With the ocean as its narrative thread, the Spanish Pavilion at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, Japan guides visitors through an immersive seascape. Image: archexistDesigned by EXTUDIO, ENORME Studio, and Smart & Green Design under the theme “The Kuroshio Current”, the Spanish Pavilion is the result of a design selected through a competition organized by Acción Cultural Española. Its connection to the ocean refers to Spain’s national identity, as well as the country’s historical ties with Japan. Image: archexistThe pavilion spans approximately 37,674 square feet, showcasing Spain’s innovation, culture, and productive activity. Over the next six months, companies, regional authorities, and other institutions will use its spaces for meetings, presentations, and forums. Image: archexistThe pavilion features an open and welcoming architecture that doesn’t rely on an imposing façade. It is designed as a landscape that invites visitors into a spacious front void. This space or square is ins...

The penultimate episode of the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation premiered on Sunday, which means the countdown is now of course on for the season finale in less than a week’s time. To continue building the hype for the finale, HBO has released a teaser trailer for it.  After pausing and taking a break from Ellie’s ongoing vengeful rampage through Seattle to do a flashback episode focusing on Joel once again, The Last of Us is set to return to the story at hand for its season finale. Things, it seems, will continue to get intense for Ellie, Dina, and Jesse, while the war between the Wolves and Seraphites also escalates. Check out the teaser trailer below for a glimpse of what the season finale will have in store.  Before Season 2 premiered a little over a month ago, HBO announced that it had officially greenlit a third season of The Last of Us, which will continue to cover the story of The Last of Us Part 2. 

Rhina Aguirre (20 May 1939 – 30 October 2021) was a Bolivian disability activist, politician, and sociologist. An opponent of the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, Aguirre was an early activist in the country's human rights movement. Exiled to Ecuador by the regime of Luis García Meza, she collaborated with Leonidas Proaño's indigenous ministry and worked closely with the country's peasant and social organizations. Blinded in both eyes by toxoplasmosis, Aguirre took up the cause of disability rights, joining the Departmental Council for Disabled Persons upon her return to Bolivia. In 2009, she joined the Movement for Socialism and was elected to represent the department of Tarija in the Chamber of Senators, becoming the first blind person in Bolivian history to assume a parliamentary seat. This photograph of Aguirre was taken in 2014. Photograph credit: Chamber of Senators; edited by Krisgabwoosh Recently featured: Chester Cathedral El Tatio Short-beaked echidna Archive More featured pictures

May 20: National Day of Remembrance in Cambodia (1975); National Awakening Day in Indonesia (1908) 325 – The First Council of Nicaea (depicted), the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church, was formally opened by Constantine the Great. 794 – According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, King Æthelberht II of East Anglia was beheaded on the orders of Offa of Mercia. 1714 – J. S. Bach led the first performance of his Pentecost cantata Erschallet, ihr Lieder at the chapel of Schloss Weimar. 1927 – With the signing of the Treaty of Jeddah, the United Kingdom recognized the sovereignty of Ibn Saud over Hejaz and Nejd, which later merged to become Saudi Arabia. 1941 – World War II: German paratroopers began the Battle of Heraklion on the island of Crete, capturing the airfield and port in Heraklion ten days later. William Fargo (b. 1818)Gertrude Guillaume-Schack (d. 1903)Nizamuddin Asir Adrawi (d. 2021) More anniversaries: May 19 May 20 May 21 Archive By email List of days of the year About

See Flannery O’Connor’s Little-Known Visual Artworks That Had Been Collecting Dust in Storage From childhood cartoons to thoughtful self-portraits, the acclaimed Southern writer was always a keen observer of her surroundings Many of O'Connor's artworks drew on the rural Southern surroudings of her family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. Georgia College & State University “Any discipline can help your writing: logic, mathematics, theology, and of course and particularly drawing,” Flannery O’Connor wrote in an essay titled “The Nature and Aim of Fiction.” “Anything that helps you to see, anything that makes you look. The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that doesn’t require his attention.” As a writer, O’Connor took her own advice to heart. Across dozens of short stories and two novels published before her early death from lupus at age 39, she “refused to seek success by generating nostalgia for a mythologized past, instead sketching masterful portraits of the people she observed around her, in all their flaws and contradictions,” writes Smithsonian magazine’s Ellen Wexler. But O’Connor didn’t just sketch people with her words. Long before she attended the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop or the Yaddo writers’ retreat in upstate New York, she drew cartoons and caricatures for her high school and college newspapers. Even as her writing career progressed, she never ceased turning her intense gaze toward visual art, from oil paintings to linoleum-block prints. In celebration of her 100th birthday on March 25, 2025, Georgia College & State University (GCSU), O’Connor’s alma mater, gathered 70 rare visual artworks