Mission: Impossible has always featured smart heroes and villains trying to one-up each other, while the fate of the world hangs in the balance. As covert secret agents and dastardly underworld criminals and terrorists, the characters of the franchise exercise all of their training, street smarts, and cunning to achieve their goals.
While not every Mission: Impossible character ranks equally high in terms of intelligence, there are plenty who reside in the upper echelon. These are the characters who manage to accomplish the impossible, relying heavily on their brainpower to stay one step ahead of their adversaries.
The White Widow
The woman known as Alanna Mitsopolis is actually the daughter of antagonist Max, from the first Mission: Impossible film. She possesses all the street smarts, cunning, and intelligence of her mother, which was a necessity when she took over the family business. Though a philanthropist in public, her private life involves money laundering and gun-running, putting her at odds with the IMF.
Yet, the White Widow understands Ethan Hunt's mission and has helped him thwart the plans of notorious terrorist Solomon Lane. She uses flirtation, subtlety, and manipulation to throw off her enemies while keeping a close eye on her allies. She's smart enough to leave nothing to chance, even as she juggles her double life for the sake of her image.
Erika Sloane
As director of the U.S. government's CIA, Erika Sloane proved herself to be one of the smartest characters in Mission: Impossible. Her bristling animosity towards the IMF didn't win her any favors with Ethan Hunt, but she was nevertheless dedicated to the cause of battling terrorism and securing a peaceful world.
Though she was played for a fool by August Walker the same as Ethan Hunt, she never lost sight of her duties. It takes incredible smarts to run the CIA, and with so much information at her fingertips, Sloane was able to use it to make the right decisions, while switching them up when the plans went bad.
August Walker
Few criminal masterminds managed to stay under the radar quite like August Walker. He operated right underneath of Ethan Hunt's nose during their quest to find the infamous John Lark, who turned out to be Walker the entire time. His ability to shroud himself in a cloak of heroism and honor took immense skill, even as he led the Apostles in their quest to implement a new world order.
Walker was a master at 4D chess and a genius when it came to manipulating branches of government like the CIA, MI6, and IMF. He managed to play Hunt for a fool, but got his just desserts when Hunt killed him in one of Mission: Impossible's coolest bad guy takedowns.
Jim Phelps
Jim Phelps spent years as a senior member of the IMF, and he led countless campaigns across numerous countries for the sake of global peace and security. It was a shock, then, that he decided to abandon the IMF and carve out his own future via a criminal plot.
With enormous IMF training and knowledge of their tactics and procedures, plus a lifetime of experience in the field, Phelps was one of the smartest characters in the Mission: Impossible franchise. In the end, he squandered those gifts, while causing immense damage to the IMF in the process.
Solomon Lane
Every hero needs a major villain to play off of, and few of them come close to Solomon Lane. He helped create the mysterious Syndicate as an anti-IMF organization; a dark mirror image in service of terrorism and power. As a former MI6 intelligence agent, Lane knew how to play his adversaries, and exploit their weaknesses.
His plans nearly ended in success, thanks largely to Lane's ability to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. He possesses a genius-level intellect, which allows him to decipher large amounts of data, and use it to execute several terrorist plots all once, all weaved into one ultimate agenda. He quickly became one of the most hated characters in Mission: Impossible, by design.
Owen Davian
The cruel and sadistic Owen Davian remains one of Mission: Impossible's most badass characters, and a tremendous thorn in the side of the IMF. However, when he made things personal between himself and Ethan Hunt, all bets were off. His intellectual prowess was matched only by his propensity for violence and megalomania, and each time he evaded capture, he would become emboldened.
Davian managed to run an illegal weapons ring for years while remaining cloaked in near-secrecy. He would devise a series of complex schemes through which he could destroy IMF targets, and demoralize the organization as a whole. His only undoing was underestimating Hunt's love for his wife, and how far he'd go to protect her.
Benji Dunn
At first glance, Benji might look like nothing more than a comic relief character, especially since funnyman Ricky Gervais was originally supposed to play him. In truth, he is a remarkably gifted technician and analyst who regularly works with Ethan Hunt. His dedication to his work is insurmountable, even if it means defying his own government to finish a mission.
His greatest strength lies in his technological prowess, which comes in handy in an increasingly digital age. Without Benji's hacking skills, Hunt and his team would probably have faced defeat several times over. He's even resourceful enough to have fooled a polygraph test, which proves how adaptable he is as a field agent.
Luther Stickell
Luther has worked with Ethan Hunt multiple times throughout the Mission: Impossible franchise, and he's proven himself in each instance. Originally an IMF agent who went rogue, Stickell helped Hunt defeat a plan to leak the organization's super-secretive NOC list to an arms dealer named Max.
Since then, he's used his top-notch computer skills to thwart a number of threats, most recently an attempt to kill off a third of the planet's population for the sake of a new world order. Luther and Ethan are two peas in a pod who think alike, assess the stakes, and execute an appropriate plan to deal with any threat.
Ilsa Faust
Ilsa Faust can best be summed up as Ethan Hunt's female mirror image. She's every bit as trained, resourceful, and determined as he is, having been trained by Britain's MI6. She's also an expert at fooling her foes, thanks largely to her vast experience working as a deep-cover operative to infiltrate various criminal groups.
She knows how to adapt to situations that go sour, with an almost instinctual sense of clarity. Then, she regroups, assesses the situation, and draws up a new plan on the fly. That's a testament to her incredible intelligence, and her ability to accurately read a room, as well as the players within it.
Ethan Hunt
Even during his younger years, Ethan Hunt was as sharp as a tack and able to get himself out of almost any situation. He was also smart enough to figure out when he was being played, and how to turn the tables on his foes. He cut his teeth primarily in the first Mission: Impossible film when he discovered that longtime IMF icon Jim Phelps had gone rogue.
Since then, Hunt has been able to stay one step ahead of most of his adversaries, while implementing his training and gadgetry to complete his missions. He's also an accomplished team builder and leader, selecting IMF agents based on qualifications specifically tailored to certain missions. Few are capable of outsmarting him, and those who do usually live to regret it.