7 Mission: Impossible characters missing from The Final Reckoning
Yes, including Ilsa. Sorry guys.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning wraps up the eight-movie spy saga, bringing back characters from earlier instalments (Donloe!) and resolving the cliffhangers from 2023's Dead Reckoning.
But while we learn what happens to Ethan, Benji, Luther and Grace, some of the pivotal characters from previous instalments barely get a mention beyond archive appearances in The Final Reckoning's multiple flashback montages. Are they missing in action, did they expire off-screen, or are they all enjoying a nice cuppa together in the old folks' home for retired IMF agents?
We take a look at the biggest Mission: Impossible players who didn't make it into the final movie, but may still be out there saving the world – or plotting to blow it up.
Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan)
While there have been a few women in Ethan Hunt's romantic life, including Nyah (more on her in a bit) and fellow IMF agent Claire, Mission: Impossible III's Julia Meade is the only one he ended up marrying.
The third movie began with Ethan retired from fieldwork and happily engaged to nurse Julia, who is completely oblivious to what he did for a living. But when Ethan is called back into action to capture arms dealer Owen Davian, Julia soon finds out her now-husband (following a quickie marriage at her hospital) has another rather gruesome life when she is kidnapped by Davian. Ethan comes to her rescue, of course, and after he brutally kills Davian the happy couple head off on honeymoon.
However, during the five-year time jump before Ghost Protocol, Ethan realises that Julia's life will always be in danger if she is with him. Rather than just divorcing her, he has her death faked so she can live a new life without bad guys threatening to kill her every few days.
She and Ethan are briefly reunited seven years later in Fallout, when he arrives at a medical camp in Kashmir and discovers Julia working there with her new husband Erik. Julia and Ethan share a moment where he apologises for putting her in danger (again) and she thanks him for protecting the world and her new life, bringing their chapter to a satisfying end.
Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton)
Nyah Nordoff-Hall was a key character in Mission: Impossible 2, an expert thief who just happened to be the ex-girlfriend of villain Sean Ambrose. She began a relationship with Ethan while also agreeing to go back to Sean to help Ethan take him down before he released the dangerous Chimera virus on the world.
While Nyah ultimately decided to sacrifice herself by injecting the last of the deadly virus into her bloodstream, Ethan jabbed her with an antidote and the final scene showed the pair having a nice holiday in Sydney, Australia, getting some much needed rest after saving the world. However, their romance clearly didn't last as Nyah didn't return for the third movie, which was set six years later.
She wasn't mentioned again in the franchise, but there is Mission: Impossible fan fiction online that imagines Nyah and Ethan living together for a while until she is brutally gunned down in their apartment.
In the real world, Thandiwe Newton reportedly turned down a chance to return for the third movie, but in an interview with Vulture in 2020 she said: "I was never asked".
William Brandt (Jeremy Renner)
William Brandt is the government analyst who first appeared in fourth movie Ghost Protocol, and found himself immediately thrown into the action when Ethan and his team attempted to stop the sale of stolen launch codes at the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai.
It's soon revealed that Brandt and Ethan have a history – Brandt is a former field agent who was secretly protecting Ethan's wife Julia after the events of Mission: Impossible III, and he blames himself for her being killed. At the end of the movie, Ethan reveals that Julia's death was staged so she could be given a new identity, and a relieved Brandt joins the IMF team.
He returned for Rogue Nation, working for the CIA after Ethan destroyed one too many landmark buildings, causing the IMF to be disbanded. While the IMF is later reinstated, Brandt didn't return for Fallout, and in an a 2024 interview, Jeremy Renner revealed that he turned down a reappearance as he heard they were going to kill Brandt off.
Brandt is presumed instead to have retired from the Impossible Mission game, and doesn't have even a cameo in The Final Reckoning. In a recent interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Renner explained that he wanted to spend more time with his daughter and that the five-year production on the final two Mission: Impossible movies was too much of a commitment.
