Start SlideshowStart SlideshowWe all know there is no Mission: Impossible without Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) ultimately saving the world from a nuclear disaster, a bombing, or anything some nutcase came up with that day. He is the central figure, one whom an entire universe revolves around. But, it would be a shame if you watched years of Mission: Impossible films and didn’t realize that it’s truly the cast of characters around Hunt that make him who he is, and thusly, made this franchise what it has become.Hunt would’ve been dead years ago if Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) weren’t opening prison doors for him, or monitoring the security systems inside the world’s most secure buildings. Beyond their operational importance, villains like Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and August Walker (Henry Cavill) give powerhouse performances while also pushing Hunt to the edge of his limits. Some of the best lines are uttered by people other than Hunt. And the emotional stakes of each film typically are from these side characters.In honor of the unsung heroes, here are the most irreplaceable supporting characters in Mission: Impossible history.Previous SlideNext Slide2 / 21List slides19. Rick Meade (Aaron Paul) List slides19. Rick Meade (Aaron Paul) Image: Paramount PicturesAaron Paul was in Mission: Impossible? Yes, I’ve seen every movie multiple times and still have that reaction sometimes. A weaselly slacker-looking version of him briefly appears as the brother of Julia Meade-Hunt (Michelle Monaghan) at her engagement party to Hunt. His main contributions are to appear slovenly next to Hunt and unintentionally aid in her kidnapping. The energy that would make him famous as Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman is tightly bottled up and kept under wraps for his few lines of dialogue. -Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide3 / 21List slides18. Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers)List slides18. Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers)Image: Paramount PicturesOne of the biggest missed opportunities of the Mission: Impossible franchise is abandoning Ethan Hunt’s most charismatic teammate ever in Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). In the underrated Mission: Impossible III, he avoided gunfire and the blades of gigantic wind turbines while piloting a rescue helicopter with the same cool he displays while charming angry drivers in a traffic stop he’s created as a diversion with the smoothest Italian you’ll ever hear in this franchise. Was he memorable? Yes. But, since Ethan and his team went on to thwart bigger threats without him, he wasn’t what you’d call an essential part of the franchise.Previous SlideNext Slide4 / 21List slides17. Mission Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins)List slides17. Mission Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins)Image: Paramount PicturesA virtuoso acting talent such as Sir Anthony Hopkins being near the bottom of any movie list has nothing to do with his performance and everything do with his character’s utility. Appearing briefly in Mission: Impossible II as the sly and wise Mission Commander Swanbeck, Hopkins’s standout scene with Cruise is one of the coolest mission briefings in the history of the franchise. You can feel the confidence Swanbeck exhibits when he tells Hunt, a man who previously broke into Langley, “This is not Mission Difficult, Mr. Hunt. It’s Mission: Impossible.” Alas, Hopkins’ talents were wasted on a character so replaceable he was only used for one scene.Previous SlideNext Slide5 / 21List slides16. Jane Carter (Paula Patton)List slides16. Jane Carter (Paula Patton)Image: Paramount PicturesDitching MI3's JV squad of expendables, Ghost Protocol put Paula Patton in the shoes of operative Jane Carter, a woman who’s out for revenge against the hitwoman who killed her partner. The movie doesn’t give her a lot to work with but she matches Cruise’s energy with a physical performance that sees her go toe-to-toe with assassin Sabine Moreau (Léa Seydoux) assassin on the 130th floor of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and seduce feisty telecoms billionaire Brij Nath (Anil Kapoor). She completed the mission with full marks but failed to leave much of a memorable impression on the series beyond that. - Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide6 / 21List slides15. Franz Krieger (Jean Reno)List slides15. Franz Krieger (Jean Reno)Image: Paramount PicturesI’ve always felt that any globe-hopping espionage movie that lacks a grizzled Frenchman is missing something, that certain je ne sais quoi. Maybe that’s because I first fell in love with spy movies in the ’90s thanks to the one-two punch of 1996’s Mission: Impossible and 1998’s Ronin. As Mission: Impossible’s Franz Krieger, although we’re initially meant to think he’s a basically good member of Ethan Hunt’s new crackerjack team, he feels like bad news from the beginning and only confirms our suspicions before the end. Reno skillfully gives off just enough of a sleazy vibe to set off our alarm bells, and his presence makes us wary of possible threats to Ethan not just from outside the team, but from within it as well. Most importantly, though, with Reno’s presence in the mix, it gives the film that authentic espionage movie flavor, the stuff of cigarette-smoke-filled safehouses, narrow European streets, and potential treachery lurking around every corner. — Carolyn PetitPrevious SlideNext Slide7 / 21List slides14. Max Mitsopolis (Vanessa Redgrave)List slides14. Max Mitsopolis (Vanessa Redgrave)Image: Paramount PicturesIn order to clear his name and identify the real mole in the original Mission: Impossible, Ethan must track down an enigmatic figure known only as Max with whom the mole had dealings. Given that Max is a shadowy and powerful arms dealer, we might be expecting a Keyser Söze type—a menacing, larger-than-life underworld kingpin who you feel would just as soon put a bullet in your head as let you walk away from a meeting alive. So it’s a wonderful surprise when the hood is pulled from Ethan’s head at his first meeting with Max and we instead see the great Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Max as enigmatic, yes, but also effervescent—a woman who can both fix Ethan with a cold intellectual stare as she asks him probing questions and gush about