from throughout her life for an exhibition called “Hidden Treasures” at Andalusia, the farm in Milledgeville, Georgia, where she spent the last 14 years of her life. A cartoon from O'Connor's college days Georgia College & State University “Scholars continue to study Flannery, to research her, and to use her as a model in creative writing programs,” Katie Simon, a literary scholar and the interim executive director of the Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities at GCSU, says in a statement. “She’s taught as an example of literature—but scholars are starting to look at her as a visual artist, as well. These paintings reveal that she never stopped creating visual art until her death.” Many of the pieces in the exhibition are on public view for the first time. Although scholars and O’Connor fans were aware of her artworks, only “her family knew exactly where they were, which was a storage unit in town—[a] storage unit behind the Cook Out,” a fast-food restaurant chain, as Andalusia curator Cassie Munnell tells Devon Zwald of Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB). Stashing O’Connor’s paintings, prints and drawings away in an obscure storage unit was no accident, however. The writer’s mother, Regina Cline O’Connor, and early trustees of her estate “weren’t sure if she would be rightly recognized as what she is: one of the greatest short story writers,” Farrell O’Gorman, a new trustee of the O’Connor estate, explains to the New York Times’ Walker Mimms. “I think they were worried that the paintings might somehow distract from her achievements as a writer.” Born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1925, O’Connor grew up in Milledgeville and graduated from GCSU. While she prepared for a writing career up north, she was forced back to Andalusia in 1950, when she started developing symptoms of lupus. The autoimmune disease meant that when O’Connor, a devout Catholic, wasn’t going to mass or tending to her peafowl, she spent much of her time on the first floor of the farmhouse—a state of immobility and isolation that honed her creative talents in prose and paint. O'Connor's depiction of her mother, dressed in green, at Andalusia Farm Anna Gay Leavitt / Georgia College & State University One of the first paintings O’Connor created after her diagnosis was a self-portrait. She’s wearing a halo-like straw hat and holding a pheasant. Both O’Connor and the bird stare directly at the viewer. “You know, I think it’s hilarious,” Simon tells GPB. “She’s like, ‘Look at me, American Gothic. I’m sick. I was forced to come back to Milledgeville. But I’m a saint.’ … I think you can read this on so many levels.” Many of O’Connor’s works from the Andalusia period reflect her rural surroundings, with colorful paintings of fowl, flowers and farmhouses. But she never let her attentive eye stray too far from the people around her, whom she would explore in various media—from satirical cartoons of fellow students to sensitive portraits of a Black woman, likely a farm worker, crocheting. Rather than detracting from O’Connor’s sharp prose, these artworks “complement and expand” what we know about her creative sensibilities, Munnell tells Artnet’s Min Chen. “You can see the ways that her ideas and the way she described people carried over. Her fiction is often quite dramatic and her characters are often described in these big, bold ways. This carries over in how she painted.” “Hidden Treasures” is on view at the Andalusia Interpretive Center in Milledgeville, Georgia, through the summer. 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Gamecity Hamburg supports six digital games in seventh Prototype Funding round Each game received up to €80,000 to support development of marketable prototypes Image credit: Gamecity Hamburg News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on May 19, 2025 Gamecity Hamburg has completed the seventh round of its Prototype Funding program, with six digital games receiving up to €80,000 as part of a non-repayable grant. The investment will support these studios in developing marketable prototypes located in Hamburg. Applications for the next funding round start in spring 2026. This year's games include: NeverLight by Nightless Games – €80,000 Pet Universe by Tivola Games – €80,000 Space Station Manager by GameXcite – €80,000 Unbreachable by Buckfish – €72,000 Deep Fog Signals by Symmetry Break Studios – €32,000 Cosmic Run by Zinktank Labs – €30,000 "The high quality of the projects submitted to this funding round led to an intensive decision process within the awarding committee," said head of Gamecity Hamburg and member of its award committee Dennis Schoubye. "The funded projects show a wide variety of genres, ideas, and teams. With the prototype funding, we are supporting established companies and up-and-coming start-ups in Hamburg as a games location." Recipients of the grant were chosen by Gamecity Hamburg's awarding committee, which consists of industry experts including: Nina Müller (Goodgame Studios VP publishing and development services) Jonas Hüsges (Daedalic Entertainment publishing director) Valentina Birke (Indie Arena Booth/Super Crown Entertainment director) Michael Schade (Rockfish Games CEO and co-founder) Dennis Schoubye (Head of Gamecity Hamburg) Gamecity Hamburg provides further opportunities outside its Prototype Funding program, including its Games Lift incubator. This program supports five teams, developers, and start-ups developing digital games. It provides €15,000 in start-up funding, in addition to a coaching and mentorship program with workshops and follow-up support. Developers can currently apply for the Games Lift incubator until June 10, 2025.

