake adds more tension.

Like many low-ranked villainesses, Sabine doesn’t have much screen time but makes a memorable impression. The aforementioned double meeting is imaginative and suspenseful. Agent Carter must pose as Sabine, and the hatred for the real assassin is clear. Meanwhile, Ethan and another male IMF agent impersonate terrorists and meet the real Sabine. This is all a complex ruse to acquire diamonds from the villains and purchase the launch codes.

Thankfully, none of the IMF agents wear a mask for this sequence. They planned to, but their latex face-generating machine broke down. A definite plus, as I felt this gambit was overused in previous instalments. But despite the commodity exchange going down without a hitch, Sabine discovers the IMF team are impostors when she spots a contact lens camera. Should have planted an old-fashioned bug, Ethan.

This leads to a confrontation between Agent Carter and Sabine in a corridor, with the assassin captured a little too easily. Fortunately for villainess fans, she escapes, and there’s an exciting (if brief) fight between the two women. Ultimately, Carter kicks the assassin through a smashed window. Since the location is the Burj Khalifa, it’s a very long way down.

Honourable Mentions / Discussions: Mission: Impossible Franchise

Mission: Impossible (1996) – Claire (Emmanuelle Beart), Max (Vanessa Redgrave)

Probably the second-best movie in the franchise for female villains, not bad for a first attempt. This was a low-key affair compared to later IMF missions, with Ethan assembling a rogue team to steal a covert file from CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The “big” action set piece is Tom Cruise on a cable harness, albeit only a few metres above the pressure-sensitive data vault floor.

Nearly all the original IMF team wind up dead or are revealed to be traitors. This includes the deceptive Claire, who is disappointingly inactive for a field agent. While she detonates a car bomb to murder a fellow operative, this is only one possible version of events (shown in flashback), so her accurate body count may be zero. In the end, she’s reduced to a woman that Ethan and the main turncoat bad guy, Jim Phelps, argue over. Then she gets shot, and that’s it.

Redgrave is much better is the arms dealer Max, a menacing figure even if she does leave the muscle work to her bodyguards. In her introductory scene, she verbally fences with Ethan, coming across as humourous and threatening. Her subsequent appearances and arrest are anticlimactic, though.

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

This John Woo film is widely considered the worst in the franchise. With no female villains, there’s not much to say here. The treatment of Thandie Newton’s character is demeaning and hasn’t aged well. She plays a thief, but rarely gets to show off any heisting skills. Insultingly, she’s discovered by the bad guys because of her own incompetence after she makes a mistake no professional would. Eye candy with gratuitous sexualised shots, and a love interest who gets taken hostage. Ugh.

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Improving on the lacklustre second movie wasn’t hard, but the strong female characters in this entry were a pleasant surprise. Besides two IMF agents (Keri Russell and Maggie Q), Ethan’s wife (Michelle Monaghan) also gets to play tough girl. Russell’s character is killed early on, but Q is a natural action star and remains a presence throughout, involved in covert espionage and a big shootout on a traffic-jammed bridge.

No real female antagonists, sadly. An unnamed woman serves as a translator and head of security to the main baddie, but she’s eliminated off-screen after failing him. This is only revealed when she’s fitted with a mask to deceive Ethan into thinking his wife was the victim. Because her role is so brief, another character needs to remind us who she is.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

Before movie five, no female character had lasted more than one movie, but that changed with the badass Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). An MI6 agent with her own agenda, she flips between assisting the IMF team and betraying them. She excels as friend and foe – a skilled operative proficient in unarmed combat, firearms, and motorcycle chases.

The plot revolves around a mysterious organisation called The Syndicate (who comes up with these generic names?) and its elusive leader. Great set pieces include an opening aeroplane stunt, an opera house confrontation with Ethan pitted against multiple assassins including Ilsa, and an underwater heist.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) – The White Widow (Vanessa Kirby)

Ferguson returns as the mysterious MI6 agent. Once again, it’s never clear whose side she’s truly on as Ethan gets sucked into a scheme to free the main baddie from Rogue Nation.