how much she adores his brazen confidence. Redgrave gives Max tremendous depth; she’s fiercely intelligent, deeply private (“I don’t have to tell you what a comfort anonymity can be in my profession; it’s like a warm blanket.”), and not without warmth herself. She establishes in that very first film that this franchise’s take on the world of international intrigue won’t just trot out the usual stereotypes for its villains but will offer something smarter and more surprising—figures whose power comes not from their skills with firearms or the ruthless deployment of violence but from their intellect and ability to negotiate with others to secure what they want. — Carolyn PetitPrevious SlideNext Slide8 / 21List slides13. John Musgrave (Billy Crudup)List slides13. John Musgrave (Billy Crudup)Image: Paramount PicturesYou can usually see a double cross coming a mile away in Mission: Impossible. Not when John Musgrave is silently mouthing instructions only a restrained Hunt can understand, and before he slips him a knife to set himself free. With Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s overwhelmingly dastardly performance as Owen Davian distracting us, and Laurence Fishburne’s ambiguously snarly depiction of IMF director Theodore Brassel misdirecting us, Crudup’s slick performance slipped his nefarious intentions through our detection like a snake in the grass. Without Crudup, Mission: Impossible III is predictably one-dimensional, and the outstanding torture scene fake-out with a captured Hunt and his wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) has less of a punch. Musgrave is the logic behind the madness, and also an essential part of the film. He just isn’t as integral to the franchise as the 12 characters ahead of him.Previous SlideNext Slide9 / 21List slides12. Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton)List slides12. Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton)Image: Paramount PicturesMission: Impossible II doesn’t work without Thandie Newton being seductive while maintaining her agency, and being cunning without being unrealistically fearless. As Nyah Nordoff-Hall, she’s a professional thief who carries the emotional weight of a pretty emotionless action flick featuring more gunfire than kisses. Nyah held her own whether she was feigning attraction to a psychopathic capitalist looking to profit off killing people with the Chimera virus, or she was dangerously flirting with Ethan Hunt by racing cars with him along a cliff. Few characters not named Ethan Hunt mean as much to any Mission: Impossible movie working as Nyah Nordoff-Hall.Previous SlideNext Slide10 / 21List slides11. Solomon Lane (Sean Harris)List slides11. Solomon Lane (Sean Harris)Image: Paramount PicturesSolomon Lane is probably the smartest Mission: Impossible villain ever. The rogue MI6 agent disillusioned with the global power structure was always one step ahead of Ethan Hunt, an agent so capable, he’d previously infiltrated both Langley and the Vatican without being detected. From the moment he appeared onscreen as the man who’s infiltrated Hunt’s mission delivery system and trapped him, we knew we were witnessing a rare villain. He framed the IMF, manipulated CIA double-agent August Walker (Henry Cavill), and formed the shadowy Syndicate of former agents. Beyond being evil, he sounded evil, with a gravelly whisper that made every threat feel like a dark premonition. He was so good at being bad that he was the villain for two separate Mission: Impossible movies, making him one of the most invaluable baddies in the franchise’s history.Previous SlideNext Slide11 / 21List slides10. Theodore Brassel (Laurence Fishburne)List slides10. Theodore Brassel (Laurence Fishburne)Image: Paramount PicturesTo be honest, IMF director Theodore Brassel would’ve made this list simply for uttering the two coldest sentences I’ve ever heard in a Mission: Impossible movie. With Ethan Hunt strapped to a gurney after being suspected of going rogue and getting IMF agent Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) killed, Brassel can see the disdain shooting out of Hunt’s eyes and doesn’t blink in the face of it. Instead he tells him, “You can look at me with those judgmental, incriminating eyes all you want. But, I bullshit you not: I will bleed on the flag to make sure the flag stays red.” Even as a one-off in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Fishburne’s incredible performance as Brassel made him a character you could never forget. Without him, Mission Impossible 3 wouldn’t be what it was.Previous SlideNext Slide12 / 21List slides9. Julia Meade-Hunt (Michelle Monaghan)List slides9. Julia Meade-Hunt (Michelle Monaghan)Image: Paramount PicturesYou can’t possibly think you can replace the only woman to ever make globe-trotting, death-defying secret agent Ethan Hunt settle down for even a second. Julia’s irresistible appeal had a man known for jumping off motorcycles and escaping car explosions helping with a dinner party like a suburban dad with a license to kill. Depending on how you view Ilsa Faust, Julia is arguably the most important woman in Hunt’s life, and thus the most important woman in this male-dominated action film franchise. She’s Hunt’s emotional weak point, one that Owen Davian presses on to bring him out of hiding in Mission: Impossible III, the only person Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) goes out of his way to train to be a spy, and one of the main reasons the water supply of a third of the world’s population wasn’t poisoned in Fallout. Beyond that, Michelle Monaghan plays her with a grounded realism that makes her the most relatable character in a movie franchise full of people meant to be extraordinary in the best and worst ways. Without Monaghan’s performance as Julia Meade-Hunt, Ethan Hunt would be nothing more than a means to an end for the audience. With her, he’s a fully formed man with stakes beyond the mission he chose to accept.Previous SlideNext Slide13 / 21List slides8. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny)List slides8. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny)Image: Paramount PicturesThe screenplay for 1996’s Mission: Impossible was co-written by David Koepp and Chinatown scribe Robert Towne, and while I have no way of knowing exactly which elements of the script each was responsible for, I’ve always suspected that it was Towne who made the character of Kittridge so memorable. If any character in Mission: Impossible speaks with the kind of hard-boiled language that made 1974's Chinatown a neo-noir classic, it’s Eugene Kittridge. Kittridge is a higher-up at the IMF who believes Ethan is a mole and a traitor, and he will seemingly do just about anything, including making life much more difficult for Hunt’s family, to get him to surrender. At one point, he coldly tells Ethan that “dying slowly in America can be a very expensive proposition” and later, he pragmatically informs a subordinate that “everybody has pressure points. You find something that’s personally important to him, and you squeeze.” But it’s more than the great dialogue he gets to spout that makes Kittridge so compelling; it’s the performance by Henry Czerny, who plays Eugene as a tense, tightly coiled bureaucrat whose ruthless dedication to following the letter of institutional procedure has blinded him to Ethan’s innocence and humanity. After his knockout appearance in the first film, Kittridge disappeared for decades, finally resurfacing in Dead Reckoning, though he didn’t have any moments that reminded us the crackling tension he and Hunt generated when they butted heads way back in 1996. Here’s hoping Final Reckoning rectifies that. — Carolyn PetitPrevious SlideNext Slide14 / 21List slides7. William Brandt (Jeremy Renner)List slides7. William Brandt (Jeremy Renner)Image: Paramount PicturesOut of everyone who’s been on Ethan Hunt’s team, there have only been two who I felt could match his tactical skills: Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and William Brandt, played by Jeremy Renner. His spy skills are so embedded into the core of who he is that when he was pretending to be an analyst, he instinctively ripped a gun out of Hunt’s hand and pointed it at him quicker than you could sneeze. Without him, Hunt would’ve been captured by the CIA when he was on the run in Rogue Nation and the entire fake meeting to intercept a nuclear launch control codebook would’ve failed in Ghost Protocol. Outside of Hunt, he’s the only person who can both play the bureaucracy game, explaining to the government why the IMF is essential when the need arises, and get his hands dirty by beating up terrorists. To put it plainly, William Brandt isn’t someone you can replace easily.Previous SlideNext Slide15 / 21List slides6. August Walker (Henry Cavill) List slides6. August Walker (Henry Cavill) Image: Paramount PicturesThe man jumped out of a plane and got knocked unconscious by a bolt of lightning, all to keep his double agent cover intact. How the hell do you replace someone like that? On the right day, August Walker is the second most villainous character in Mission: Impossible history for his mixture of unflinching stoicism and charismatic yet radicalized ideological thinking. First off, he’s probably the only villain in the entire series that physically pushed Hunt to the limit in a fight across multiple rooftops. Secondly, he fools multiple government officials and agents whose entire jobs are to be intelligent. Lastly, he might be the single most handsome person to ever step foot on a Mission: Impossible set, which makes his dastardly double cross so jarring to some. He’s also the central antagonist in the greatest Mission: Impossible stunt ever. His presence only lasted one movie, but his impact will never be forgotten.Previous SlideNext Slide16 / 21List slides5. Jim Phelps (Jon Voight)List slides5. Jim Phelps (Jon Voight)Image: Paramount PicturesJon Voight’s Jim Phelps is the only character in the Mission: Impossible films to be directly carried over from the television series that inspired it, though on the show, as played by Peter Graves, Phelps was never anything less than virtuous and dedicated to the job. This let the film subvert the expectations of viewers in 1996, who wouldn’t have anticipated that the noble Phelps would be revealed as the double-crossing villain behind the deaths of nearly every member of Ethan’s team. Jon Voight plays both sides of the coin to perfection, believably projecting the seasoned, fatherly veteran in the opening scenes before everything goes sideways, and then making us understand how Phelps could have fallen so far and grown so disillusioned with the institutions to which he’s given so much of his life after Ethan puts the pieces together. Though it’s been nearly 30 years since that fateful betrayal, it remains the most memorable and emotionally affecting plot twist reveal in the entire series. One gets the sense that it haunts Ethan still, that perhaps part of what spurs him on to be such an extraordinary agent is having witnessed firsthand, in the fall of Jim Phelps, what he might become if he were to stop prioritizing other people’s lives over his own. —Carolyn PetitPrevious SlideNext Slide17 / 21List slides4. Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson)List slides4. Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson)Image: Paramount PicturesNo one has provided a better foil for Hunt, or a better match for the gravity well around Cruise’s onscreen presence, than Rebecca Ferguson. Her double-crossing femme fatale Ilsa Faust consistently keeps everyone off balance, bringing an undercurrent of chaos and intrigue to every scene she’s a part of. Ferguson also managed to go three movies without ever fading into the background as simply another prop to assist in Cruise’s one-man action star show. She’s the cold, unbending edge the series sometimes lacks, and the only person who managed to consistently keep up with Cruise and often outpace him. It’s a crime she won’t be back for Final Reckoning. - Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide18 / 21List slides3. Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman)List slides3. Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman)Image: Paramount PicturesLet’s get this out of the way: Owen Davian is the greatest villain in Mission: Impossible history, and Mission: Impossible III is criminally underrated. Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a maniac with an air of inevitability. He rarely gets flustered, and always speaks with the calm, self-assured tone of a doctor that already knows that all of your options for survival are in their hands. The opening scene alone, in which he threatens to shoot Ethan’s wife in front of him and isn’t the least bit persuaded by Hunt’s trained trickery, is the most intense scene in all of Mission: Impossible. He made you believe he was going to find Hunt’s wife and make her bleed. He made you believe he was going to escape seemingly impenetrable law enforcement custody. He made you believe he was real. That is the highest honor any actor can receive. The late Phillip Seymour Hoffman turned Mission: Impossible III into an acting masterclass.Previous SlideNext Slide19 / 21List slides2. Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) List slides2. Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) Image: Paramount PicturesPegg’s Benji Dunn and his nervous wit feel so integral to the DNA of Mission: Impossible now that it’s hard to believe the character wasn’t even introduced until MI3. From the lab to the field, Pegg’s perfect comedic timing and effortless guilelessness give every increasingly bonkers scheme and highwire stunt the all-important “oh my god I can’t believe we’re doing this!” sidekick energy. He’s the innocent, wide-eyed Kombucha face to Ving Rhames’ exhausted eye-roll and Tom Cruise’s winning smile. From MI5's “A minute ago you were dead!” to casually telling Hunt to jump off a cliff in Dead Reckoning, Pegg can turn from traumatic shock to deadpan Brit on a dime. No matter how bad the writing gets, it always works when it’s coming out of Pegg’s mouth. - Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide20 / 21List slides1. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames)List slides1. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames)Image: Paramount PicturesLuther Stickell is the rock-solid and dependable foundation of the Mission Impossible franchise, showing up in every film. Whenever Ethan needs help unlocking a secure door or hacking a mainframe, Luther is there to do the job and make a few jokes. It’s clear that Luther deeply trusts Ethan and likewise, Ethan sees Luther as probably his closest ally and confidant. Plus, it’s pretty awesome to be friends with one of the coolest dudes around. -Zack Zwiezen

A video of the 425th Separate Assault Regiment's motorcycle company shows how Ukrainian soldiers plan to fight atop the light vehicles. 425th Separate Assault Regiment/Screenshot 2025-05-22T06:22:04Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? It's Ukraine's turn to adopt an unusual battle tactic from Russia: motorcycle assaults. One unit has formed its first motorcycle attack company for storming Russian positions quickly. It said its troops have trained "hundreds of hours" to shoot assault rifles from off-road bikes. As the battle with drones continues, motorcycles have become a rising star in Ukraine's war.The Ukrainian military's 425th separate assault regiment, nicknamed "Skala," announced on Tuesday that it had officially formed the country's first motorcycle attack company."As a result, we now have a modern 'cavalry' whose main task is to rapidly break through to enemy positions, conduct assault operations, and quickly shift the direction of attack," it said on its Telegram channel. The motorbike assault company appears to run a paired configuration with one driver and one gunman. 425th Separate Assault Regiment/Screenshot The use of motorcycles to carry troops into battle is well-documented in Ukraine. Since early last year, Russian troops have been increasingly seen riding on light vehicles such as ATVs and motorbikes as both a means of transport and a way to attack Ukrainian positions rapidly.Their rise is largely viewed as a direct consequence of drone warfare, since armored vehicles are often vulnerable to exploding drones on Ukraine's flat terrain.While motorbikes leave the rider more exposed, they're faster, nimbler, and smaller, which makes them better able to evade attacks from small drones."Russia's increased use of motorcycles is an adaptation in response to pervasive Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian armored vehicles and the unsustainable armored vehicle losses that Russian forces suffered in late 2023 and 2024," the Institute for the Study of War wrote in early May.Ukraine's troops initially balked at the attack method, which the Russians used in suicide assaults to wear down Ukrainian defenses and munitions.But the 425th's announcement on Tuesday means that some Ukrainians are now adopting the same tactic.In its statement, the 425th said its motorbike-riding troops had trained for "hundreds of hours" to shoot while on the move. The statement did not indicate whether the unit has started fighting or when its motorcycle troops will hit the front lines.The 425th released a video of about two dozen soldiers riding tandem on off-road motorbikes, with each pair involving one driver and an infantryman wielding an assault rifle."The goal is to ride in, strike quickly at enemy positions, dismount, storm in, secure a foothold, and complete the mission successfully," a Ukrainian soldier says in the video.Deploying motorbikes in a direct assault is an unusual tactic for modern war, where such vehicles are typically used for reconnaissance or infiltration. US special forces, for example, have used commercial bikes to navigate difficult terrain or traverse deserts in the Middle East. Ukrainian troops in the company said motorbikes offer them a swifter way to attack Russian positions, improving their safety. 425th Separate Assault Regiment/Screenshot But in Ukraine, the number of motorbikes sighted on the front lines has grown dramatically. In April, Ukrainian troops said they repelled a Russian assault on Pokrovsk that involved over 100 motorcycles.Several Russian motorized attacks last month were also reported to be comprised wholly of motorcycles and civilian vehicles. The latter have been increasingly appearing in the warzone, with Moscow's troops often sighted traveling in sedans and tractors at the rear — a likely sign of strain on Russian logistics and resources.Analysts from the ISW said in late April that it's likely Russia will start further incorporating motorcycles into its tactics for future attacks.Lt. Col. Pavlo Shamshyn, spokesperson of Ukraine's ground forces in Kharkiv, told local media that week that Kyiv believed the same."Our intelligence records the fact that in training centers on the territory of the Russian Federation and in the units themselves, active training of motorcycle drivers is taking place, and all this indicates that the assault operations of spring-summer 2025 will be carried out on motorcycles," Shamshyn told Ukrainian outlet Suspilne.