TechTarget and Informa Tech’s Digital Business Combine.TechTarget and InformaTechTarget and Informa Tech’s Digital Business Combine.Together, we power an unparalleled network of 220+ online properties covering 10,000+ granular topics, serving an audience of 50+ million professionals with original, objective content from trusted sources. We help you gain critical insights and make more informed decisions across your business priorities.Activision is delisting Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile after one yearActivision is delisting Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile after one year'It unfortunately has not met our expectations with mobile-first players.'Chris Kerr, Senior Editor, NewsMay 19, 20251 Min ReadImage via ActivisionCall of Duty: Warzone Mobile has been pulled from digital shelves after falling short of expectations.The title launched in March 2024 but has struggled to attract players. Developer Activision confirmed anybody who installed the game prior to its removal from the App Store and Google Play storefronts on May 19, 2025, will be able to continue playing for the time being.The studio, however, will cease active development on the free-to-play shooter and will no longer be delivering new seasonal content and gameplay updates. Social features will also be retired across both platforms."This decision was made after careful consideration of various factors and while we're proud of the accomplishment in bringing Call of Duty: Warzone to mobile in an authentic way, it unfortunately has not met our expectations with mobile-first players like it has with PC and console audiences," explained Activision in a post on X."Players who have the game installed before Monday, May 19, 2025 will still have access to the game with continued cross-progression of shared inventories using existing content, and servers with matchmaking for online play. Any unspent COD Points can also be redeemed in-game toward available content in the Store."Although players will be able to spend remaining COD Points on existing items, they will no longer be able to spend real currency in-game.Related:Activision will not be issuing refunds for previously purchased in-game content or unused COD Points.Read more about:Activision BlizzardAbout the AuthorChris KerrSenior Editor, News, GameDeveloper.comGame Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, and PocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.See more from Chris KerrDaily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inboxStay UpdatedYou May Also Like

MSI has revealed its latest iteration of its Claw PC gaming handheld — and this time, it’s powered by AMD. The company showed off the Claw A8 BZ2EM at Computex 2025, which comes with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip along with up to 24GB of DDR5 memory. That’s a bit less than the 32GB of memory that came with the Intel-equipped Claw 8 AI Plus released late last year, but it still has an 8-inch full HD display, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 1TB M.2 SSD. The AMD-powered Claw A8 will also come in two colors: white and lime green. MSI had a bit of a rough start with the release of its original Claw handheld in March 2024, but it seemed to redeem itself with the launch of the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus. Lenovo also snapped up one of AMD’s new handheld-focused chips for the Legion Go S, but it uses the weaker Z2 Go version that my colleague Sean Hollister said “can’t compete” with its predecessor’s Z1 Extreme. There’s a new MSI Claw 8 AI Plus “Polar Tempest” edition, too, which features an up to Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and a 2TB NVMe SSD. It also has what MSI calls a “glittering” white coating. MSI didn’t reveal a release date or price for either model, but it will likely be in the same ballpark as the standard Intel-powered MSI Claw 8 Plus, which Best Buy lists as costing $999.99.

