Ilsa Faust: Rebecca Ferguson's MI6 Agent in Mission: Impossible

Ilsa Faust is an MI6 agent who first appears in Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015), directed by Christopher McQuarrie, with Rebecca Ferguson in the role. She is billed fourth in that film, fifth in Mission: Impossible: Fallout (2018) and fifth again in Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (2023). The credits use the single name Ilsa Faust every time, so there are no aliases to track.

Her introduction is the hook. The Syndicate, a hidden network of rogue former spies, captures Ethan Hunt, and a woman named Ilsa helps him get away. From there the film keeps asking whose side she is on, because she names the Syndicate's leader, Solomon Lane, in Casablanca, then passes the stolen ledger to her MI6 boss Atlee, who destroys it.

If you are new to the saga, think of her as the wild card of the ensemble, the one character you cannot call in advance. She is not among the first fifteen credited cast of Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025). For the wider cast, see the mission impossible cast page.

Ilsa's arc runs across three films, moving from suspect to ally to the person Ethan most wants to protect.

In Rogue Nation she helps Ethan escape the Syndicate, then reappears as the hunt for the Syndicate's digital ledger gets under way. She names Lane in Casablanca, and after the team steals the ledger from the heavily guarded underwater vault she passes it to Atlee, who destroys it. Benji had quietly copied the data, which is why the story keeps going. In the London finale she kills Vinter, and Lane ends up trapped in a bulletproof glass cell.

In Fallout the film settles the question the first one opened. Lane is handed over to MI6, and Ilsa is cleared of suspicion, so she is an ally and the story treats her as one.

In Dead Reckoning Part One she hands Ethan half of the two part key in the desert. He then fakes her death to shield her from a bounty, which CIA chief Kittridge admits he placed. For the order these films sit in, see the mission impossible movies in order guide, and for the full sequence of events the mission impossible timeline.

Ilsa's most important relationship is with Ethan Hunt, and it is a partnership built on trust earned in the field. In Rogue Nation she rescues him, and in Dead Reckoning Part One he fakes her death to protect her from Kittridge's bounty. As far as the published plot outlines of her three films go, no kiss between them appears.

Her other ties are shorter but telling. Atlee is her MI6 boss, and her handing him the ledger is what makes her loyalties unclear in Rogue Nation. Solomon Lane is the Syndicate leader she names to Ethan, and he is handed to MI6 in Fallout, the film that also clears her. Benji is the teammate Ethan pulls into the hunt for the Syndicate, and Luther is the one who urges Ethan to spare Gabriel in Dead Reckoning Part One.

Gabriel links her to Grace: at the Venice party he warns that he will take the key if either Ilsa or Grace is killed, and then he kills Ilsa. Ethan's ex-wife Julia is a separate thread, since that storyline wraps up in Fallout, where Ethan makes peace with her after she has moved on. See the imf team mission impossible page for how the group fits together.

Ilsa Faust is killed by Gabriel in Venice in Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, and the film does not undo it. Before that, Ethan has already faked her death in the desert so the bounty cannot reach her, which makes the real one land harder.

The sequence goes like this. The arms dealer Alanna Mitsopolis holds the second half of the key and throws a party in Venice. Gabriel arrives and warns that he will take the key if Ilsa or Grace is killed, then he kills Ilsa. Luther afterwards urges Ethan to spare Gabriel so he can be questioned, and the team boards the Orient Express, where the train chase begins.

As far as the plot outlines go, the final film does not bring her back. The Final Reckoning follows the Entity, the Podkova module and the sunken Sevastopol, and Ilsa is not in its top fifteen credited cast. If you want the full picture, read the mission impossible dead reckoning page and the mission impossible final reckoning page.

In my opinion, Ilsa's best moments are the ones where the film lets her make a choice you cannot predict, and the three below are the ones I would point a new viewer to.

First, her rescue of Ethan in Rogue Nation. It sets up her whole character in a few minutes, because it raises more questions about her than it answers. Second, the aftermath of the underwater vault heist, where she hands the ledger to Atlee. It could be argued that this is the film's smartest piece of misdirection, since the audience has just watched the team pull off the theft and is then asked to doubt her. Third, the Venice scene in Dead Reckoning Part One, where Gabriel kills her. It is a hard scene, and it works because two films have made her the partner Ethan cannot afford to lose.

That being said, her best stretch might be Fallout, where the story clears her name and lets her stand next to Ethan without a mystery attached. If you want to see her arc in order, start with the mission impossible rogue nation page and watch through. Our mission impossible movies ranked list shows where each film lands.