Mission Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One Ending Explained: Decoding the Climax to Tom Cruise’s Actioner and How it Sets Up the Sequel! (SPOILER ALERT)

Tom Cruise has done it once more as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is another successful and highly enjoyable entry in the series. Following Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team once again as they try to stop a rogue AI, they must find its key combination and put an end to it before other corrupt forces can get their hands on it and use it for their own gain. Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Movie Review: Tom Cruise Fights AI in This Breathtaking and High-Octane Actioner (LatestLY Exclusive).

Being the first part of a two-parter, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One surprisingly still feels like a whole film, which is an accomplishment on its own considering these types of movies haven’t exactly been able to land that format perfectly well. Not only does it have a conclusive ending, but it also sets up the next sequel quite well and that’s what we will be digging deep into. So, let’s see how Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s ending sets up Dead Reckoning Part II.

How Does the Ending Set up the Sequel

The beginning of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One takes us to the Russian submarine known as the Sevastopol, who homes the AI. When the AI starts thinking for itself, it fools the submarine’s captain into thinking that a rogue vessel is near them, and it commands to fire at it. When the vessel turns out to be a creation of the AI, it reverses the missile and attacks Sevastopol itself killing everyone on board and making sure that it can operate freely from there.

The only way to control the AI, which is now known as the Entity, is to have a key combination comprising of two different key parts. The AI does its bidding through Gabriel (Esai Morales), the man who has a past with Ethan Hunt before he joined the IMF and also a man responsible for killing someone close to Ethan. He has been given the task of assembling the keys and delivering it to the Entity.

Grace (Hayley Atwell), is also a newcomer to the franchise who gets lopped up in the mess when she ends up stealing one of the keys not knowing what it is and becomes a major player of the story. And then of course, you have Pom Klementieff as Paris, an assassin who joins up with Gabriel too and was initially after the key to sell it to the highest bidder. This pretty much makes it into a huge chase, and that’s what Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is all about, and it makes things quite personal for Ethan too.

Since he cares to grow about Grace through the course of the story, he needs to make a choice in the middle of the film either to save her or Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) as the Entity demands one of them to die. During a fight with Gabriel, Ilsa unfortunately ends up getting bested and he kills her which marks another person close to him being killed at the hands of Gabriel. With Ilsa dead, Grace blames herself as she was protecting her, and then also has a nice arc at the end of the film where she ends up joining the IMF and also helps Ethan retrieve the final combination of the key.

The movie ends with the final confrontation taking place aboard a train that has been heavily teased so far in the trailers. With Alanna (Vanessa Kirby), having the second combination of the key, she intends on selling it to a buyer who turns out to be Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), the director of IMF. Gabriel also gets on the train with Denlinger (Cary Elwes), the director of National Intelligence, and he reveals to him that the complete key actually leads to the Sevastopol itself that houses an early version of the Entity. Whoever has the key, can control the Entity however they want to and destroy it as well. Gabriel then ends up killing Denlinger and also wounds Paris thinking that she would betray him since she knew the truth now too.

Grace then disguises herself as Alanna and subdues her while meeting Kittridge and makes the deal. When Kittridge puts the combination in his pockets, Grace is able to pick pocket it back from him and escapes while Alanna wakes up and puts her goons after her. Ethan is then able to make it onto the train in time, however, in the scuffle the key gets lost and is retrieved by Gabriel. Ethan and Gabriel then get into a fight but it’s stopped once Briggs (Shea Wingham), an officer trying to arrest Ethan, gets the jump on him. Gabriel then escapes from the train and Ethan is able to convince Briggs that the train is going to crash and that he needs to save everyone. Ethan and Grace then successfully stop the train and he reveals to her that he was able to get the key off from Gabriel before he escaped.

Ethan and Grace then find a wounded Paris who reveals to them about the Sevastopol, and it sees Ethan escape from the train before Briggs gets a hold of him. The movie then ends with Ethan meeting up with Benji as they carry on to find the submarine with Grace meeting Kittridge and telling him that she “chose to accept.”

So, it’s pretty clear that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two will be all about Ethan’s fight in trying to find the Sevastopol and destroying the Entity once and for all. It also sets up Ethan’s journey to get revenge on Gabriel as this is the second time he has lost someone close due to him. So, it pretty much looks like this is what MI8 is all going to be about. It also sets up Grace as the new face of the franchise with her also being in active duty alongside Hunt and being a part of the IMF. Since she blames herself for Ilsa’s death, we can expect MI8 to be a deeply personal experience for her too. Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One: Tom Cruise Opens Up About His Death-Defying Stuns in the Film.

But, until we wait for MI8, let’s just watch Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One once again as its finally playing in theatres.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 12, 2023 12:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).