Recent developments have shown that RL can significantly enhance the reasoning abilities of LLMs. Building on this progress, the study aims to improve Audio LLMs—models that process audio and text to perform tasks like question answering. The MMAU benchmark is a widely used dataset designed to evaluate these models, featuring multiple-choice questions on sounds, speech, and music, some of which require external knowledge. A prior approach, R1-AQA, used GRPO (Group Relative Policy Optimization) to fine-tune the Qwen2-Audio model on the AVQA dataset, achieving state-of-the-art (SOTA) results on MMAU. Inspired by this, the authors applied GRPO to fine-tune Qwen2.5-Omni-7B, a newer multimodal model, further improving performance. Additionally, they introduced a method to automatically generate audio QA data, leading to even better outcomes. Compared to methods like SARI, which uses a more complex mix of supervised fine-tuning and RL with structured reasoning, the authors’ approach is simpler, relying solely on RL without explicit reasoning steps. They also conducted experiments with text-only inputs to investigate the role of GRPO in performance gains. Surprisingly, fine-tuning the models using just text data yielded nearly the same improvements as training with audio and text. This finding suggests that GRPO primarily enhances the model’s reasoning ability through text, significantly contributing to its improved performance in audio QA tasks.  Researchers from MIT CSAIL, Goethe University, IBM Research, and others introduce Omni-R1, a fine-tuned version of the multi-modal LLM Qwen2.5-Omni using the GRPO reinforcement learning method. Trained on the AVQA dataset, Omni-R1 sets new state-of-the-art results on the MMAU benchmark across all audio categories. Surprisingly, much of the improvement stems from enhanced text-based reasoning rather than audio input. Fine-tuning with text-only data also led to notable performance gains. Additionally, the team generated large-scale audio QA datasets using ChatGPT, further boosting accuracy. Their work highlights the significant impact of text reasoning in audio LLM performance and promises the public release of all resources.  The Omni-R1 model fine-tunes Qwen2.5-Omni using the GRPO reinforcement learning method with a simple prompt format that allows direct answer selection, making it memory-efficient for 48GB GPUs. GRPO avoids a value function by comparing grouped outputs using a reward based solely on answer correctness. Researchers used audio captions from Qwen-2 Audio to expand training data and prompted ChatGPT to generate new question-answer pairs. This method produced two datasets—AVQA-GPT and VGGS-GPT—covering 40k and 182k audios, respectively. Training on these automatically generated datasets improved performance, with VGGS-GPT helping Omni-R1 achieve state-of-the-art accuracy on the MMAU benchmark.  The researchers fine-tuned Qwen2.5-Omni using GRPO on AVQA, AVQA-GPT, and VGGS-GPT datasets. Results show notable performance gains, with the best average score of 71.3% on the MAU Test-mini from VGGS-GPT. Qwen2.5-Omni outperformed baselines, including SARI, and showed strong reasoning even without audio, suggesting robust text-based understanding. GRPO fine-tuning improved Qwen2-Audio more significantly due to its weaker initial text reasoning. Surprisingly, fine-tuning without audio boosted performance, while text-only datasets like ARC-Easy yielded comparable results. Improvements mainly stem from enhanced text reasoning, though audio-based fine-tuning remains slightly superior for optimal performance. In conclusion, Omni-R1 is an Audio LLM developed by fine-tuning Qwen2.5-Omni using the GRPO reinforcement learning method for enhanced audio question answering. Omni-R1 achieves new state-of-the-art results on the MMAU benchmark across sounds, speech, music, and overall performance. Two new large-scale datasets, AVQA-GPT and VGGS-GPT, were created using automatically generated questions, further boosting model accuracy. Experiments show that GRPO mainly enhances text-based reasoning, significantly contributing to performance. Surprisingly, fine-tuning with only text (without audio) improved audio-based performance, highlighting the value of strong base language understanding. These findings offer cost-effective strategies for developing audio-capable language models.  Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit. Sana HassanSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions.Sana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Reinforcement Learning Makes LLMs Search-Savvy: Ant Group Researchers Introduce SEM to Optimize Tool Usage and Reasoning EfficiencySana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/SWE-Bench Performance Reaches 50.8% Without Tool Use: A Case for Monolithic State-in-Context AgentsSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/This AI paper from DeepSeek-AI Explores How DeepSeek-V3 Delivers High-Performance Language Modeling by Minimizing Hardware Overhead and Maximizing Computational EfficiencySana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Meet LangGraph Multi-Agent Swarm: A Python Library for Creating Swarm-Style Multi-Agent Systems Using LangGraph 🚨 Build GenAI you can trust. ⭐️ Parlant is your open-source engine for controlled, compliant, and purposeful AI conversations — Star Parlant on GitHub! (Promoted)

