Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning is one of those films that needs to be watched in the theater, and I assure you that it will keep you on the edge of your seat. I have to say here that I am not a very big fan of the genre, but Christopher McQuarrie and his team surprise you in ways that you cannot imagine. So let’s go through the events of the film and find out if Ethan Hunt was able to stop the Entity.
Spoiler Alert
How did the Entity take control of the entire world?
The entire world was under the control of a rogue AI which the humans had named the Entity. People were living in the Entity’s reality, and they no longer knew what was right and what was wrong. This meant that nobody could be trusted, as the threat of them being misled by the Entity was quite high. Ethan knew that which is why the thought of controlling the Entity and using it to make things right never crossed his mind. He knew that nobody was worthy enough to be handed such power. Grace felt that Ethan was the right candidate for the job, and that if the Entity was in his control, the chances of him misusing the power was very low. But Ethan knew that such power could corrupt even the noblest of souls, and he was just not ready to take any chances. Approximately 2 months had passed since the events of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, and Ethan, Luther, and Benji together were trying to find a solution to the problem. Benji and Luther were well aware that if they killed the Entity, the entire cyber system of the world would be destroyed. After speculating about all the options they had, Luther came to the conclusion that they had no choice but to destroy the Entity regardless. He was also well aware that the odds did not favor them, and it was almost impossible to beat the AI, considering it had already taken many nuclear facilities of various nations under its control. The rogue AI spread all sorts of misinformation, and it pushed the nations to the brink of a nuclear war. Fear led people to turn against each other, and they didn’t understand that they were being manipulated by the Entity.
The question arose: what was stopping the AI from destroying humanity? It was speculated that the Entity wasn’t going to launch nuclear missiles until it had each and every nation’s nuclear facilities in its control. The UK, Russia, the USA, and China were a few nations that had been able to keep their nuclear facilities secure, but President Erika Sloane knew that she wouldn’t be able to stop the Entity for long. She wanted Ethan Hunt to turn himself in and hand over the key that he had procured in the previous part. But Ethan knew that if there was anybody who could make use of that key and get the better of the Entity, then it was him. Erika, just like others before her, was of the opinion that if they were able to control the Entity, then they would be able to change their reality, but Ethan, as stated earlier, didn’t trust anybody.
How did the Entity become so powerful?
We got to know that the US government had created the AI with the intention of gaining military superiority. We got to know that it was called the Rabbit’s Foot, which Ethan had stolen in one of his past missions. At that time, Ethan and his entire team had believed that the Rabbit’s Foot (which was contained in a cylindrical glass tube) had some dangerous chemical in it. But it was not so. That cylinder had the original form of the Entity in it. By original form I mean the AI that hadn’t yet gone rogue and had not yet developed an intelligence of its own. The US government was supposed to make use of the AI to trace enemy submarines and other such vehicles used for military operations. The program was a huge success, and the government felt that it would give them an upper hand, especially when it came to countering superpowers like Russia and China. But then something happened that changed the entire scenario, and it made analysts and coders working under the US government realize that they had committed a huge blunder. Just like Ethan Hunt, the AI too went rogue, but the only difference was that it wanted to destroy the world. In my opinion, the Entity separated from its source code, and it was able to spread into other systems just moments before the Sevastopol was wrecked. The source code, called the Podkova, got lost somewhere in the depths of the ocean, together with the submarine, and the Entity started wreaking havoc on the entire world.
Why did Luther sacrifice his life?
Ethan was in hiding, and a task force, under the leadership of Director Eugene Kittridge, was formed just to hunt him down. Kittridge and others who shared his ideology felt that Ethan Hunt was being foolish by not helping them establish their control over the Entity. But Erika, deep down, still had a lot of faith in her agent. She knew that though Ethan had gone rogue many times before, and he had never had the habit of following instructions, he had never let the nation down. Apart from Kittridge, Gabriel was also after Ethan Hunt. He knew that Ethan was the only person who could help him control the AI. Gabriel, in a literal sense, wanted to rule the world, and he knew that would only be possible if he had the Entity in his control. Meanwhile, Luther had figured out that there was a possibility that the Entity could be controlled/destroyed only if they could access its source code. They needed a sort of antidote, a poison pill, to deceive the Entity into believing that it had the entire world in its control. Before Ethan Hunt could make use of that poison pill, Gabriel, with world domination in his sights, took Luther into custody. Gabriel was a sadistic man, and so he not only took the poison pill but also made sure to plant a bomb where he held Luther captive. So the bomb could potentially destroy the entire city, and Luther knew that. Luther knew that he would have to stay back if he wanted to blunt the strength of the detonation and save the city. Ethan came to rescue Luther, but the latter told him that if they both tried to escape, the entire city would be burnt down to cinders. Moreover, they would lose their lives, so there was no point in fighting the inevitable. Luther told Ethan that the world needed him and he needed to find the source code and destroy the Entity. Ethan, with moist eyes, bid adieu to his friend. Ethan had lost people, but he had never felt so helpless in the past. Ethan promised Luther that his sacrifice wouldn’t go in vain and that he would try till his last breath to destroy the AI. Luther sacrificed his life like a true warrior, and had it not been for him, not even a single soul would have been left alive in the city.
How Did Ethan Find The Entity’s Original Source Code?