Jane Carter (Paula Patton)
IMF agent Jane Carter only appeared in Ghost Protocol as the former handler of slain agent Hanaway. She teams up with Ethan, Benji and Brandt to stop the sale of stolen nuclear launch codes and seduces Indian media tycoon Brij Nath to obtain vital information for the team.
While Jane is still part of the IMF team at the end of the movie, she didn't return for Rogue Nation or any of the subsequent movies so it's up to you to work out what happened to her.
In 2015, Christopher McQuarrie did a Q&A with fans and revealed he had approached both Paula and Maggie Q (more on her in a bit) to appear in the movie but scheduling conflicts prevented their returns.
Zhen Li (Maggie Q)
Maggie Q played operative Zhen Li in Mission: Impossible III, alongside agents Declan Gormley, Benji and Luther. She helped take down bad guy Owen Davian, rescued Ethan's wife Julia, and is still alive and working for the IMF at the end of the movie.
Maggie revealed that she had scheduling conflicts that meant she could not return for Ghost Protocol, and many fans believe that is why a new character, Paula Patton's Jane, was introduced in that instalment as a member of Ethan's team.
In an interview with Yahoo in 2020, Maggie revealed she had had to reluctantly turn down a return for her character not once, but twice. "I did [Mission: Impossible III] and they wanted me back for four but I was on a show, then they wanted me back for five, and I couldn't do it because I was contracted," she said.
Maggie had been filming TV series Nikita at the same time Ghost Protocol was in production, and the crime drama Stalker when Rogue Nation was being made.
Solomon Lane (Sean Harris)
Sean Harris's bad guy Solomon Lane first appeared in Rogue Nation, and then returned in Fallout. He's the head of The Syndicate, a sinister group of rogue field operatives (he's ex-MI6), and his nefarious plans include capturing Benji and strapping a bomb to him that could level half of London.
Lane disarmed the bomb, but is tricked into a secure glass cell and gassed into unconsciousness before he can do any more damage. However, in Fallout, set two years later, Lane is back and is freed by terrorist group The Apostles, who want to dismantle the current world order by blowing things up around the world with the help of former CIA agent Walker.
Their plan leads everyone to Kashmir, where Ethan's former wife Julia is working as a nurse, and after our heroes defuse The Apostles' bombs, Walker is killed by Ethan and Lane is taken away for questioning by MI6. While it has never been confirmed, many fans believe MI6 would have killed Lane once he was in their custody to prevent him from getting up to no good again.
That's likely the ending Sean Harris would prefer, too, as in an interview for Rogue Nation, director Christopher McQuarrie told ScreenRant that the actor always wanted his character to die. "He [Sean] didn't want to be in a franchise movie… And when I finally convinced him to be in it, the first thing he said to me is, 'Promise me you'll kill me. Just don't bring me back, because I don't want to be in five of these movies,'" he said.
Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson)
Former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust appeared in Rogue Nation and Fallout before she was murdered in Venice by bad guy Gabriel in Dead Reckoning.
And look, we get it. Everybody thought she wasn't actually dead and it was all one big trick. But sorry guys, Ethan Hunt may be able to dangle off a biplane and scale cliffs with his bare hands, but even he can't bring someone back from the dead.
Because yes, Ilsa is dead and does not appear in The Final Reckoning. Sorry, guys.
Freelance film & TV writer, Digital Spy
Critic and writer Jo Berry has been writing about TV and movies since she began her career at Time Out aged 18. A regular on BBC Radio, Jo has written for titles including Empire, Maxim, Radio Times, OK!, The Guardian and Grazia, is the author of books including Chick Flicks and The Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Movies.
She is also the editor of website Movies4Kids. In her career, Jo has interviewed well-known names including Beyonce, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise and all the Avengers, spent many an hour crushed in the press areas of award show red carpets. Jo is also a self-proclaimed expert on Outlander and Brassic, and completely agrees that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
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