Vrmooooommmm Mario Kart World started off as an OG Switch game, and don't worry, its driving cow is "still in touch with her animal nature" "Cow is actually a pivotal character in the Mario Kart series." Image credit: Nintendo News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 21, 2025 Mario Kart World started development back in 2017 as a game for the original Switch, but ended up becoming a Switch 2 one because it devs felt the tech boost was necessary to deliver the world bit of it. Said devs have also offered us some more info about its most important character - Cow. Yep, that's right. Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, they can all go do one. Moo Moo Meadows cow is the king of these streets, with an aura so powerful she can momentarily stop even the most outraged of Ninty fans from being unhappy about prices or worrying that they might not be able to make the switch to Switch 2 right away. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. These tidbits and more come from a new interview Nintendo's put out with Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki, programming director Kenta Sato, art director Masaaki Ishikawa, planning team lead Shintaro Jikumaru, and music lead Atsuko Asahi that so long it's been divided into four parts. So, make sure you go grab your beverage of choice first if you plan on reading it all in one go. We were thinking about what to do for the next Mario Kart game even during the development of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and we began prototyping in March 2017," Yabuki explained, "It was at the end of that year when we officially started work on it as a project. I felt that in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, we were able to perfect the formula that we'd been following in the series up to that point, where players race on individual courses. That’s why, this time, we wanted the gameplay to involve players driving around a large world, and we began creating a world map like this." "When we were developing for the Nintendo Switch system," Sato explained further on in the chat, "it was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return. We discussed things like toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and we even considered dropping the frame rate to 30 fps in some cases. It was a tough situation. "Yabuki-san first brought [the idea of switching to Switch 2] up around 2020. Back then, we already had an idea of the next system's expected specs, but it wasn't until a bit later that we actually received working development units. Until then, we just had to proceed with development based on provisional estimates." Watch on YouTube "Of course, the graphics needed to be more detailed [due to being on Switch 2]," Ishikawa added, "But like Sato-san, I also felt like it was outweighed by the sense of relief. From the beginning, the designers were saying they wanted to make the art richer, so I thought we could achieve that now." The devs also explained how the driving Cow came to be, and offered a glimpse into her...er...mindset. "Each new Mario Kart game features new characters to race with, but since we added so many to the previous game, we wondered where we could go from there," Ishikawa explained, "And then one of the designers came up with [a] silly sketch of Cow cruising along, and I thought to myself, “This is it!” (Laughs) So that's when we realized the course surroundings actually contained a lot of untapped resources." MK World's devs call these environmental decoration characters who've gotten behind the wheel "NPC drivers", with Yabuki noting that "it's pretty funny to see a four-legged Cow holding onto motorcycle handlebars with her front hooves." Though, you shouldn't worry, as Ishikawa insisted that he's pretty sure Cow is "still in touch with her animal nature" due to the pose she assumes when she jumps, and that she's "actually a pivotal character in the Mario Kart series" as a legacy of giving the devs ideas for other characters. Will Cow become a pivotal character in your life once you get your hands on Mario Kart World? Let us know below!

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Contents hide Lara Croft is one of the most famous and popular video game characters of all time, and lately she’s been travelling into the world of other video games such as Call of Duty, Dead By Daylight, and Fortnite again. Naturally, despite the excellent remastered trilogies, Tomb Raider fans are desperately awaiting the reveal of Crystal Dynamics’ next AAA game starring the legendary heroine. While not official, there are rumors for the next game possibly appearing at Summer Game Fest, meanwhile, a recent Crystal Dynamics’ job listing possibly means Tomb Raider 12 is in the late stages of development. Job listing hints next Tomb Raider game might be in late stages of development   As first spotted by OP somethingisnotwight on the Tomb Raider subreddit, Crystal Dynamics posted a Senior Level Designer job listing on May 17th. On LinkedIn, the job listing post says Crystal Dynamics are seeking a Senior Level Designer who can: Spearhead strike teams as a high-impact individual contributor Take ownership of designing levels featuring compelling puzzle elements Apply Unreal expertise to build, iterate, and refine designs Image credit: LinkedIn This is interesting because of the mention of “strike teams”. Typically, strike teams are used during the late stages of development such as at the alpha stage, beta testing, or final polishing, as per Game Developer. Strike teams are small units wholly focused on specific areas and bugs, and they are usually started at least six months before the intended release of a game. While the job listing doesn’t explicitly mention Tomb Raider by name, it does mention “Strong focus