MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Director Discusses Shocking Death in DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One featured an edge-of-your-seat thrilling adventure that led to the death of a franchise character. I was pretty bummed out by the death of this character, but there was a reason for it.

Director Christopher McQuarrie recently talked about the character’s death and explained why it needed to happen. If you haven’t watched the movie yet, you might not want to read any further.

Rebecca Ferguson’s badass character Ilsa Faust met her demise in the film when she was killed for real during a fight with Gabriel (Esai Morales). This scene was meant to once again highlight how those close to Ethan suffer the consequences of his actions. McQuarrie told USA Today:

"[It was] a really tough decision. But it was one we knew we had to make for the movie to have stakes and for the movie to remain Mission. Mission is primarily Ethan's journey (and) there is this continuum that the people closest to him, he tends to lose them. It was a really tricky conversation for us to have, and we knew that there would be some reactions to that, but we also knew this is the reality of the world that's been created over seven movies."

It’s safe to say that Ilsa is dead and that she’s not coming back to life. I really loved her character and while it sucks to see her go, I do understand that her death is important to the story that Tom Cruise and McQuarrie have set out to tell.

I’m excited to see this story continue with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, which is currently scheduled to be released on June 28th, 2024.