This list contains spoilers for the Mission: Impossible franchise.A new Mission: Impossible film is hitting theaters this month – the final one in the franchise, if we’re to believe Tom Cruise and the suits at Paramount – and if you’re like us, you’re probably knee deep in a series rewatch right now.The focus of the films, spectacular action set pieces aside, has been Cruise’s lead spy, Ethan Hunt. Fellow team agents have often come and gone, and supposedly impossible missions have varied time after time, but Ethan has remained. The only other constant has been a steady supply of villains – men and women with big plans fueled by greed and/or malice, who think they’ll be the one to outwit, outsmart, and outrun Hunt. Fools.It might seem counterintuitive ranking the Mission: Impossible villains under the banner of “best,” but every great hero needs an equally great villain. Numerous elements come into play when determining the best villain, but we’re zeroing in on the scale of their threat, the weight of the violence (both physical and emotional) they commit against Hunt and his team, and the palpable degree of villainous charisma they exhibit.So cue up that classic Lalo Schifrin theme, here are the 10 Best Mission: Impossible Villains, Ranked!Top 10 Mission Impossible Villains10. A.I. The Entity (Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One)Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Writer: Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen | Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson | Release Date: July 12, 2023 | Runtime: 163 mins“A self-aware, self-learning, truth-eating digital parasite infesting all of cyberspace” sounds like a pretty cool threat in any other high-octane thriller, but in the Mission: Impossible franchise it’s only good enough to land at number ten. It underwhelms compared to its human counterparts, because let’s be real – zeroes and ones ain’t got shit and madness and guns – but its power and immense reach are undeniable. The Entity began “life” as a digital weapon designed by the U.S. government before going rogue and hopping through cyberspace with the giddiness of a puppy experiencing its first snowfall.Most villainous act of villainy: While toying with and killing a submarine filled with Russian sailors is an act of murderous cruelty, it’s the Entity’s bigger, broader acts of deception that mark it as a true villain. Its early days of online manipulation saw it shifting public opinion and behavior through social media, and it’s a brutal reminder of events in the real world. We live in a present where people with nefarious agendas are influencing easily shaped minds, and with the increased use of A.I. in our online dealings, it’s not hard to imagine something like the Entity stepping in and really turning our daily lives into a nightmare.Where to WatchPowered by9. John Musgrave (Mission: Impossible III)Director: J.J. Abrams | Writer: Alex Kurtzman, Robert Orci, and J.J. Abrams | Stars: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan | Release Date: May 5, 2006 | Runtime: 126 minsNot every villain has direct blood on his hands, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less dangerous. Musgrave is Hunt’s Operations Manager at the IMF, and it’s suggested they may even be minor friends – understandable as he’s played by Billy Crudup, and who wouldn’t want to be friends with Billy Crudup. He brings Hunt in on a mission to rescue one of his proteges, Lindsey Farris, and when that goes wrong and Hunt is blamed for the fallout, it’s Musgrave who helps the agent escape to pursue justice. See? A friend.Surprise! It’s all a ruse, and Musgrave is actually a traitor working with a man named Owen Davian on some elaborate plan to retrieve a piece of tech nicknamed “the rabbit’s foot.” Musgrave’s a hero in his own mind, though, as he’s hoping to use this as motivation for first strikes against enemy forces. He wants the U.S. and the IMF to play a more aggressive role in the fight against terrorism, and if that means supporting terrorists along the way, well, he’s all for it.Most villainous act of villainy: Musgrave might think his heart is in the right place here, but in addition to enabling a murderous terrorist in Davian, he crosses an equally big line by pulling Ethan’s wife, Julia, into danger. Worse, he lets Davian shoot Julia in the head right in front of Hunt. Sure, she’s revealed to have been a minor henchwoman in a mask, but the emotional damage is real.Mission: Impossible IIIParamount PicturesMay 5, 2006PG-13Where to WatchPowered by8. Kurt Hendricks (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol)Director: Brad Bird | Writer: Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec | Stars: Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Michael Nyqvist | Release Date: December 21, 2011 | Runtime: 132 minsWhile some villains act out of greed and others cause misery simply for the fun of it, Kurt Hendricks is a man who only wants the best for humanity. What is the best, you ask? Well, in Hendricks’ mind, our species would benefit from something of a