on puzzle design, ideally within third-person action-adventure games”. This seems to be a clear reference to Tomb Raider 12, as it’s the only game Crystal Dynamics are currently developing, aside from Perfect Dark which they are co-developing with The Initiative for Xbox. However, that game is first-person. If the next Tomb Raider is in the late stages of development, we could be looking at a 2026 release, which would be appropriate as it’s the 30th anniversary of the series. Assuming it does come out next year, the timing will be interesting cause of the delay to GTA 6. Jason Schreier recently reported about the concerns amongst other developers about the possibility of another delay for Grand Theft Auto, so, if Tomb Raider is to come out next year, it will either want to launch before May or plan for Summer/Fall and risk the chance of another postponement from Rockstar. TR12 reveal at Summer Game Fest? Although nothing is official, there is the chance Tomb Raider 12 could be revealed at Summer Game Fest. Recently, renowned leaker, NateTheHate, was asked if either Tomb Raider, Project 007, or Wolf Among Us 2 will be at Geoff Keighley’s show. In response, NateTheHate said, “At least one” of the three will be present. Image credit: @NateTheHate 2 on X In addition, movie leaker, vthescooper, posted on April 11th they “can see the announcement coming anytime soon…”. Vthescooper has a thread of verified leaks for a wide range of different movies, and Tomb Raider 12 appears to be the only video game they have leaked details about. According to the leaker back in May 2024, the next TR game will be fully open-world set in India, with Lara able to freely traverse the landscape using a motorcycle, parachute, and other tools. The story will allegedly involve Lara racing “against a Society of Raiders and other rivals for powerful relics,” and there will be a “new feature based on recruiting teams and allies to strategically aid you in missions and defeating rivals”. None of this is official, but vthescooper’s post about a “Society of Raiders” was uploaded before being mentioned on the official Tomb Raider website as part of a sign-up process for fans. Image credit: @vthescooper on X It remains to be seen if Tomb Raider 12 will be shown off at Summer Game Fest. Right now, official details are light. All we know is that it is being developed by Crystal Dynamics using Unreal Engine 5, it will be published by Amazon Games, and it is a unified Lara with the survivor trilogy recognized as her origin. We also know her default unified attire thanks to it appearing in several crossovers, such as the recent Pinball FX. In other Tomb Raider news, Crystal Dynamics has assured fans that recent layoffs do not “alter plans” for what they are working on. Tomb Raider Platform(s): Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 3, SEGA Saturn, Xbox 360 Genre(s): Action 8 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Blizzard Entertainment and Capcom showed off the first in-game look at this week’s Overwatch 2 x Street Fighter 6 collaboration, and if you’re a fan of either property, steel yourself for an incoming hadouken on your Overwatch Coins balance. And if you’ve been waiting to see Kiriko on her bike, the Street Fighter 6 collab has finally made that possible, thanks to Juri’s motorcycle appearing in a new Kiriko highlight intro. Overwatch 2’s crossover with Street Fighter 6 was partially revealed last week, confirming perfectly cast cosplay options for Hanzo as Ryu and Zenyatta as Dhalsim. But an in-game look at all eight Overwatch heroes dressed up as Street Fighter mainstays shows that Widowmaker as Cammy and Winston as Blanka look better than they may have sounded on paper. The full list of Overwatch 2 characters getting Street Fighter 6 skins on Tuesday is: Hanzo as Ryu Juno as Chun-Li Kiriko as Juri Sigma as M. Bison Soldier: 76 as Guile Widowmaker as Cammy Winston as Blanka Zenyatta as Dhalsim Blizzard said Monday it will sell all eight collab skins as part of a Street Fighter 6 Ultra Bundle, and in two separate Mega Bundles. Overwatch 2’s Street Fighter 6 Mega Bundle 1 features Legendary Juno as Chun-Li, Hanzo as Ryu, Zenyatta as Dhalsim and Sigma as M. Bison (Dictator). The Street Fighter 6 Mega Bundle 2 includes Kiriko as Juri, Widowmaker as Cammy, Winston as Blanka, and Soldier: 76 as Guile. All fighters will also be sold individually. The only free things Overwatch 2 players will get during the collab — which runs May 20 through June 2 — are 40,000 XP, themed sprays, voice lines, and the “Street Fighter” player title that can be earned by completing in-game challenges.

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

MotoGP racing, the pinnacle of motorbike competition, requires precision and skill–and some scraped elbows and knees.   Image: Ducati/Lenovo Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. MotoGP is high-speed, high-tech motorcycle racing. The fastest riders in the world compete on specialized, purpose-built motorcycles from companies like Ducati, Honda, Yamaha on the world stage in this series, which is considered the most prestigious in the game. Riders reach incredible speeds on their machines up to 220 miles per hour, and races can go 350 turns with gravity-defying leaning that scrapes elbows and knees. This Grand Prix is for the toughest of the tough on the moto circuit.  Behind the riders and the machinery is a boatload of data and technology; we’re talking massive amounts of data in numbers that make your head spin. As tech company Lenovo puts it, when it comes to MotoGP–a sport in which every millisecond counts–data can mean the difference between a first and last place finish.  