Luther Stickell

Luther is one of the two disavowed agents Ethan and Claire recruit after the Prague disaster, when Ethan is accused of treason. His reputation is for breaking into systems no one else could. In the CIA headquarters break-in at Langley, he handles the electronics while Ethan is lowered on wires to the terminal holding the NOC list.

Luther follows Ethan onto the train to Paris and helps set up the meeting where Jim Phelps is unmasked. With the mole dead, Kittridge reinstates them both in the IMF. That's where the partnership that runs through the whole franchise begins.

Ethan calls Luther in for the hunt for Sean Ambrose in Australia, alongside pilot Billy Baird. Luther tracks Nyah Nordoff-Hall from a distance while she gets inside Ambrose's crew, and runs tech support for the raid on the Biocyte lab.

When Nyah injects herself with the Chimera virus, the clock starts ticking. Ethan recovers the Bellerophon cure, and it's Luther who gets the shot into Nyah in time.

When Ethan returns to the field to rescue Lindsey Farris in Berlin, Luther is on the team, with Declan and Zhen. After Lindsey dies, he helps decode the microdot hidden in the postcard she sent Ethan, which leads to Owen Davian.

Luther takes part in Davian's capture at the Vatican and sticks with Ethan when everything falls apart: the villain's escape, Julia's kidnapping and the race to Shanghai for the Rabbit's Foot.

Luther sits out the Ghost Protocol mission and only shows up at the end, in a Seattle bar, for a quick meeting with Ethan.

When the Senate dissolves the IMF, Luther retires rather than betray Ethan, who's now a fugitive. Brandt tracks him down to help find Ethan and Benji, and Luther is back in action. He joins the hunt for the Syndicate and is in London for the finale, when Ethan offers his life for Benji's and traps Solomon Lane.

In Berlin, the Apostles take Luther hostage in the middle of the plutonium handoff. Ethan chooses to save his friend and lets the plutonium go, the decision that drives the whole film.

Luther stays with the team through Paris and London to Kashmir, where Solomon Lane has rigged two linked bombs. There he works alongside Julia, Ethan's ex-wife, and the two of them defuse one bomb while Ethan takes on August Walker.

Against the Entity, Luther goes with Ethan and Benji to Abu Dhabi. After Venice, he heads off the grid and advises Ethan to spare Gabriel so they can question him about the AI.

Two months later, Luther is ill and hiding in a London lab, where he finishes the Poison Pill, the program that can trap the Entity. Gabriel steals the Pill and leaves Luther locked in with a time bomb. Luther stays behind to contain the blast and give Ethan time to escape, and dies there. Beforehand, he recorded a farewell message inside the Pill. Ethan hears it at the end, once the Entity is trapped: a note of hope for a future built on trust, should we choose to accept it.

Luther was created for the 1996 film by screenwriters David Koepp, Robert Towne and Steven Zaillian, and Ving Rhames played him in every movie. He's the only character besides Ethan to appear in all eight films. On the TV series, the tech-genius role belonged to Barney Collier.