The The Final Reckoning featured a thrilling confrontation with him, the villain's place in the new story was strangely minimized. With this in mind, Gabriel's potential as the last Mission: Impossible villain is a disappointing choice.

Granted, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning may or may not be the last entry in the franchise. While there is room to tell more stories, the Mission: Impossible for some time.

Gabriel Is A Poor Final Villain For Ethan Hunt

The Dead Reckoning Foe Is Used In A Surprising Way In The New Film

Great villains can work in all kinds of different ways, as seen throughout the Mission: Impossible franchise. However, Gabriel seemed to be set up to have important and terrifying ties to Ethan's past. It was revealed in Dead Reckoning that Gabriel's actions, including killing the woman Ethan loved, set Cruise’s hero on the path that led him to where he is now, as an agent in the IMF. These motivations and connections appear to be loaded with emotional significance for Ethan's character that were only touched upon in the previous film.

Esai Morales, best known for his roles in 1983's Bad Boys and 1987's La Bamba, plays Gabriel in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.

However, The Final Reckoning does not revisit nearly any part of Gabriel's past or his influence on Ethan. Rather than continuing to draw connections between the two foes, and explore the impact that Gabriel had on making Ethan the person he is, the former instead becomes little more than an annoyance in the new film. He is cast aside by the Entity in The Final Reckoning and spends the film’s runtime making a desperate play to regain control. Rather than being a terrifying villain, Gabriel instead pops up at inopportune times throughout the story and is given an unceremonious death.

How Mission: Impossible's Best Villains Work - And Why Gabriel Doesn't

The Franchise Has Featured Genuinely Terrifying Threats With Great Ties To Ethan's Story

Mission: Impossible has featured some great villains over the years. Characters like Owen Davian and Solomon Lane made terrifying contributions to Ethan's story, targeting his loved ones in terrifying ways. Others, like August Walker, brought violent and powerful intensity to the ending of films like Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Following these characters and the promise of what was set up in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, the use of Gabriel in the latest film feels like a baffling choice.

These villains are great threats on their own, but they also have interesting ties to Ethan's story. Phelps is a disillusioned agent of the same IMF, and Solomon Lane's Syndicate is an interesting contrast to the groups and organizations that Ethan is involved with. With dark ties even within governmental movements, Ethan has had to navigate power and destruction in incredible and thrilling ways. Tossing all of this aside, and ignoring even the setup for Gabriel's powerful connections to Ethan's past, makes The Final Reckoning’s villain feel so much more disposable.

How Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Could Have Fixed Gabriel

Gabriel's Story In The New Film Should Have Been Very Different

The real villain of The Final Reckoning is the Entity, not Gabriel, and this was a mistake. While it makes sense that the Entity has lost faith in Gabriel after the ending of Dead Reckoning, the way this was approached in the film was to its detriment. Gabriel could still have been a powerful ally to the Entity in the film. However, if the entity throwing him away could not be avoided, then he should have been written out of the film altogether. His only tenuous links to the real threat made his inclusion feel like an afterthought.

The villain in this film, if it is supposed to feel like a conclusion to the entire saga, should have felt more consistent with the rest of the franchise. Instead, Gabriel felt like a side character whose actions were more annoying than destructive. Exploring Ethan's past with Gabriel and tying that in directly to the relationship with the Entity could have made the entire film so much stronger. It is disappointing that Gabriel’s role in the film was exactly the same as characters like Kittridge, who vainly hoped to gain the Entity’s power for themselves.

The Final Reckoning is sure to satisfy most audiences looking for high-octane action and thrilling stunts. However, the film fails to capture much of the emotional resonance and the cleverness of previous films in the franchise. The eighth installment is certainly an enjoyable time at the cinemas, but the story, and especially the villain, felt weak after so many great entries in the series. Fortunately, while Gabriel's role in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning was unsuccessful, there is still some great stuff to enjoy in the new film.