Lenovo and Italian motorbike manufacturer Ducati work hand in hand to create a champion racing team with information gathered by 50-plus sensors that track tire rotation, speed, grip, acceleration, and more. Motorcycle racing, at the highest echelon, has evolved way beyond just the machinery or even the skill of the rider. Without the technology, any team would be left in the dust.  The data journey In the past, the only way to evaluate the outer limits of what a motorbike could endure was to disassemble a crashed bike. Today, a multi-pronged approach to data collection takes that process up several notches. Every time a bike enters the pit garage, an in-person team and a crew from the Ducati Lenovo Remote Garage at Ducati’s headquarters in Bologna, Italy analyzes performance.   Via 50 sensors on each bike, Ducati engineers collect tons of data they can parse and assess. Image: Ducati/Lenovo No matter where the team is racing, data streams in from the motorbike sensors. Off-site engineers analyze information from the track, making tiny tweaks to the bike and its operation. That way, every qualifying lap may be reviewed and fine tuned for the best competitive outcomes.  “We debrief after each session, aligning with the rider on the sections and corners in which we think that he can improve his performance,” says David Attisano, the data and performance analysis manager for Ducati Racing. “We review with the rider his maneuvers and what we can expect to improve and how. For example, if the data shows that the rider can brake two meters later than he is, that’s a huge distance in this race.”  For the MotoGP series, Ducati has three different teams with a total of six riders. Each Ducati rider receives the data not just about his own ride but for all the other riders, so they can track what the other five are doing. That’s a giant amount of data. “We can push each other to the limit because we can see what the other riders are doing and comparing, then we can highlight and suggest some changes in their riding style,” Attisano explains.  Through its partnership with technology company Lenovo, Ducati collects and analyzes data to push its bikes to the limit and win races. Image: Lenovo/Ducati Per official MotoGP rules, the sensors can’t transmit the data while the bikes are in motion. As soon as the bike gets to the garage, the engineers download the data. From this point, the data analysis process begins. At this point, the partnership is especially critical as the servers are developed by Lenovo specifically for Ducati. On top of that, there are data signals created with a custom algorithm and simulating based on engineering knowledge about the bikes. The team can even create a detailed “digital twin” of the course that maps each twist and turn, using 200GB of data per circuit. “If the rider tells us that the traction control is not working properly, our electronics engineers can adjust the ECU,” says Attisano. “In our competition, the human factor is very important. We rely on the data and the humans do the last mile to gain the result and to achieve victory.”  Sure, data clearly plays a big part, but human interpretation is still a critical aspect to translate the results. Even those who know nothing of motorcycles can create algorithms or artificial intelligence to offer some hints or tips, but without input from the team, the data has no context. The technology, Attisano emphasizes, is intended to augment the capabilities of human beings, not to replace them.  Italian motorbike manufacturer Ducati makes high-speed, high-tech machines. Image: Ducati/Lenovo “The behavior of the bike is very complicated–it’s very difficult to understand if you have not studied it at university,” he says. “In our experience, the exchange of knowledge between engineers and data scientists is very important.”  Ducati’s data collection on the competitive side feeds into the safety and reliability for all riders, including those who like to take their motorbike for a spin on any given Sunday; not just competitive situations. Every time the bike emerges from the pit at a MotoGP race, the engineers strive to be sure it’s in good form and safe for the rider. Every improvement via the data collected from 50 tiny sensors on each factory-made racing bike leads to a better ride for casual street riders, too.

Here's what we looked at this week:French company Cyclauto revives a modular cargo bike design from the 1930s. The Rivian R1T's brilliant "seamless tailgate" design feature provides a way better UX for unloading.Škoda's futuristic Slavia B electric motorcycle concept. Joe Doucet's OLO Table, made with Polygood Oyster, gives new life to old refrigerators, keyboards and computer mice.This Aura Triple Boost Pro adds three unfolding screens to your laptop.At the German Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, an interesting twist on the sunken living room (though that's not what it's supposed to evoke).Automatic photo timestamp/location-stamp apps for keeping track of projects.Laurids Gallée's Tralucid Stools are both crisp and blurry.The forgotten trade of the patternmaker: How metal objects used to first be made out of wood.The origins of the first mass-market tool chest, by H. Gerstner & Sons.Peter Ivy's gorgeous Rokkakei hand-blown glass pendant lamps.Acrobatic artist Bastien Dausse's low-tech wall-walking invention. I bet there's a fun commercial application for this.Hozo designs a better cordless ultrasonic cutter, with both UX and safety improvements.The Bzigo Iris is an in-room mosquito tracking device that lets you easily kill them.All 17 components of Freitag's Mono[PA6] bags are completely monomaterial and recyclable.For the Boat Life crowd, fun floating furniture by Bote.Design opportunity: Create a better portable tufting frame.The Pivotal Helix: A cute, goofy-looking personal electric flying machine.Industrial design case study: Tactile helps Milwaukee develop their digital level.

