Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is making waves among audiences and critics. The film has already scored a rare 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it Tom Cruises' highest-rated movie. Being Part One, the film is left on a cliffhanger of Ethan’s adventure. Spoilers are ahead for Dead Reckoning Part One, with many questions in the air. Following the death of Ilsa at Gabriel’s hands, Ethan is going on a mission unlike any other. Can Ethan and his team stop the mysterious entity?
The ending of Dead Reckoning Part One has left lots of open-ended questions. Ethan manages to escape the Orient Express with Benji. Now the mission is more than one of just “saving the world.” Instead, Ethan’s mission is to get revenge on those that wronged him over the course of the film. Ethan is able to trick Gabriel and keep the Sevastopol key, and go on the hunt to stop the entity. In the meantime, he has faced catastrophic losses like Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson). The showdown on the Orient Express has proven two details about Dead Reckoning Part One.
Ethan's Mission Was Filled With Lies From the Beginning
From the start of the film, Kittridge warns Ethan that Ilsa is on the run from mercenaries. Ethan thinks that his entire mission was to retrieve an artifact that Ilsa stole. In actuality, it was something that forced him to confront his past.
This all-knowing entity forced Ethan to confront his darkest secrets about himself. Gabriel is the entity's “messenger of death," leaving destruction in his wake. No matter what happens, he is an undefeatable mission from Ethan's past that cannot be beaten. Gabriel leaves death and destruction wherever he goes throughout the film. When Ethan first sees him in the airport, he realizes the danger. Ethan only realizes this due to his past with him.
Seeing Gabriel made Ethan realize this mission was unlike anything else he had faced. Hunt is a much smarter character than his superiors (particularly Kittridge) consider him to be. Ethan knew he was going into his most dangerous mission yet. His rescue of Ilsa in the desert was the beginning of his work against his superiors.
As Ilsa was sniping in the desert, it was a life-or-death situation which Ethan fully understood. Telling Ilsa to “stay dead” showed just how much smarter he was than Kittridge or Director Denlinger. That does not make the risk of this mission any less severe.
Nothing prepared Ethan for the fallout of this mission. That includes the death of Ilsa and the risk to his team's safety. Grace and Ethan barely make it out alive after the crash on the Orient Express. He managed to keep the two halves of the key from Gabriel, which guaranteed the characters another collision in Part Two.
With the team scattered, a new IMF division is born. This new division consists of those who survived the entity's Dead Reckoning. For the mission to succeed, the team first needs to regroup.
The Real Objective Is Clear
Dead Reckoning Part One puts the IMF on a mission filled with deceit. The entity forced the team to scatter in different directions. Ethan, Grace, and Benji had to try and stop the arms deal on the orient express, with the villain being an A.I. program, which creates a real-world danger for the team. The prospect of a sentient program controlling the world's intelligence could be detrimental. For the IMF team to realize this, it took them facing unexpected casualties and obstacles.
One of the most surprising details was the government's involvement with the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby). When Kittridge and Denlinger are revealed to be on the train, it proves one point. Ethan and his IMF team are the only real “good guys.” Their fight to stop the entity gets in the way of everyone around them. Kittridge, Gabriel, and the White Widow always had ulterior motives.
Each character’s sole focus was to get the best outcome for themselves. Kittridge wanted to use Ethan, Gabriel simply wanted chaos for the entity, and the White Widow wanted to save herself. Ethan and his team's (Including new IMF member Grace) actions revealed this very fact. Ethan saw the potential in Grace and the emotional toll it took on her after Ilsa’s death. It is what let him realize how he could turn the tables on those against him with his new team.
Dead Reckoning Part One focuses on the characters separating truths from lies. Every decision our characters make has to be smarter than ever. The film ends with a surprising amount of closure. Our characters are reunited with a clear and apparent objective for the sequel.
Not much is known about Dead Reckoning Part Two since filming has not been completed. The only known information is that the remaining IMF team, Ethan, Grace, Benji, and Luther (after going off the grid earlier in the film), have a clear objective. They have chosen to accept the mission to destroy the entity but now need to survive to complete it.