| “ | You had a terrible choice to make in Berlin: recover the plutonium or save your team. You chose your team, and now the world is at risk. Some flaw, deep in your core being simply won't allow you to choose between one life and millions. You see that as a sign of weakness. To me, that's your greatest strength. | ” |
–Alan Hunley to Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible – Fallout | ||
Alan Hunley (c. 1959 - 2017) was a major character in the 2015 film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and its 2018 sequel, Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
He was the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency who had an adversarial relationship with the Impossible Mission Force. However, he nevertheless becomes the new IMF's new secretary after the first defeat of a shadow criminal organization called the Syndicate.
Biography[]
Tracking the IMF[]
Having worked for the Central Intelligence Agency since at least 1996, around the time that Ethan Hunt and his IMF broke into the CIA to steal a NOC list. Alan Hunley was eventually promoted to CIA director.
Years later, after a mission to foil an attempted nuclear war by a terrorist named Kurt Hendricks by the Impossible Mission Force that resulted in the destruction of the Kremlin, Hunley convinced the Senate Committee to shut down the agency because of its dangerous actions and fold the IMF's assets to the CIA. Following the hearing, he questions William Brandt about the activities of Ethan Hunt, now on the run. Brandt claims to ignore everything about his friend and reports that he is hounding the Syndicate. However, Hunley recalls that the CIA is talented and yet found no proof of the existence of the organization and that it believes that it is a fantasy created by Ethan to justify the IMF's existence. Considering the latter as dangerous, Hunley oversees a manhunt on him but Ethan is able to flee them for six months while continuing his investigations on the Syndicate.
Later, Hunley oversees an operation in Havana, Cuba, where he believed Hunt's safehouse to be only discover it to be a decoy stocked with new articles on various unrelated disasters across the globe and dossiers on various foreign intelligence agents considered missing or dead. Believing Hunt couldn't have gotten access to such classified documents without help, Hunley approached Benji Dunn during his weekly polygraph test about Ethan but still does not receive any information.
At the same time, Benji receives an invitation to the Vienna Opera House, Austria, and decides to go there, only to understand that Ethan was behind this in order to seek his help to hunt down the Syndicate. The two men discover that the organization has targeted the Austrian chancellor who, despite the efforts of Ethan, Benji and an infiltrated female spy named Ilsa Faust to protect him, is killed by a car bomb. Hunley now believed that Ethan and Benji were responsible for this heinous crime and authorized the CIA Special Activities Division to execute them, causing Brandt and Luther Stickell to join them in Morocco to protect and help them.
Later, Hunley is called by Brandt, who alerts him of the Syndicate conspiracy against the British Prime Minister. Believing that Ethan is targeting the politician, Hunley goes to meet him and MI6 chief Atlee in London. When he tells the Prime Minister about Ethan's pursuit of the Syndicate and that his mission is to unlock a digital red box that he alone can access, the Prime Minister expresses his familiarity. The Prime Minister confessed to Hunley that Atlee once proposed the Syndicate to recruit former intelligence operatives to perform missions without oversight and zero accountability, and the red box contained its operational funding, which the Prime Minister rejected unequivocally, and he began to suspect that Atlee created the Syndicate without his approval.
As Atlee firmly denied the existence of the Syndicate, an outraged Prime Minister wasn't buying his excuses and threatened to take him to a public inquiry. Hunley stopped the Prime Minister from leaving, warning him of how dangerous and relentless Hunt is. Suddenly, Hunt, disguised as Atlee, shot the Prime Minister with a dart filled with truth serum. As Brandt got to work getting the Prime Minister's biometrics to unlock the red box, Hunley condemned Hunt for plunging US-UK relations back into the American Revolution. Just then, the real Atlee makes his entrance and sees Hunley standing next to a sedated Prime Minister and calls the guards, only for Hunt and Brandt to reveal themselves concealed behind the doors and sedated them all. Under the influence of truth serum, Atlee divulged under Hunt's questioning that created the Syndicate without the Prime Minister's knowledge, only for Solomon Lane to hijack the project and turn it against him, forcing him to conceal its existence as well as to disavow Ilsa Faust. As Hunley is provided the antidote, Brandt provided him the cover story he would use; the narrative would be that Atlee attacked the Prime Minister when his cover-up of the Syndicate was revealed but Hunley stopped him; the Prime Minister, who only witnessed Hunt disguised as Atlee, believed it to be true and expressed his gratitude. As Hunt handed him his tranquilizer gun, Hunley nodded, giving his approval for their plan as Ethan used the red box to leverage Benji's release and ultimately capture Lane.
Joining the IMF[]
After Lane's capture, Hunley asks the Senate Committee, with Brandt's help, to restore the IMF. The CIA Director claimed that his previous actions were part of a plot to expose the Syndicate, claiming that he believed the organization had infiltrated the US government at the highest levels, so Ethan going rogue had to be absolute and therefore only known to Hunley and a handful of agents. When the committee asked Brandt how he could justify Hunley's deceptive plan, he tells them that he can not say anything without the approval of the secretary. Hunley takes a surprised look at Brandt. With the IMF restored, Brandt congratulates him on his new position as IMF's secretary.
New mission[]
Two years later, Hunley sent Ethan on a mission to obtain three Plutonium cores, but is forced to send CIA agent August Walker with him. Later, Hunley, along with the IMF, traps Walker into revealing his true colors. Walker was secretly an extremist known by the the codename John Lark and had been working with Solomon Lane to get the Plutonium and make three nuclear bombs with it. As part of the deception, Hunley apparently turns on Ethan's team and is tranquilized but then reveals the deception after Walker is exposed. Hunley comments that he gets why they enjoy their work so much and is officially welcomed to the team by Ethan.
As the IMF find out his identity, a team of CIA agents show up. However, some of them were undercover members of the Apostles and start a gunfight. Hunley corners Walker, saving Ethan's life by stopping Walker from shooting Ethan in the back. In the fight, Walker stabbed Hunley, rupturing his appendix in the process. Hunley collapsed to the ground to which Benji rushes over to him, Ethan rushed over to help Hunley. However, Hunley tells him to go after Walker before succumbing to his wounds.
Hunley would later be avenged when Ethan kills Walker by using a helicopter's hook while climbing back to a cliff on the snowy mountain, where they fought, to gain control of the detonator, allowing Luther, Benji and Ilsa to disarm the bombs at the same time and recover the remaining two plutonium cores.
Characteristics[]
Allies and Enemies[]
Allies: Ethan Hunt, William Brandt, Luther Stickell, Benji Dunn, Ilsa Faust, Lauren, Prime Minister
Enemies: Solomon Lane, Atlee, Janik Vinter, August Walker (killer), Erika Sloane
Abilities[]
Although not on par with agents such as Ethan Hunt or August Walker, Alan is still is a fairly capable combatant, holding up against the younger and more skilled August Walker during their brief fight. Alan proves to be an expert leader too, leading the CIA for a few years and eventually becoming the Secretary of the IMF.
Gallery[]
Behind the Scenes[]
- Alan Hunley was portrayed by famous American actor, writer, producer and comedian Alec Baldwin in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
Appearances[]
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (First appearance)- Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (flashback)