As a bonus, there’s also the White Widow, an arms dealer played by Vanessa Kirby. While her impact cannot rival the franchise’s other Vanessa (Redgrave from the first film), it’s implied the women are related. More shady than villainous, but we’ll take it.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) – Paris (Pom Klementieff)

An extended honourable mention for the seventh entry, which gives us Paris, a crazy assassin who speaks French (appropriately), wears face paint, and brings a sword cane to public venues.

By now, Ethan has saved the world six times. Time to go up against an old nemesis who murdered his first love… and an artificial intelligence with a God complex. Everyone but the hero thinks they can control the mysterious “Entity” that communicates through sinister blue pulsing circles. As daft as they sound, these images show up everywhere from secret US intelligence briefings to a Venetian nightclub party.

The central plot device is a cruciform key in two halves that unlocks the original source code on a sunken Russian submarine. The keys change hands so often it’s a miracle they don’t get lost entirely. Usually, it’s pickpocket Grace (newcomer Hayley Atwell) who steals the precious gold crosses from under her rivals’ noses. She becomes the latest IMF recruit when they need a woman to impersonate the White Widow.

As for Ilsa Faust, she returns to assist Ethan and gets a little too close for her own good. After faking her death in the Middle East, chief baddie Gabriel kills her off for real. A disappointing exit for a standout character, even if Grace is a capable replacement operative during the Orient Express finale.

Paris’ first appearance establishes her as dangerous when she threatens a guy with a concealed pistol. From then on, she’s often a silent enforcer in the background while Gabriel does the talking. But when situations call for it, she goes crazy and kills people.

In Rome, Ethan and Grace are chased by Italian police and American agents, but Paris – in a hijacked armoured vehicle – is the primary threat. With no regard for subtlety, this woman enjoys creating carnage, demolishing any parked vehicles in the way. It takes a dramatic reverse escape through a narrow tunnel to shake her off.

Not a woman you want to meet in a dark alley, so pity Ethan when that situation unfolds in Venice. Lured into a trap, he’s attacked my a male thug – who doesn’t last long – and the female assassin. Fortunately, Paris can’t swing her sword in the narrow space, but she’s still a dangerous unarmed combatant. Her attacks are furious and relentless. Until Ethan knocks her down, grabs a metal pole, and… spares her life. Yes, we’re headed down that familiar redemption path.

But Paris hasn’t converted to good – or even neutral – just yet. She jumps from a bridge onto a moving train, disables an engineer, and visits the US Director of Intelligence. His security men frisk her, but this deadly woman doesn’t need weapons to eliminate them. Gabriel chats to the American, then murders him. And turns on Paris because the Entity warned of her betrayal. Ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy?

The female assassin escapes death, only to return and save Ethan and Grace in a literal train wreck ending. Perhaps there’s a metaphor there, because Paris was a near-perfect female villain until the last act.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)

In reality, this is Dead Reckoning Part Two, a supposed final outing that ties up loose ends from previous instalments. A minor character from the original vault heist returns as a seasoned CIA operative in Alaska. We also say farewell to Luther, who’s been a team member since the beginning.

Things are more ridiculous than ever before. Ethan retrieves the source code from the sunken Russian sub, swims naked through ice-cold Arctic waters, then Grace revives him with a kiss of life. Averting nuclear Armageddon, the heroes defeat the all-seeing AI by capturing it in a plastic container. Reality was never a series strong point.

Other than a prison scene where Hunt springs her, Paris is a good girl. She sees a fair bit of action, notably a battle with Russian commandos in an arctic safehouse and the climax at an underground doomsday vault. Quite telling that in an action movie with strong female characters all over the place, women can command aircraft carriers, be secret service agents who save the life of Angela Bassett’s President, but there are no female villains at all.