Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is one of those must-see movies, and I assure you it will keep you on the edge of your seat. I must say I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but Christopher McQuarrie and his team will surprise you in unimaginable ways. So let's revisit the events of the film and find out if Ethan Hunt managed to stop the Entity.
The entire world was under the control of a rogue AI that humans had dubbed the Entity. People lived in the Entity's reality and no longer knew what was right and what was wrong. This meant that no one could be trusted, as the risk of being deceived by the Entity was very high. Ethan knew this, and that's why it never occurred to him to control the Entity and use it to set things right. He knew no one was worthy enough to be given such power.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Writers: Bruce Geller, Erik Jendresen, Christopher McQuarrie
Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames
Grace believed Ethan was the ideal candidate for the position, and that if he controlled the Entity, the chances of him abusing his power were very low. But Ethan knew that such power could corrupt even the noblest souls, and he wasn't willing to take any risks. Approximately two months had passed since the events of Mission: Impossible: Reckoning, and Ethan, Luther, and Benji were trying together to find a solution to the problem. Benji and Luther were well aware that if they killed the Entity, the entire world's cybernetic system would be destroyed. After speculating about all the options, Luther concluded that they had no choice but to destroy the Entity regardless. He was also aware that the odds were not in their favor, and it was nearly impossible to defeat the AI, considering it had already taken control of numerous nuclear facilities in several nations. The rogue AI spread all kinds of disinformation and brought nations to the brink of nuclear war. Fear drove people to turn on each other, not understanding that the Entity was manipulating them.
The question arose: what was stopping the AI from destroying humanity? There was speculation that the Entity would not launch nuclear missiles until it had control of every nation's nuclear facilities. The United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, and China were some of the countries that had managed to keep their nuclear facilities secure, but President Erika Sloane knew she couldn't hold off the Entity for long. She wanted Ethan Hunt to surrender himself and the key he had obtained in the previous episode.
But Ethan knew that if anyone could use that key and defeat the Entity, it would be him. Erika, like others before her, believed that if they could control the Entity, they could change their reality, but Ethan, as mentioned above, didn't trust anyone. We learned that the US government had created the AI with the intention of gaining military superiority. We learned that it was called the Rabbit's Foot, which Ethan had stolen on one of his previous missions. Back then, Ethan and his entire team believed that the Rabbit's Foot (contained in a cylindrical glass tube) contained a dangerous chemical. But that wasn't the case. That cylinder contained the original form of the Entity. By original form, I mean the AI that hadn't yet gone uncontrollable or developed an intelligence of its own.
The US government was supposed to use the AI to track enemy submarines and other similar vehicles used in military operations. The program was a huge success, and the government believed it would give them an advantage, especially when facing superpowers like Russia and China. But then something happened that completely changed the landscape and made the analysts and programmers working for the US government realize they had made a grave mistake. Like Ethan Hunt, the AI also went rogue, but the only difference was that it wanted to destroy the world. In my opinion, the Entity separated from its source code and managed to spread to other systems moments before the Sevastopol sank. The source code, called Podkova, was lost in the depths of the ocean, along with the submarine, and the Entity began wreaking havoc around the world.
The Podkova was inside the Sevastopol, but the problem was that no one knew exactly where the submarine was submerged. The Podkova had rendered the submarine undetectable, but that didn't stop Ethan Hunt from taking risks. Kittridge and Jason Briggs managed to find and capture Ethan, and brought him to President Erika so she could take the key (which was meant to open the compartment where the Podkova was installed) and use it to control the AI. But President Erika did no such thing, letting her intuition guide her. President Erika provided Hunt with all the resources he needed, and he went straight to meet with Admiral Neely, who was in charge of an aircraft carrier.
Hunt told Neely that he had to find the Sevastopol. It was a death wish, and Neely made sure Hunt knew it. He explained that, first of all, it was nearly impossible for him to track Captain Bledsoe's submarine, the USS Ohio, as it was coming so close to Russian borders. Furthermore, Russian submarines had been trying to locate the USS Ohio, so Bledsoe and his entire team were much more cautious. But Hunt was obviously willing to take the risk. Neely provided Hunt with one of his planes to find the USS Ohio, and he boldly jumped from there. He was fortunate that Bledsoe's troops were able to rescue him just in time. Hunt told Bledsoe his plan and how his team, located somewhere on St. Matthew Island, would send him the exact coordinates.
To receive the radio signal and obtain the coordinates, the USS Ohio had to surface, which, again, was a very risky undertaking. The situation became even more complicated when the Russians captured Grace, Benji, Paris, and Degas before they could find the exact coordinates of the submerged Sevastopol. Benji and Grace discovered that a man named William Donloe, a former CIA analyst, could help them. The USS Ohio could only surface a limited number of times, so Grace, Benji, and the entire team had a short window to find the code and send it to Hunt. William Donloe demonstrated great bravery and courage, risking his life to give Grace and Benji the submarine's exact location.
In fact, William had made a backup copy before US agents raided his home and deleted all the files he had access to. Hunt obtained the submarine's exact location just in time, and once again risked his life and left the USS Ohio to venture into the depths of the ocean to retrieve the Podkova. The entire sequence where Ethan descended into the depths of the ocean, entered the submarine, and found the Podkova was probably one of the best-filmed scenes in the history of the franchise. There were moments where it almost felt claustrophobic watching Hunt enter the submarine's various vents. Ethan Hunt managed to retrieve the Podkova, and Grace rescued him just in time. With the Podkova in their possession, the team only needed to plant the poison pill inside to destroy the AI. But it wouldn't be an easy task, as the pill was in Gabriel's possession, who was hell-bent on using it to his advantage.
Ethan also knew he would have to trick Gabriel into believing everything was under his control. Ethan's plan was to give Gabriel the Podkova and wait for him to plant the poison pill inside. Gabriel had no idea what would happen next, or how Ethan planned to use the 5D optical drive to capture the Entity once it attempted to break into the Doomsday Vault (a secure location that backed up all the world's data). Things became more complicated after Kittridge and his team arrived unannounced at the Doomsday Vault, where Ethan was to meet Gabriel.
A fight broke out between Gabriel and Kittridger's men, and the latter managed to escape the vault as soon as he had the chance. Gabriel wasn't worried about the Podkova, knowing that as long as he had the poison pill in his possession, Ethan would come to him with the source code. Gabriel's plan was to kill Ethan and seize the Podkova. He wanted to enslave the AI to create his own reality and harbored dreams of becoming the most powerful man in the world. But Ethan defied the odds. After an exciting aerial chase sequence, Ethan Hunt managed to defeat Gabriel. I must say that the word exciting doesn't even come close to justifying what it would feel like to watch the climax on the big screen. That being said, Ethan Hunt assembled the poison pill in the Podkova and, in a way, corrupted the Entity's entire source code. Ethan did this moments before the Entity took control of the entire Doomsday Vault. He probably knew that, once he corrupted the source code.
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