Warning! Spoilers ahead for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

Summary

  • Simon Pegg comments on the potential death of his character, Benji, in a future Mission: Impossible installment, acknowledging that no one is safe.
  • The death of Ilsa in Mission: Impossible 7 sets a new precedent for the franchise, as she was a well-established and well-liked character.
  • Ilsa's death means that anyone, including Benji, Luther, or new team member Grace, could potentially die in future films as well.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One star Simon Pegg reacts to Benji possibly dying in a future franchise installment. Directed once again by franchise regular Christopher McQuarrie, the latest entry in the long-running action movie series sees Tom Cruise return as superspy Ethan Hunt to face off against a dangerous AI threat and its human emissary. Hunt is ed, as ever, by a trusty team of new and old companions, including Pegg's tech-whiz-turned-field-agent Benji.

Now, following Ilsa's shocking death in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Pegg comments on Benji's potential demise in a recent interview with CinemaBlend (conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike). Having first appeared in 2006's Mission: Impossible 3, Pegg has been a franchise staple longer than Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa, but the actor makes clear that not even Benji is safe from death in a future movie. Check out Pegg's full comment below:

“As I think Luther says, we don’t matter as much as the mission, and anyone of us at any time could face the end. And if that happened, I’d be sad. You know I’ve lived with Benji for like... I mean ,wait, who’s to say it doesn’t happen? But I would be sad. He’s been in my life for 17 years. I’ve watched him, I’ve been him, growing up, becoming an older, more mature agent, and you know, they live a sort of tragic life in a way.”

How Dead Reckoning Part One Sets A New Franchise Precedent

Ilsa wearing an eye patch and looking through a scope in Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning

Over the course of the first six Mission: Impossible movies, Ethan has a number of different team . The original movie famously kills off Ethan's whole team during the film's first act, thus connecting him with Luther (Ving Rhames), who is now the longest-serving ing character in the franchise. Mission: Impossible 3 features the death of Ethan's protégé, but audiences aren't really given enough time to get fully attached to their relationship.

In 2015's Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Ilsa is introduced, eventually becoming Ethan's on-again, off-again ally. It's this film that largely establishes the tone and core ing characters that would continue into Mission: Impossible – Fallout and the latest installment. Ilsa's death in Mission: Impossible 7, then, is really a franchise first because of how well-established and well-liked she was in the series.

Considering McQuarrie's recent comments about the importance of Ilsa's death in of how it sets up Gabriel (Esai Morales) and The Entity as the biggest threats Ethan has faced thus far, it does sound as if her death is definitive. If Ilsa can die, it's clear, then, that so too can anyone else, including Benji, Luther, or even new team member Grace (Hayley Atwell). It does seem unlikely that the follow-up movie to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One would kill off another major character so soon, but it's now certainly a possibility in any future films.

Source: CinemaBlend