August Walker

"How many times has Hunt's government betrayed him, disavowed him... how long, before a man like that, has had enough?"

- Walker explaining why Ethan might go rogue, and why they should keep an eye on him.

August Walker, also known as John Lark, is the secondary antagonist of the 2018 blockbuster action-thriller film Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

He was portrayed by the famous actor Henry Cavill (in his first villainous role), who is known for portraying Superman / Clark Kent in the DC Extended Universe films.

History
He is a CIA member who at first appears as a slightly cocky yet professional man who is ordered to keep an eye on Hunt and follow his every step due to the fact that he might very well go rogue, but ironically Walker is the one who has already done exactly that, using his position as a CIA Operative to secretly recreate the organization IMF dismantled in Rogue Nation, The Syndicate, now renamed "The Apostles", and Walker is the supreme leader of the organization with his real identity named John Lark, wanting to rescue Lane from prison to make him supreme leader and recreate the Syndicate altogether.

An interesting thing about Walker's character that is worth to mention is how he is always well-intentioned. When he's babysitting the IMF's operation, it is understandable where Walker is coming from as Hunt is showing more and more signs of losing his sanity and becoming a loose cannon, an example being when Lane is in a hospital bed and Hunt loses his temper and seems to want to fight him, which is especially evident since Lane is defenseless at that point and Luther has to hold Hunt back to stop him. At the climax, when it's revealed that Walker is the extremist John Lark, he still keeps his well-intentioned goals, as all he wants is to do an act heinous enough for the world powers to finally agree and come together to stop something, believing that it will cause peace. This is different from his master, Solomon Lane, who seems to only care about hurting Ethan as much as possible.

Personality
Walker is surprisingly polite and kind for a feared CIA Assassin, so feared in fact that Luther has to mention to Hunt how dangerous Walker can be. This is demonstrated in the bathroom fight scene, where Hunt and Walker fight a fake John Lark, and Walker brutally throws the man around the room without barely any effort. As mentioned above, aside from being surprisingly gentle, Walker is also well-intentioned in all of his goals. Him wanting to cause a massive, world-destroying, nearly omnicidal terrorist attack is because he wants to see the world finally coming together to help each other in stopping the attacks, which will finally bring peace, or atleast he thinks so. It is shown multiple times before he is revealed as Lark that Walker actually seems to agree with Lark's theory, which also proves that Walker isn't doing it for fun as Lane is, but because he genuinely wants peace, which is similar to another villain in the franchise. Yet Walker is also very cocky, which kind of comes with the job. Walker seems to enjoy fighting people, once again shown in the bathroom fight scene where he looks like he's enjoying wrecking the mook. Hunt and Walker can be seen as good and evil counterparts, due to both being agents for their respective organizations, both are quite charismatic and smart, despite their high intellect they are both very good fighters and seem to enjoy fighting, and they are both surprisingly nice for the careers they have chosen. Hunt is the anti-hero who saves the world from terrorists and other dangerous people, and Walker is the anti-villain who wants to commit terrorism in order to save the world from dangerous people existing.

Walker is also highly manipulative, being able to manipulate everyone into thinking that he was merely trying to help the IMF when in reality he was manipulating them for his own gain all along. This could very well qualify Walker as a sociopath, due to having facades he smoothly uses to fit into the crowd, combined with other factors such as his disregard for human life, killing Alan Hunley simply because Hunley happened to be in the way when Walker was rescuing Lane. Another sociopathic tendency Walker has is his lack of empathy, as, despite having gotten to know the IMF and getting a somewhat friendly relationship with them, Walker has no problems betraying them and feeling nothing as he does that. Walker is shown to be easily angered when in stress, as at the end of the film, as he is trying to kill Hunt, he screams "WHY WON'T YOU DIE". This doesn't mean that he isn't a complete sociopath though, his affable side is still there and he is still surprisingly nice for a genocidal terrorist, which is further pushed by Walker's quite sympathetic death, being impaled by a helicopter after falling down from a cliff, not even a villain like Walker deserves such a brutal and painful death. Walker is shown being protective of his associates, especially his master Solomon Lane, who he protects at all costs during the climax when he rescues him from prison. killing anyone who gets in their way.

Trivia

 * Cavill is the third Superman actor to play a villainous role; the first was Christopher Reeve (who played Lawrence Muller in TV movie Bump in the Night) and the second was Brandon Routh, who played Daniel Shaw in Chuck.