Warning: SPOILERS for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One are ahead!
The Mission: Impossible franchise isn’t named as such just because it sounds cool: Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and many of his allies work for the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), an independent, multinational espionage agency that’s brought in to accomplish objectives that aren’t doable for organizations like the CIA and NSA. In the nearly 30 years since the Mission: Impossible film series launched, we’ve learned various things about the IMF’s inner workings, including Dead Reckoning Part One clearing up how one becomes an IMF agent. However, there’s one question concerning the spy agency left behind in 2018’s Fallout that was not answered in the first half of Part One: who’s leading the IMF these days?
Looking over the reviews and reactions for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, clearly this franchise has yet another critical winner under its belt, but that doesn’t mean the 2023 new movie release is without issues. The antagonistic AI known as the The Entity has drawn criticism, and there have even been complaints about Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust being killed off. I was certainly thinking similar thoughts after leaving the theater, but it also bugged me that Part One never made it clear who’s currently in charge of the IMF, and I hope that Part Two will clear this up.
Where Happened To The Last IMF Leader
The Mission: Impossible film series has cycled through IMF leaders in almost every movie, regardless of what title they hold. Henry Czerny’s Eugene Kittridge was running the show in the 1996 original, but when Mission: Impossible 2 followed in 2000, it was Anthony Hopkins’ Mission Commander Swanbeck who gave Ethan Hunt his mission. That was followed by Laurence Fishburne’s Theodore Brassel serving as IMF Director in Mission: Impossible III, and then in Ghost Protocol, Tom Wilkinson’s IMF Secretary was introduced, only to be killed off minutes later. By the time Rogue Nation rolled around, the IMF was without a clear person in charge, although that amusingly allowed Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt to deflect questions about specific IMF details from Alec Baldwin’s character, CIA Director Alan Hunley, in front of a Senate committee.
Hunley wasn’t shy about sharing his distaste for the IMF in Rogue Nation, and he succeeded in getting it decommissioned and having it absorbed into the IMF. However, upon personally seeing Ethan’s methods at work, which paved the way for him and his team to capture Solomon Lane, Hunley changed his tune. Not only did he convince that Senate committee to reestablish the IMF by claiming his insistence on decommissioning the organization was part of a secret operation to eliminate The Syndicate, he also resigned from the CIA to become the new IMF Secretary. He still held that position in Fallout, telling Ethan that while some thought that taking the job for a lateral move for him, if not a downgrade, he knew he’d made the right choice because he believed in Ethan.
Sadly, Alan Hunley was killed by Henry Cavill’s August Walker shortly after it he was tricked into confirming he was the extremist known as John Lark. Hunley was fatally stabbed while trying to stop Walker from killing Ethan, and with his last words, he told Ethan to chase after the baddie. By the end of Fallout, it isn’t revealed who will take Hunley’s place as IMF Secretary, though given the montage of scenes that caps off the story, I don’t blame anyone for not being concerned about that question.
Who’s Leading The IMF Now?
If you’d asked me right after seeing Mission: Impossible — Fallout who will become the new IMF Secretary, I would’ve said Angela Bassett’s Erika Sloane, who’d succeeded Alan Hunley as CIA Director and, like her predecessor, initially started out disliking Ethan Hunt, but then formed a more positive opinion about him. Even when Bassett had to drop out of Dead Reckoning Part One, there was still a chance her job change could have been mentioned by someone else. That didn’t end up happening, and perhaps more importantly, there’s a Sloane Easter egg in the latest Mission: Impossible movie where she’s shown in a portrait in the room where Eugene Kittridge is meeting with other leaders in the intelligence community. This portrait looks so official that it’s possible that Sloane may now be the President of the United States.
This is by no means confirmation that she’s now sitting comfortably in the White House, but certainly in my mind, Sloane’s odds of running the IMF have dropped significantly. And for those of you asking, “Wait, is Eugene Kittridge not back to being in charge of the IMF?” No, he’s taken Sloane’s place as head of the CIA, although he still essentially serves as a fill-in for the IMF Secretary given that he assigns Ethan Hunt his first mission in the movie and then meets with him later to discuss The Entity. Weirdly, Ethan also instructs Hayley Atwell’s Grace to seek out Kittridge if she decides to join the IMF, which she does in the movie’s final minutes. For narrative purposes, I get why this happened since Kittridge is, you know, around, but even with his IMF past, why would he have any say who gets to join this particular agency given his current allegiance to the CIA?
So then who is the IMF Secretary right now? Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One failed to answer this question, so fingers crossed Part Two picks up the slack come next year. Perhaps another familiar face will be revealed to have resumed running the agency, like Anthony Hopkins or Laurence Fishburne’s characters. I’m betting, though, that if the IMF Secretary is featured in Part One, it will be another newcomer to this action-packed landscape. For example Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham has been cast in an undisclosed role, and considering how much authority she projects as Rebecca Welton in the Apple TV+ show, along with various other characters on her resume, it’s hardly a stretch to picture her being the IMF’s new leader. But whether it’s her or someone else, I just want some clarification about who’s at the top of this particular chain of command.
Whatever ends up happening, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two is slated on the 2024 movies calendar for a June 28 drop. Use your Paramount+ subscription to stream the first six Mission: Impossible movies now, and we’ll let you know when Part One becomes available on the streaming service.