My next Mission: Impossible countdown covers an element of these movies that borders on problematic: the treatment of the women characters.
The series has a bad habit of introducing a new woman (sometimes a love interest, always a brunette) only to ditch her by the next movie, either through death or by simply not referencing her again. There are some exceptions, which I’ll get to.
So let me kick off my ranking of the WOMEN of Mission: Impossible.
#7. Mission: Impossible 2 – Nyah Nordoff-Hall
Thandiwe Newton plays a professional thief recruited to help Ethan ensnare her ex, Sean Ambrose. Her role in the scheme is basically to be implanted with a tracker so she can lead the team to him. Eventually, Nyah injects herself with a deadly virus to keep it from being released, then wanders the cliffs of Australia waiting to die. Ethan saves her just in time and they walk off arm in arm. We never see or hear from her again.
#6. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One – Grace
Hayley Atwell plays another thief pulled into IMF business, in this case because she obtains half of a crucial cruciform key. Atwell is gorgeous and game, but I have to dock this character several points because she is a big step back for the franchise. Script-wise, she essentially replaces a much stronger character, and she is elevated to agent status based on dubious qualifications, seemingly because Ethan has the hots for her. So do I, but I won’t let that cloud my judgement.
#5. Mission: Impossible – Fallout – Alanna Mitsopolis
This is a cheat, because Fallout is the one movie that doesn’t introduce a new woman to the team (for reasons I’ll explain in a bit). But Vanessa Kirby’s turn as the White Widow, an arms broker with her own secrets, is quite good. She and Ethan have great chemistry and she’s enough of a compelling screen presence that they brought her back for the next film.
#4. Mission: Impossible – Claire Phelps
The original M:I woman is the wife of Jon Voight’s Jim Phelps and a fellow agent, one who is quite flirtatious with her co-worker Ethan Hunt. It turns out she has other motives, and Ethan gets a hard lesson in betrayal. Emmanuelle Béart doesn’t do much with the role, but Claire is a key member of the team and she admirably serves Ethan’s spy coming-of-age arc.
#3. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – Jane Carter
Paula Patton plays the first woman who really got to be a part of the IMF team throughout her film. She can fight, she pulls off the clandestine ops, and she looks dynamite in a green dress. She and Ethan bond over the trauma of losing loved ones, and ignite a little spark of their own. Reportedly scheduling conflicts kept Patton out of the next film, but looking at her ensuing filmography, I can’t imagine what project would have trumped another M:I movie. More likely, this is a case of the writers thinking two women on the IMF team is one too many.
#2. Mission: Impossible III – Julia Meade
With apologies to Maggie Q, whose Zhen Lei plays a role in a couple of this movie’s missions, the most important woman in Mission: Impossible III is Julia, Ethan’s wife. Played by the exquisite Michelle Monaghan, she represents a different sort of life for our hero, one he has to abandon when duty calls. Eventually, she gets pulled into danger, and they both realize married life isn’t in the cards for Ethan Hunt. Before that, though, she leaps into action herself and helps deliver one of the series’ most satisfying climaxes.
#1. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation – Ilsa Faust
Rebecca Ferguson was essentially unknown when she showed up in Rogue Nation as Ilsa, a British intelligence officer forced to play both sides at every turn. She was the first character in the series to prove as capable, and as charismatic, as Ethan himself. I would watch another seven Mission: Impossible films with Ilsa as the main character if given the chance. She was an instant fan favorite, and the filmmakers smartly brought her back for Fallout, only to kill her off in asinine fashion in Dead Reckoning – Part One. That decision was the series’ worst misstep; Ilsa Faust was one of its masterstrokes.
Meet Me In Montauk 
Arguably, M:I should have updated from its TV origins by making a woman part of the team and keeping her from the start to end as it has done for Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames.
That said, given the structure and format of the series, and the fact that Cruise is largely asexual, I think they have represented women well. Indeed, you wouldn’t have been so annoyed and upset by Ilsa’s death if she had not been established as such a great female character in the first place.
I’d counter that it took them five films to eventually create such a character, and they unceremoniously dropped her a movie and a half later.
I like the Ilsa character a lot. Just loved the opera sequence played out against the marvelous Turandot music. Also liked Michelle Monaghan’s turn in the series.
wasn’t Michelle M married to Ethan but seen walking on a street because they couldn’t remain together safely and decided to live separately???
Yes, they fake her death so she can go on with her life and not be in danger.
This is definitely a recurring weak point for the series – I so wish there were a more consistent badass woman present in the connected web fabric of these films.
That being said, my own list would have Grace much higher. I think that Atwell and Cruise have such fun chemistry and their scenes together really pop. This is in sharp contrast to Patton’s Jane Carter who falls so flat for me.
I also have to make my case for Thandie Newton’s Nyah for similar reasons: the movie is whacky (I feel in positive ways) and her character is ultimately so superficial… but damn does she pop out with such fun and sexy energy that elevates the whole thing.
I’d have Patton lower and Atwell much higher but agree that Ferguson’s Ilsa was Ethan’s equal and am sorry they didn’t keep her an integral character through the end of the series.