The Mission: Impossible series has seen many one-off characters whose function was to support the main heroes or villains. A primary character is largely one who’s appeared in or is set to reprise their roles in multiple movies. While the core team of Ethan Hunt, Benji Dunn, and Luther Stickell have the most appearances, certain others are also part of the series’ identity.
Villains who have had a major impact on the overarching story’s events also quality, which makes it interesting to analyze who are the most intelligent characters. Their smarts are determined by how well they can improvise, preplan, what their backgrounds are, and if they’ve ultimately achieved their goals.
Erika Sloane
Despite being the Director of the CIA, Erika Sloane wasn’t the most intuitive or clever when it came to dealing with threats. She not only questioned Ethan Hunt's value in Mission: Impossible - Fallout but also fell for August Walker’s manipulations, resulting in the latter gaining the advantage he needed.
She’s set to return for the seventh and eighth films, where it’s likely that Sloane will show off some level of competence. As far as her debut appearance is concerned, Sloane’s lack of smarts almost allowed the villain to use the CIA to cause a global calamity.
Alan Hunley
Hunley wised up a bit by his second outing, although the blunders in his debut appearance are difficult to forget. Hunley acted as if he were too smart, in that he championed for the removal of the IMF, also being unable to see Ethan as the vital cog he was to the government.
He was relatively more intelligent in the sixth movie, where Hunley placed his faith in Ethan and also fooled August Walker to give up his information. Hunley had the potential to showcase more of his intelligence but was killed to prevent any opportunity to do so.
White Widow
The White Widow was clever enough to put up the facade of being in charge of a charitable organization while truly funding her work through arms dealing. Still, it was originally set up by her mother, meaning White Widow inherited it more than anything.
She wasn’t perceptive to see through Ethan’s act as John Lark, even becoming attracted to him. The White Widow proved to be cunning when it came to quick thinking, as she held her own under attack by revealing a hidden weapon she was smart enough to bring.
Jane Carter
Jane is one of the reasons why the fourth movie is among Tom Cruise’s best action movies, as she provided much of the fighting scenes alongside Ethan. As far as intelligence goes, she was a mixed bag because Jane’s emotions took charge.
Her judgment was clouded due to revenge being on her mind, which led to Jane killing the team’s best lead out of vengeance. However, she proved she had clever skills when she deceived Brij Nath to steal the satellite override codes to go along with her earlier deception to pass the fake codes to Wistrom and Lisenker.
William Brandt
Leaving out Brandt in recent entries is one of the mistakes made by the Mission: Impossible series, as he was a worthy inclusion in Ethan’s team. Brandt had a knack for thinking on his feet, coming up with quick solutions during Ghost Protocol and refusing to divulge IMF secrets under pressure.
Brandt showed his tactical mindset when he called in Luther to find Ethan before the CIA could, which proved instrumental in allowing Ethan access to his allies. However, Brandt’s intelligence took a backseat when he felt overwhelmed, as seen when he couldn’t think straight when he believed he'd caused Julia’s death.
Julia Meade-Hunt
Even though Julia is the only main character not to be involved in espionage work, she’s proven to be smarter than most. Julia almost single-handedly took down the bad guys in the third movie when Ethan was knocked out, showing her capability in coming up with ways to survive on the spot.
She was again instrumental in the sixth movie, where Julia assisted Luther to disable one of the bombs despite the fact that she had only just learned about the conflict. Julia’s intelligence also comes from her medical expertise, which she’s used around the world.
Luther Stickell
Luther is an expert computer hacker that instantly places him as a man of intelligence. He’s been known to track people across the world through the use of a simple laptop, and his efficiency is such that he’s been Ethan’s most reliable ally over the last quarter of a century.
Luther isn’t the best when it comes to fieldwork, though, as his blunder kickstarted the entire plot of Fallout when Luther was nearly killed. Luther knows when to fold them, in that he briefly left the IMF when it was clear that they were playing into the CIA’s game.
August Walker
Walker should be much cleverer than others based on his achievements, having deceived the CIA into trusting him, pose as John Lark, play both the IMF and Ethan Hunt, and nearly carry out the mission to destroy a third of the world’s water supply.
Walker had some moments of lower intelligence, such as when he didn’t heed Ethan’s instructions and nearly fell to his death in the movie’s opening. He also couldn't improvise a new plan when his cover was blown, meaning Walker was intelligent when he had prep time but not otherwise.
Benji Dunn
Benji’s skills can be seen as a modernized version of Luther’s, with Benji also adept at taking charge in the field. While he’s the worst in keeping his cool when things go south, Benji has always managed to gather his bearings to get the job done.
He’s been shown to complete Ethan’s tasks on the fly, such as placing himself in a bathroom to covertly aid Ethan, and simultaneously fight Solomon Lane and deactivate the bomb that would have killed millions. He may be a comedic character, but Benji’s smarts are without question.
Ilsa Faust
Ilsa is one of the few to have duped Ethan, using her cunning mentality to outsmart him in her debut appearance. She’s emotional like the rest of the main characters and has let her feelings for Ethan cloud her judgment, yet never to the extent where she hasn’t gotten the job done.
Ilsa’s smarts are more impressive considering she’s largely been without the benefit of having resources at her disposal, meaning she’s stopped world threats all on her own. Ilsa employs her tactical thinking during combat, proving this when she stopped Solomon Lane from initiating the bomb’s explosion in the sixth film.
Solomon Lane
There’s never been a villain who’s been as devious in his methods as Solomon Lane. He’s made the best use of underhanded tactics, planting moles, and even using the likes of Benji as his reluctant henchman in the Mission: Impossible films of recent times.
Lane was so intelligent that he came up with the plan to bomb the Siachen Glacier while in captivity, even managing to align with August Walker to execute the plan. He was only thwarted by Ethan Hunt, whose place as the designated hero worked against Lane’s favor.
Ethan Hunt
Ethan’s accomplishments speak for themselves, having put an end to global conflicts several times. He’s masterminded plans to outsmart the CIA, all the villains, and even the IMF itself. Ethan has always been the one man to perceive threats for what they are, with his superiors forced to accept that Ethan was right.
Ethan’s tactical thinking has been off the charts, having thought up infiltration plans on the spot by taking calculated risks. He’s figured out the evil plots of everyone from Jim Phelps to Solomon Lane, and ultimately come out on top by leading the team through even cleverer ways to stop the villains.