cleanse. From the great biblical flood to the atomic bombing of Japanese cities during World War II, immense disasters lead to rebuilding, recovery, and real improvement… apparently.Sounds logical, so Hendricks sets out to trigger just such a global debacle starting with a massive attack on the Kremlin in Moscow and leading to the acquisition of nuclear codes. He proves himself to be one of the greatest threats Ethan Hunt has faced to that point.Except, and this is where casting comes into serious play, the film wants us to see him as a physical threat to Hunt – but that’s nearly impossible. Michael Nyqvist was a fantastic actor, and he makes for a compelling villain through dialogue and intent. But a serious contender in a fight with Cruise? It’s difficult to buy, but that doesn’t stop director Brad Bird from letting him go toe to toe with the film’s star for a weirdly long fight. (To be fair, Chad Stahelski started it by letting Nyqvist seemingly hold his own for a bit with Keanu Reeves in John Wick.) So, while Hendricks is a grand threat on the world stage, he tumbles some in the ranking here as an unserious brawler against the highly trained and in far better shape Hunt. Most villainous act of villainy: Like Musgrave above, Hendricks seriously thinks he’s doing the world a favor by causing harm. His final act results in a nuclear missile being fired towards San Francisco, something that would have killed tens of thousands of people immediately before triggering the death of millions more. That’s no small thing, and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for those meddling IMF agents.Where to WatchPowered by7. August Walker (Mission: Impossible - Fallout)Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Writer: Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen | Stars: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson | Release Date: July 27, 2018 | Runtime: 147 minsHunt and his IMF team have been betrayed by double agents and traitors on numerous occasions, but most of them are greedy middle-aged men in suits who don’t pose an immediate physical threat to our intrepid hero. August Walker is something different entirely. He towers over Hunt and is jacked from his mustache on down. Henry Cavill’s portrayal ensures that he’s already menacing even while pretending to be on Hunt’s side, but once the truth comes out, the gloves come off.Walker is revealed to be working in cahoots with the brilliant Solomon Lane, and together they frame Hunt and once again pull the love of his life, Julia, into harm’s way. His motivation for it all is a bit over the top and dramatic – he wants the old world to implode and give rise to something better – but what else would you expect from a man who seems to cock his arms like guns during fist fights.Most villainous act of villainy: Walker and Lane are planning to detonate nuclear bombs, and while the latter stays behind to die in his greatest act of terror, Walker is on a chopper heading to safety. Hunt, of course, catches up to him in pursuit of the detonator that’s needed to stop the countdown. While Walker could have easily escaped by giving up the detonator, his desire to cause suffering – especially Hunt’s suffering if Julia were to die – leads him to a one-on-one fight to the death with the agent. It’s a decision built on rage and self-righteous justification, and it rightfully ends in his painful demise.Mission: Impossible - FalloutParamount PicturesJul 27, 2018Where to WatchPowered by6. Paris (Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One)Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Writer: Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen | Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson | Release Date: July 12, 2023 | Runtime: 163 minsWhen it comes to villains in the Mission: Impossible universe, few can touch Pom Klementieff’s Paris on style and charisma points. A henchwoman to Gabriel, she lets her gleefully murderous skillset do most of her talking, and it’s a refreshing change of pace from baddies who seem compelled to share their life stories before pulling a trigger.Her costume and face makeup see her stand apart from the crowd, but don’t let her doll-like appearance fool you. Paris is a merciless fighter who refuses to quit despite the odds, as evidenced by a shootout and car chase in Rome that sees her literally plowing through obstacles both human and otherwise in her pursuit of Hunt. Most villainous act of villainy: While Paris makes mincemeat out of numerous threats, she ultimately succumbs to Hunt during an alleyway brawl. He spares her life, though, and after being punished by Gabriel – he basically tries to kill her – she chooses to betray both him and her villainous tendencies by saving Hunt’s life. Maybe I’m stretching the definition here, but it takes a real badass to turn your back on villainy with the discovery of unexpected morals and a change of heart.Where to WatchPowered by5. Gabriel (Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning)Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Writer: Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen | Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson | Release Date: July 12, 2023 & May 23, 2025 | Runtime: 