Roblox Corporation, a global platform for immersive user-generated content, has introduced Cube 3D, a foundational generative AI model for creating 3D digital content from text prompts. The company has made a version of the model open-source, now accessible via GitHub and HuggingFace. The beta version, which integrates into Roblox Studio and its Lua-based API, enables creators to produce 3D meshes directly within game environments using natural language input. Unlike image-based reconstruction methods that rely on limited visual data, Cube 3D is trained on native 3D assets generated and used across Roblox’s ecosystem. This allows it to output structurally complete digital objects compatible with game engines—objects that can be interacted with in gameplay, rather than being flat facades. A typical use case involves entering a command like “generate a motorcycle” into the platform’s Assistant, resulting in a full 3D mesh suitable for immediate in-game deployment. These objects can later be enhanced with texture and color but are generated as functionally usable meshes from the outset. Cube 3D applies a token-based system to understand and predict 3D shapes. Drawing from techniques used in large language models, the AI converts geometry into shape tokens and uses autoregressive transformers to forecast subsequent tokens in a sequence—effectively “building” a mesh piece by piece. This method supports both individual object completion and full scene layout generation. To align multimodal inputs, Roblox engineers developed a unified transformer architecture compatible with text, image, and future data types such as audio. The current release focuses on object generation from text, but future updates are expected to support scene-level outputs and hybrid input modalities. Roblox has positioned the software as part of a broader shift toward real-time, user-augmented content creation. Players and developers alike will be able to generate props, environments, or interactive objects on demand. The longer-term aim is “4D creation,” where AI understands not only object form but also interaction logic and environmental relationships. This includes bounding box placement for layout, mesh fusion for multi-object environments, and context-aware alterations—such as swapping seasonal elements or adapting geometry based on narrative triggers within a game. Prompt: A red buggy with knobby tires. Image via Roblox. While Cube 3D does not currently support 3D printing file formats such as STL, the underlying methodology of tokenizing 3D shapes may influence emerging tools in virtual prototyping, AI-assisted design, and even CAD automation. Open-source release of this nature remains rare among proprietary game development platforms, particularly those dealing with native 3D asset pipelines. Roblox has also co-founded ROOST, a nonprofit focused on open-source AI safety, and recently released other models tied to responsible AI development.  Emerging AI-generated 3D modeling Tencent, a Chinese multinational technology company with significant investments in gaming and cloud services, released Hunyuan3D 2.0 to streamline digital asset creation. The system features two specialized models—Hunyuan3D-DiT for geometry and Hunyuan3D-Paint for texture—designed to improve fidelity and responsiveness in 3D generation. Internal benchmarks using Condition-Model Matching Distance (CMMD) and Fréchet Inception Distance (FID) suggest higher alignment between user prompts and resulting outputs. A companion interface, Hunyuan3D-Studio, enables sketch-to-3D workflows and low-polygon mesh export. While Tencent has not formally targeted additive manufacturing, the platform’s ability to generate both high-resolution and simplified meshes may support adaptation in prototyping and multi-material 3D printing environments. A year earlier, Nvidia, a leading developer of GPUs and parallel computing platforms widely used in AI and visualization, introduced Magic3D in 2023 as part of its generative AI research. The tool produces textured 3D meshes from natural language using a two-stage pipeline that refines coarse models into high-resolution geometry. Demonstrations—such as rendering a blue poison dart frog from a single prompt—illustrated the system’s capacity for mesh synthesis, text-driven editing, and stylistic transformation. Although primarily geared toward video games and computer-generated imagery, Nvidia researchers identified potential crossover applications in VR development and special effects, noting that streamlined model generation could lower production barriers across digital design domains. Hunyuan3D 2.0. Image via Tencent. Ready to discover who won the 20243D Printing Industry Awards? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to stay updated with the latest news and insights. Featured image showcase Prompt: A red buggy with knobby tires. Image via Roblox. Anyer Tenorio Lara Anyer Tenorio Lara is an emerging tech journalist passionate about uncovering the latest advances in technology and innovation. With a sharp eye for detail and a talent for storytelling, Anyer has quickly made a name for himself in the tech community. Anyer's articles aim to make complex subjects accessible and engaging for a broad audience. In addition to his writing, Anyer enjoys participating in industry events and discussions, eager to learn and share knowledge in the dynamic world of technology.

Model of ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel.’ Image © Thierry Stefanopoulos – La Cinémathèque française. All images courtesy of the Design Museum, London, shared with permission This Fall, 600+ Objects Spanning Wes Anderson’s Career Will Go on View at the Design Museum May 13, 2025 FilmHistory Kate Mothes From his earliest filmic experiments in the 1990s to international blockbusters, Wes Anderson has carved an instantly recognizable, unique, and much-memed cinematic niche. Muted hues, quirky characters, and a throwback sensibility bring off-the-wall, ensemble narratives to life. London’s Design Museum, in collaboration with la Cinémathèque française, presents the first retrospective of the film director’s creative output, from early releases like Bottle Rocket (1996) to more mainstream hits like The Darjeeling Limited (2007) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). Rat puppet, Arch Model Studio, from ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ Photo by Richard Round-Turner, © the Design Museum Including more than 600 objects, most of which will go on display in Britain for the first time, the exhibition will showcase iconic set pieces, preparatory notes, puppets, and models from numerous films. Just a few highlights include a miniature motorcycle that belonged to Mr. Fox in the titular The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Sam Shakuski’s Scout kit from Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and Anderson’s personal notebooks from The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Wes Anderson: The Archives opens on November 21 and continues through July 26, 2026. Tickets are available now, and you can plan your visit on the Design Museum’s website. Vending machines, Atelier Simon Weisse, from ‘Asteroid City.’ Photo by Richard Round-Turner, © the Design Museum Miniature motorcycle of Mr. Fox, Arch Model Studio, from ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ Photo by Richard Round-Turner, © the Design Museum Miniature model and train sign from ‘The Darjeeling Limited,’ and a blackboard depicting the Solar System from ‘Asteroid City.’ Photo by Richard Round-Turner, © the Design Museum Tracy’s puppet (detail), Arch Model Studio, from ‘Isle of Dogs.’ Photo by Richard Round-Turner, © the Design Museum Wes Anderson’s personal notebooks from ‘The Royal Tenenbaums.’ Photo by Roger Do Minh, © Wes Anderson Sam Shakuski’s Scout kit from ‘Moonrise Kingdom.’ Photo by Richard Round-Turner, © the Design Museum Next article