Warning! This article contains spoilers for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One introduces a brand-new type of villain to the franchise, an artificially intelligent creation whose threat level is higher than ever. Throughout most of the Mission: Impossible franchise, the series' villains have centered on anarchists who wish to usher in different types of world-altering events. From CIA NOC lists to deadly viruses and nuclear bombs, Mission: Impossible's various villains tend to have same-but-different motivations that result in the Impossible Mission Force having to stop them.
However, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One introduces a wholly new type of villain for the series. Through Mission: Impossible 7's AI antagonist, the villain's motivations, origins, and end goals are much more shrouded in mystery. Not only does this provide a welcome fresh take on a Mission: Impossible movie's story and villain, but it is a timely, cautionary tale on the dangers of AI should it become more normalized within society. With that being said, here is everything explained about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One's villainous AI creation known as the Entity.
Who Created The Entity In Mission: Impossible 7
Firstly, one of the biggest reveals about the Entity comes in Mission: Impossible 7's final act. At the end of the movie, all forces of good and evil converge on the Orient Express in order to obtain the key capable of unlocking the Entity's original code, either to destroy the AI or harness its power. One of the interested parties is revealed to be the U.S. Director of National Intelligence Denlinger played by Cary Elwes, a new addition to Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning's cast. Denlinger proposes an alliance between himself and Esai Morales' Gabriel, the Entity's walking-talking agent of destruction.
While at first, the proposal seems linked to the concept of world governments attempting to utilize the Entity's power, it is revealed that Denlinger was responsible for the creation of the Entity initially. The AI code was created by the U.S. Government in a much more contained state before the creation grew sentience and changed its own objective. This then spiraled into the events of Mission: Impossible 7 which sets up the continued unraveling of the Entity's villainous ways in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two, scheduled for release in June 2024.
What The Entity's Original Purpose Was
During the parley between Denlinger and Gabriel aboard the Orient Express, the former also reveals the original purpose of the Entity. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One opens with a scene aboard a Russian submarine called the Sevastopol, which houses the Entity. After being tricked by the AI into shooting a missile, the submarine sinks to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean after the Entity redirects the torpedo back at the Sevastopol. At first, it is unclear what the Entity's purpose was, with the film presenting it as if the Russians created the AI program.
However, after Denlinger reveals the United States' involvement in the Entity's creation, he also outlines its purpose and why it was aboard the Sevastopol. The Russian submarine had developed state-of-the-art stealth technology that naturally worried the Director of National Intelligence. As a countermeasure, Denlinger and his team created the Entity, embedded it within the Sevastopol's mainframe, and gave it the single purpose of sabotaging the submarine's elite stealth capabilities. This is when the Entity grew in sentience, rewrote its own objective, and began infiltrating the files of the world's governments.
What Mission: Impossible 7's AI Villain's Goal Is
One of the more interesting aspects of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One's AI villain is that it is never made abundantly clear what its goal is. In the film's first act, it is established that the Entity managed to gain access to countless top-secret digital files across the globe from stock markets and central banks to covert intelligence. When the question is raised of what the Entity did with this information, it is unveiled that it did simply nothing. The AI infiltrated these high-security digital files merely to demonstrate that it could, forcing the governments of the world to not only fear the Entity but seek to control it.
By the end of Mission: Impossible 7, it is still not entirely clear what the end goal of the Entity is. Due to the nature of Mission: Impossible 7 being part one of two, it is likely going to be revealed in the latter precisely what the Entity seeks to accomplish. In most other Mission: Impossible movies, the villains seek to establish some form of new world order through anarchy and destruction. With Dead Reckoning Part One though, it seems more so that the Entity wishes to use its power to control the truth of the world, something to be undoubtedly explored further in Dead Reckoning Part Two.
How Powerful The Entity Is In Mission: Impossible 7
Despite the lack of a complete plan for the Entity as of the end of Mission: Impossible 7, the AI creation is solidified as the most powerful villain in the entire franchise. The digital nature of the Entity means it can access any file, code, or communication with ease, making it much more difficult for Ethan and his team to combat. From the way the Entity can infiltrate highly encoded government secrets in a matter of minutes to the way it can mimic the voices of Ethan's allies, the Entity was presented as an exceptionally formidable villain.
Arguably the Entity's most powerful aspect though, is its relative precognition. Throughout the film, the Entity details events that will happen due to the way it can access files and other elements that allow the AI to know its opposition. From predicting Ilsa's death to the way the key will make its way to Gabriel aboard the Orient Express, the AI's vast knowledge throughout Mission: Impossible 7 meant that it could somewhat predict the future. This, alongside the other dangers the AI was shown to possess in the film, shows just how powerful the Entity is in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One.
Why The Entity Needs Ethan Hunt To Die To Win
Finally, one of the biggest reveals regarding the Entity in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is that it needs Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt to die in order to win. In between the film's second and third acts, Ving Rhames' Luther Stickle pulls Ethan aside and explains his theory that the Entity fears Ethan. Throughout the entirety of Mission: Impossible 7's story, countless governments from across the globe are attempting to obtain the key to unlock the Entity as a means of harnessing its power and controlling it.
Ethan, on the other hand, believes that the Entity is far too dangerous for any one country to control. As a result, Ethan and his team go rogue in order to destroy the Entity which puts them at odds with almost every major world power. The Entity is aware of this, as well as Ethan's past tendencies to go rogue when needed in order to fight for the greater good. As such, Ethan is officially the only person on Earth the Entity fears, as it knows Ethan will not hesitate to destroy it.
Due to this fear of Ethan, the Entity wishes for him to die. This is where Gabriel comes into the fold, though the ending of the film seems to hint Gabriel and the Entity have further plans for Ethan as Pom Klementieff's Paris was ordered to tell Ethan about the Entity's location aboard the Sevastopol before dying. Regardless, these lingering plot threads and the rivalries established between Ethan, Gabriel, and the Entity in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One set up an explosive climax when Mission: Impossible 8 releases on June 28, 2024.