163 mins & 169 minsThe mysterious Gabriel arrives in the penultimate entry of the franchise, and he’s a man with deadly skills and an alliance with the Entity. He also comes with a backstory suggesting an integral role in Ethan Hunt’s life. It seems Gabriel killed a woman named Marie thirty years ago, someone Hunt was apparently fond of, and it’s that murder that landed Hunt at the IMF – where he went on to save thousands of lives. Hundreds of thousands, even. So maybe Gabriel is a hero? I kid, I kid.He’s obviously a villain, and he may even be something of a seer (?), but while his late-to-the-party franchise arrival unavoidably undercuts his dramatic weight, the character’s casting lifts Gabriel right back up again. Esai Morales brings real charm and a calm menace to the character, and it’s immediately made clear that he’s not someone to be trifled with. You believe both his physical abilities and deadly intentions, and Morales’ added dramatic weight makes him a real threat to Hunt. He also earns a bump in the rankings by gifting viewers with the best, most unforgettable villain death in the entire franchise.Most villainous act of villainy: Gabriel’s killed a lot of people, and he even destroyed a rolling Agatha Christie landmark, so it’s clear he’s a bad guy. His most vicious act, though, comes as a bookend to having “fridged” Marie three decades earlier. Gabriel threatens to do it again by killing either Ilsa or Grace – Hunt’s current love interest or the woman who just landed in his lap mere hours ago – and while the film wants to trick viewers into thinking it’s going to be the latter, it’s Ilsa who dies by Gabriel’s blade instead. McQuarrie and Cruise are obviously the real villains here for introducing this tired trope of a woman’s death being responsible for a man’s life, but it’s ultimately Gabriel who thrusts the knife into Ilsa’s gut. It could have been Grace who died. Hell, it should have been Benji. Instead, Gabriel extinguishes the franchise’s brightest flame this side of Hunt himself. J’accuse!Where to WatchPowered byNot yet available for streaming.4. Jim Phelps (Mission: Impossible)Director: Brian De Palma | Writer: David KoeppSteven Zaillian, and Robert Towne | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Beart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno | Release Date: May 22, 1996 | Runtime: 110 minsJim Phelps wasn’t the only friend/fellow agent to betray Hunt over the years, but he was the first – and arguably the most shocking. The character, as played by Peter Graves, was the IMF’s lead agent for the bulk of the television series’ seven-season run from 1966 to 1973. He was unquestionably a good guy, so there was no reason to suspect that his presence in the first Mission: Impossible film would be anything different – well, Jon Voight in the role was probably a clue.Audiences expected Phelps to essentially hand the reins over to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, but while he did just that, he did so with a major act of betrayal. As he tells Hunt once his ruse is discovered, the end of the Cold War threatens to end the need for the IMF – this is as naive a statement as ever uttered in the entirety of the franchise – and he was worried about becoming a relic barely scraping by on sixty-two thousand dollars a year.Most villainous act of villainy: The betrayal itself is already brutal as Phelps turns his back on friends and agents who’ve risked their lives together over the years, but it’s the specifics of his traitorous act that hits hardest. In his effort to frame someone else for his crime, Phelps kills off three members of his team during an operation and then fakes his own death. What could have been a simple theft, instead becomes an act of cruelty making his betrayal sting even more.Where to WatchPowered by3. Sean Ambrose (Mission: Impossible II)Director: John Woo | Writer: Robert Towne | Stars: Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandiwe Newton, Ving Rhames | Release Date: May 24, 2000 | Runtime: 123 mins“That was always the hardest part of having to portray you,” says ex-IMF agent Sean Ambrose to a beaten and angered Ethan Hunt, “grinning like an idiot every fifteen minutes.” That line alone makes Ambrose a top villain as it’s a terrific zing at both Hunt and Cruise himself. He’s equally dismissive of women as evidenced by his comment that they’re like monkeys when it comes to the men in their lives, that they “won’t let go of one branch until they get a grip on the next.” Say what you will about his greedy desires, but Ambrose (Dougray Scott) understands the assignment when it comes to being a charismatic villain.That greed has led him to steal a deadly plague with plans to unleash it on whole populations if his demands aren’t met. While cash money is his primary motivator, though, Ambrose also seems fueled by a splash of jealousy towards Hunt. That makes their faceoffs all the more entertaining whether they’re jousting on motorcycles or sharing beatdowns in the sand as only the great John Woo can capture it.Most villainous act of villainy: The film opens with Ambrose masquerading as Hunt in order to acquire the Chimera plague, but rather than just kill one man, Ambrose and his team crash an