Who Is The Best Mission: Impossible Character Besides Ethan Hunt? Here's What /Film Readers Had To Say

We love the "Mission: Impossible" movies, don't we folks? These globe-trotting, death-defying adventures get bigger and better with each installment. At the center of each entry is Ethan Hunt, played by stuntman/actor Tom Cruise. Ethan is our guide into the world of the IMF and their various missions, but he can't do it all by himself. He has a team to back him up, and while the team has changed over the years, there's a core group that stays the same. 

There's Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, a hacker turned IMF agent. There's Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, who started off working in a lab and eventually became a field agent. Then there's Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a former MI6 agent who has more or less joined the IMF due to her friendship with Ethan. There are more team members scattered over the various films, but this is the core group, give or take a name. And they all have something to offer to the franchise, and I'm sure everyone out there has their own specific favorite. We here at /Film went ahead and polled our loyal readers with one question: who is your favorite "Mission: Impossible" character who isn't Ethan Hunt? The answers came in, and now we're ready to tell you. We'll start with the least favorite and work our way up to the most favorite. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read along. 

Oof, poor William Brandt, he came in dead last. Brandt, you may recall, first surfaced in "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," where he became a reluctant member of the team. He returned in "Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation," and then he left the series, appearing in neither "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" nor "Dead Reckoning." Where did Brandt go? It's unclear — he's not mentioned. It's almost like he never existed. 

There's probably a good reason for this. Back when "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol" was being made, Tom Cruise's star power was in flux. In 2005, Cruise appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" and proceeded to jump on the couch as he proclaimed his love for Katie Holmes. It was a weird moment that hurt Cruise's career. By the time "Ghost Protocol" came around in 2011, Cruise was still in a weird place. The solution, at least in the minds of producers, was to flat-out replace Cruise in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. The replacement? None other than Jeremy Renner. Renner's star was on the rise at the time, and it was pretty obvious he was being set up to take over the franchise. In an interview with MTV, Renner said: "It's a franchise to potentially take over ... I can't predict the future and what they want, but that's certainly the idea."

And then everything changed. The script for "Ghost Protocol" was reworked while shooting to keep Ethan Hunt front and center, and the final film was an exciting, inventive thrill ride that helped salvage Cruise's career. Renner-as-Brandt would return for one more contractually obligated adventure, and then he was gone. And it seems fans don't care for him, at least based on our poll. 

Next to Ethan, Ving Rhames's Luther Stickell is the longest-running character in the franchise. Luther is a former hacker who joined the team in the first film and never looked back. He's been there since the beginning and he's appeared in every single movie since (even if it's just a cameo, like in "Ghost Protocol"). And yet, that's not enough to keep him from coming in second-to-last on the list. I'm kind of surprised Luther doesn't rank higher, but no matter what his ranking is, he's always going to be an essential part of the team and the film franchise. He's Ethan's best friend at this point, the guy who has been there with him through thick and thin from the get-go. He's like the heart of the franchise, and I can't imagine the series without him. If they made a sequel without him at this point, it would feel a little weird. Don't short-change Luther, folks. 

First introduced in "Mission: Impossible 3," Simon Pegg's Benji could've easily been a one-off comic relief character (the part was originally supposed to go to Ricky Gervais, and we sure dodged a bullet there). Indeed, comic relief is exactly what the character seemed like in "Mission: Impossible 3" — there was no indication that we'd ever see Benji again. Why would we? But Benji returned as a field agent in "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," and he's been with the team ever since. Like Luther, he's essential. He also finds himself in danger a lot more often than anyone else on the team (besides Ethan, of course). I mean, he had a damn bomb strapped to his body in "Rogue Nation." That's pretty harrowing. Pegg brings his usual charm to the role, and it's been interesting to watch Benji transform from "the funny guy" to a much-needed, much-loved member of the IMF team. Like Luther, it's hard to imagine the team without him at this point. Let's hope he and Luther make it out of the next installment alive. 

And the winner is ... Ilsa Faust! And that should come as no surprise, really. Introduced in "Rogue Nation," Ilsa is probably the best character the franchise has ever had. That's due in part to Rebecca Ferguson's sleek, ass-kicking performance. She's also one of the more complex members of the team (even though she's not officially part of the team). Ilsa is not afraid to get her hands dirty, and she seems to operate by her own set of rules. Indeed, her first film in the franchise portrayed her as a bit of a mystery. We couldn't tell whose side she was on. When she returned in "Fallout," she was still operating by her own rules, out to bump off bad guy Solomon Lane even though doing so put her at direct odds with Ethan. And while Ilsa and Ethan are close, they've never had a romantic relationship, which also helps keep the character grounded. She's not Ethan's girlfriend, she's her own full-formed, butt-kicking character and she knows how to handle herself. No wonder she came in first.