Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One contained several clues that foreshadowed the shocking death of Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), an operative who began as an anti-hero and became one of Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) core team members, not to mention love interests. In an effort to reunite the halves of the key and use it to unlock the secrets of the Entity, Ilsa is killed by the Entity’s emissary Gabriel in front of Ethan and Grace. It came as quite a shock to fans who couldn’t believe such a prominent character in the Mission: Impossible franchise would be killed off, but the film contained several clues for eagle-eyed fans.
From certain key pieces of dialogue and flashbacks, to the framing of specific action scenes, there were signs that Ilsa’s demise was always going to happen in the seventh Mission: Impossible movie. It didn’t make the loss of her character any more tragic, and effectively raised the stakes of what the Entity was capable of. The well-constructed seventh installment in the popular action-adventure franchise did a commendable job of weaving Mission: Impossible Easter eggs in with clues about her shocking passing into a complex narrative that kept fans guessing every step of the way, with more questions still waiting to be answered in Part Two.
7 Marie’s Death Foreshadows Ethan’s Heartbreak
Fans might have been confused about the woman in Ethan Hunt’s life who appears in flashbacks, but she’s a character with an important part in Ethan’s backstory that foreshadows his future heartbreak. Hunt’s mystery woman is revealed to be Marie, whom Gabriel later kills and blames on Ethan, which inspires his decision to join the IMF rather than serve time in prison, giving him access to an extensive spy network that he can use to eventually track down her murderer. While it’s a risk so late in the franchise, including a new character like Marie demonstrates how he feels responsible for the people closest to him getting hurt.
6 Ilsa Faust’s Faked Death
One of the most salient things to foreshadow Ilsa’s death occurs in the desert sequence the last time that Ethan ever has contact with her. Though she’s been tracked by IMF because of the key, Ethan convinces her to fake her own death so that she can slip away undetected and go off-grid. Ethan does everything he can to make sure that Ilsa has a new life and a fresh start so that she won’t have to worry about looking over her shoulder, but ironically the key, connected to an omnipotent and omnipresent AI, is the very thing that brings them together again in a Machiavellian twist of fate.
5 “This Mission Will Cost You Dearly” – Eugene Kittridge
Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) is a Mission Impossible 7 character who hasn’t been seen in the Mission: Impossible franchise since the very beginning, but apparently, Kittridge had been up to plenty of espionage between the first installment and the latest. The Director of the Impossible Mission Force in Mission: Impossible, he wrongfully accused Ethan of being a mole, and he returns in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning as the source of betrayal himself. When he tells Ethan that the mission will cost him dearly, he isn’t simply referring to the danger to the rogue agent himself and his reputation, but to the people around him he holds most dear.
4 The Entity Might Have Hired Ilsa To Get The Key
The Entity can control digital information as well as how it’s disseminated globally, and it’s clear that it possibly hired Ilsa to get the key in the first place thanks to fake messages from her contacts in British Intelligence. It’s further possible that it used pattern recognition to predict how Ethan would respond to the knowledge that Ilsa was involved, and even if she attacked its emissary Gabriel, she wouldn’t be a viable threat. The Entity utilized all the information at its disposal to account for outcomes based on the human behavior of Ethan, Ilsa, and Gabriel, one of which resulted in Ilsa’s death.
3 Ethan’s Candlelit Sprint To Save Ilsa Looked Like A Funeral
It wouldn’t be a Mission: Impossible movie without sequences involving Tom Cruise sprinting between locations, but one involving a candle-filled corridor, with a shot of Ilsa dead center, felt particularly foreboding. It occurs while Ethan is sprinting to save Ilsa’s life before something happens to her at the hands of Gabriel, and the candlelit vestibule conveys the solemnity of a funeral. There’s a reverence and spiritual quality to the scene of Ethan hurtling down a sacred hallway toward the inevitable, at which point no matter how hard he tries he can’t prevent someone from risking their life for him.
2 “None Of Our Lives Can Matter More Than This Mission” – Luther Stickell
Ever the voice of reason, Luther has been providing words of wisdom to Ethan ever since the very first Mission: Impossible, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is no exception. When the group has to make the begrudging decision to split up, Luther lets Ethan know that based on everything he’s learned about the Entity and what it’s capable of, none of their lives can matter more than securing the key. Luther is not only including himself in this statement but also Ilsa, and while the unthinkable does happen, and she becomes a casualty, everyone knows the risks of being involved in saving the world.
1 Gabriel Warns Grace About What Happens To The Women In Ethan’s Life
Gabriel warns Grace about the fate of women who get close to Ethan, which helps to establish a bit of a red herring about what will happen to her if she becomes entangled in Ethan’s trajectory. When Ethan is put into an impossible situation where he has to choose to protect Grace, someone he’s recently met, or Ilsa, someone he’s shared multiple missions with, either outcome presents unique challenges. Gabriel, who murdered Marie and tried to pin it on Ethan, demonstrates how cyclical life can be when he also kills Ilsa, whose death further cements the point he made to Grace.
The way the film frames probability implies that there are many things in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Onethat could be part of a deception to fool the Entity. Like one of Ethan’s sleight of hand tricks, Ilsa’s death may not be final, especially since she’s such a well-developed character who’s had so much impact on Ethan’s life as well as the franchise. Humans can be erratic and unpredictable even to the most well-trained AI, so it only makes sense to think that Ilsa’s death isn’t set in stone, and that she’s just part of an increasingly elaborate plan to outsmart the Entity and beat it at its own game.