entire passenger jet filled with innocent civilians. Acts of terror would claim higher body counts in later films, but this puts faces to the dead in a far more direct way making it more personal and affecting.Mission: Impossible IIParamount PicturesMay 24, 2000PG-13Where to WatchPowered by2. Solomon Lane (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation)Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Writer: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris | Release Date: July 31, 2015 & July 27, 2018 | Runtime: 131 mins & 147 minsWhether due to low pay or poor benefits, the world is seemingly overflowing with ex-government employees ready and willing to betray their nations and jump on the train to villain town. Solomon Lane is one such agent, but he goes a step or three further by helping create an organization called The Syndicate that’s built entirely on those bitter, trigger happy ex-agents. They want to sow chaos and reap financial rewards, and they’ve been doing it for years.Lane is introduced killing a young, unarmed female agent right in front of Hunt, and it’s soon revealed that he’s responsible for thousands of deaths over the years through events made to look like accidents or the work of wholly unrelated perpetrators. Lane’s history of manipulating trust and the world’s various systems makes him one of the most dangerous villains in the franchise. He’s ahead of Hunt at every step, and his mantra – “The greater the suffering, the greater the peace.” – marks him as a man willing to do anything to accomplish his goals.While many actors go big playing villains, Sean Harris takes the opposite approach and makes Lane a weasel of a man who you just want to see get beaten senseless. It’s an unusually bold choice that leaves him without a darkly appealing persona or personality – he’s just a very bad man who couldn’t care less about you or your loved ones.Most villainous act of villainy: As the rare villain to be an active threat across more than one film, Lane inflicts plenty of pain, suffering, and stress on Hunt and his team. The bulk of his evil acts were committed before Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation even begins, but his cruelest and most personal action unfolds during the followup, Fallout. Along with August Walker, Lane manages to activate two nuclear bombs threatening not only the water supply for billions of people, but also the life of Hunt’s greatest love, Julia. Seeing her in harm’s way is the kind of gut punch that Hunt felt only once before, and it’s clear just how sorry he is that his choices have once again brought her so close to dying.Where to WatchPowered by1. Owen Davian (Mission: Impossible III)Director: J.J. Abrams | Writer: Alex Kurtzman, Robert Orci, and J.J. Abrams | Stars: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan | Release Date: May 5, 2006 | Runtime: 126 minsThere’s a lot of competition when it comes to selecting the best villain in the Mission: Impossible franchise, but there was never any doubt who’d land at the top of the heap. Davian doesn’t care about much beyond his own wants and needs, and the film reflects that by never revealing exactly what his end goal is – we know he wants the so-called rabbit’s foot, but what it is and what it does are never made clear. We just know that Davian will cut through anyone and anything to get it, and that makes him an exceptionally dangerous man.J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III is unfairly maligned, but even those underwhelmed by the film itself can’t help but applaud Philip Seymour Hall’s frighteningly effective and highly entertaining portrayal of Davian. His blistering stares, his lightning quick shifts from dead silence to raging outbursts, and his deceptively calm way of threatening everything that Hunt holds dear all work to make him a villain who commands the screen and even steals every scene from Cruise himself.There may not be a big, global threat at play here, but Davian is the man who arguably gets closer than any other villain to actually killing Hunt. He injects the agent’s head with an explosive device that gets within seconds of churning Hunt’s brain tissue into ground beef, and he even gets some serious licks in while brawling. You wouldn’t think a Cruise versus Hoffman fight would convince, but the latter’s pure ferocity paired with Hunt’s incapacitation due to the pain in his head makes for a viciously compelling bout.Most villainous act of villainy: Davian is a mean bastard who, while still in restraints, coldly threatens to murder Hunt’s fiance Julia. “I’m gonna make her bleed and cry and call out your name”, he says, and it’s one of the few times where Hunt’s legendary control tips into real fear and emotion. Davian later comes close to doing just that after abducting Julia, tying her up, and appearing to shoot her in the head. Hunt’s pain is palpable, and it’s enough to damage his heart to the point that he’d go on to never let someone that close again. Davian has literally halted Hunt’s ability to connect with someone on a deeply personal level, and it’s the kind of attack that bullets and bombs just can’t compete with.Mission: Impossible IIIParamount PicturesMay 5, 2006PG-13Where to WatchPowered by