The Podkova was inside the Sevastopol, but the issue was that nobody knew where exactly the submarine was submerged. The Podkova had made the submarine undetectable, but that didn’t stop Ethan Hunt from taking his chances. Kittridge and Jason Briggs were able to find and capture Ethan, and they brought him to President Erika so that she could take the key (which was to be used to open the locker inside which the Podkova was installed) and use it to bring the AI under her control. But President Erika did no such thing, and she let her intuition guide her to do the right thing. President Erika provided Hunt with all the resources he needed, and he went directly to meet Admiral Neely, who was in charge of an aircraft carrier. Hunt told Neely that he had to find Sevastopol. It was a death wish, and Neely made sure that Hunt knew about it. She told him that, firstly, it was almost impossible for him to track down Captain Bledsoe’s submarine, the USS Ohio, as it moved in very close proximity to the Russian borders. Moreover, the Russian submarines had been trying to hunt down the USS Ohio, which is why Bledsoe and his entire team were much more cautious. But Hunt, obviously, was ready to take the risk. Neely gave Hunt one of her aircrafts to find the USS Ohio and the latter took a leap of faith and jumped from there, and he was fortunate enough that Bledsoe’s troops were able to rescue him just in time. Hunt told Bledsoe about his plan and how his team, who were somewhere on Saint Matthews’ Island, were going to send him the exact coordinates. To receive the radio signal and get the coordinates, the USS Ohio had to surface, which again was a very risky task. Things became even more complicated when the Russians got hold of Grace, Benji, Paris, and Degas before they could find the exact coordinates of the submerged Sevastopol. Benji and Grace had found out that a man named William Donloe, an ex-CIA analyst, could help them out. The USS Ohio could come to the surface only a limited amount of times, and so Grace, Benji, and the entire team had only a narrow window of time to find the code and send it to Hunt. William Donloe showed a lot of grit and courage, and he risked his life to give Grace and Benji the exact location of the submarine. William had actually taken a backup before the US agents conducted a raid at his home and deleted all the files that he had access to. Hunt got the exact location of the submarine just in time, and he once again risked his life and came out of the USS Ohio went into the deep ocean to retrieve the Podkova. The entire sequence where Ethan went to the depths of the ocean, entered the submarine, and found the Podkova was probably one of the best-shot scenes in the history of the franchise. There were times when it almost felt claustrophobic seeing Hunt enter different vents inside the submarine. Ethan Hunt was able to retrieve the Podkova, and he was rescued by Grace just in time. With the Podkova in their possession, the team just needed to mount the poison pill on it to destroy the AI. But it was not going to be such an easy task since the poison pill was in Gabriel’s possession, and he was just hellbent on using it to his advantage.
How did Ethan kill Gabriel?
Ethan also knew that he would have to play a bluff and make Gabriel believe that everything was in his control. Ethan’s plan was to hand over the Podkova to Gabriel and hope that he mounted the poison pill on it. Gabriel had no clue what would happen post that and how Ethan had planned to make use of the 5D optical drive and capture the Entity once it tried to break into the Doomsday Vault (a secure location where a backup of all the world’s data was stored). Things went a bit haywire after Kittridge and his team arrived unannounced at the Doomsday Vault, where Ethan was going to meet Gabriel. A fight ensued between Gabriel and Kittridger’s men, and the latter was able to escape from the vault as soon as he got an opportunity. Gabriel didn’t worry about the Podkova, as he knew that as long as he had the poison pill in his possession, Ethan would come to him with the source code. Gabriel’s plan was to kill Ethan and take the Podkova from him. He wanted to enslave the AI to create his own reality, and he harbored dreams of becoming the most powerful man in the world. But Ethan knew how to defy the odds.
After a thrilling air-chase sequence, Ethan Hunt was able to get the better of Gabriel. I have to say here that the word thrilling doesn’t come close to justifying what you would feel when you watch the climax on the big screen. That said, Ethan Hunt mounted the poison pill on the Podkova and, in a way, corrupted the entire source code of the Entity. Ethan did this just moments before the entire Doomsday Vault was taken over by the Entity. Ethan probably knew that once the source code was corrupted, the Entity would try to upload its servers to another location, which would give them an opportunity to capture it.
Is the Entity still alive?
President Sloane decided to let fate play out; she refused to take the decision as to where the nuclear missiles would strike in case the Entity uploaded its servers to the doomsday vault and took control of the entire cyberspace. While Ethan and Gabriel were fighting, Grace, Benji, Paris, Donloe, his wife and Dega, stayed back in the Doomsday Vault.
Another problem arose when the people in the vault realized that the moment Entity broke into the vault, the entire facility was going to be detonated in a matter of seconds. Now somebody needed to be on the outside and try to prevent the core from collapsing due to the explosion. Donloe, his wife, and Degas decided to stay back, though they knew very well that they wouldn’t be able to make it inside the vault in time. They believed that if they could help Benji save the world, their sacrifice would be worth it.
The plan was to capture the Entity just when it started to upload its servers by the use of a 5D optical drive that was small in size but had the capability to store huge amounts of data. Another tricky aspect of the mission was that, after the poison pill was mounted on the Podkova, whoever was there would have less than a second to take out the optical drive from its holder. If they were unable to do that, then the Entity could not be captured. Ethan knew that Grace was the best fit for the job, as she was an excellent pickpocket and her timing and reflexes were impeccable.
At the end of The Final Reckoning, the Entity got captured in the optical drive, and the world came back to normalcy. Ethan, Grace, Benji, and others had been able to save the world from a nuclear Armageddon. But was the AI destroyed? I didn’t think so. It was captured, like a genie in a bottle, and Ethan kept the 5D optic drive in his possession. This ending made me think that Ethan ended up doing the same thing that he was vehemently against in the beginning. He never wanted to control the AI, and though he had captured it now, he still had the power to unleash it. So the AI wasn’t dead after all, as per my understanding, and I don’t know how Ethan will prevent it from falling into the wrong hands if he does not plan to destroy the optical drive in the future.
