The Women of ‘Mission: Impossible’ Need Their Own Movie

I love the Mission: Impossible movies. I believe the franchise has stealthily become one of cinema’s best, and I sincerely believe that Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is the most thrilling spy movie of all time. I really have nothing bad to say about this franchise, and you know I’m serious because I just binged two harrowing seasons of Leah Remini: Scientology & The Aftermath on Hulu this past week and I am still pumped to see Mr. Scientology fight heights in Mission: Impossible – Fallout this weekend. Give me that classy spy action, Mr. Cruise (and also maybe speak out against the abuse embedded in Scientology’s policies, just a little?).

But as much as I love the M:I franchise, there is one area where the series falls short over and over again, a problem that they’ve just now started to address with the sixth film. The Mission: Impossible franchise routinely squandered the potential of its female agents, but correcting that mistake is not an impossible mission.

Before we talk about the solution (the all-female Mission: Impossible that the world needs), we’ve gotta talk about the problem–a problem that honestly didn’t really exist until my beloved Ghost Protocol. Unlike other franchises, your Star Wars and Star Trek and superhero series, the first three Mission: Impossible flicks were solo hero films masquerading as ensembles. Characters didn’t really crossover from film to film, other than Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell in varying levels of involvement (he only shares a drink with Ethan at the end of Ghost Protocol).

For the first few films, everyone else was expendable. Ethan’s entire team bit the dust in M:I 1 (except for Luther). M:I 2 ended with his allies (played by Thandie Newton and John Polson) alive, but they were nowhere to be seen in M:I 3. The third film introduced a bunch of new Impossible Mission Force agents (Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg), and precedent dictated they’d all either die or disappear should M:I 4 happen. M:I 4 did happen–and while the two women died or disappeared, Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn came back! Suddenly there was another carryover character besides Ethan and Luther! Ghost Protocol added Paula Patton as (not Marvel’s) Agent Carter and Jeremy Renner as William Brandt, and the film–truly an ensemble effort–ends with Ethan declaring them a team. So what happened in M:I 5? Renner and Pegg came back… but not Patton!!

Why is it impossible for this franchise to keep women?!

M:I 4, 5 and 6 all feature way more character crossover than 1, 2, and 3. Cruise and Rhames are in all of them, but now Pegg’s a mainstay and even Renner got to appear in back-to-back installments. The only woman that’s appeared in more than one film is Michelle Monaghan, who plays Ethan Hunt’s wife (and later ex-wife) Julia. The franchise finally corrected it’s accidental (benefit of the doubt) gender bias by bringing Rebecca Ferguson back for Fallout after her stunning debut in Rogue Nation. But what about Thandie Newton, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, and Paula Patton–all women the Mission: Impossible franchise let kick ass and then left behind.

So, Mission: Impossible franchise, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to right this wrong by giving us the all-female M:I spinoff we need–the spinoff your franchise has been unintentionally building towards from the start! Just look at the star power! Mission: Impossible II was Thandie Newton’s breakout role, and since then she’s earned major genre cred in roles on Westworld and Solo: A Star Wars Story (a movie that, by the way, proved she can be a major badass). When Keri Russell picked up a firearm in M:I 3, we all thought it was wild seeing Felicity play spy. And what’s she done since then? She just wrapped up six-season run playing a spy on the critically-acclaimed show The Americans! Maggie Q was an action star then and she’s still an action star now. Let her cut loose.

And then there’s Paula Patton’s Agent Carter, who I’m starting a new paragraph for because she’s fantastic and her disappearance from the franchise is a way worse crime than anything any one of the European bad guys perpetrated in these movies. Ghost Protocol gave Patton more to do than any of her predecessors, giving her an emotional arc that let her deal with her justified rage issues (that diamond-hungry assassin murdered her boyfriend!). I also loved how Patton was able to play both sides of the spy-lady genre, both the info-seeking stealth seductress and the barefoot-brawler. She was a great addition to the franchise and her omission needs to be corrected.

Give the Mission: Impossible franchise the Ocean’s 8 treatment. The cast is right there, and, with Hollywood super into expanded universes, it would make a lot of sense for Paramount to expand the M:I franchise beyond Tom Cruise. Rebecca Ferguson, Paula Patton, Maggie Q, Thandie Newton. Resurrect Keri Russell (not hard for this franchise). Hell, even add Fallout additions Angela Bassett and Vanessa Kirby to the mix! If you need inspo, here’s a brainstorm Decider’s Joe Reid slacked my way:

Rebecca Ferguson heads up the team, joined by Paula Patton, Maggie Q, and the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) as their link to the criminal underworld, who is a double agent whose trustworthiness to the group is constantly in question but that’s her vibe. Their mission in the first movie involves Michelle Monaghan (that’s how they get the handoff from Ethan), but MM gets to be a big part of the action and by the end of the movie has become the Simon Pegg. The villain in the first movie turns out to be… undead Keri Russell! Who was left for dead by Ethan Hunt and IMF and is out for revenge. Thandie Newton can be working with Keri. Angela Bassett essentially plays the same role she does in M:I6.

Right?!

This needs to happen, because more Mission: Impossible is not a bad thing, and because all of these women deserved so much more than what they got.

Paramount, this is your mission, should you choose to accept it. Accept it.

Where to stream Mission: Impossible II

Where to stream Mission: Impossible III

Where to stream Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Where to stream Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation