Mission: Impossible as a series has come a long way. Despite starting off as a sneaky, twisty and even a bit cerebral film, the movies have long eschewed Brian De Palma’s stealthy 1996 take and embraced much bigger action set-pieces. Even so, director Christopher McQuarrie has been able to anchor the series in an emotional core that manages to always keep the stakes high for Ethan Hunt and his IMF gang. And while fans may have been on the ride since its cinematic debut in 1996, the series itself has been around for much longer, premiering as a TV Show 30 years earlier and running well into 7 seasons.
Naturally then, much like the series, its characters must have a past too. And while Hunt’s life before the IMF has not been the subject of much exploration, McQuarrie seems hellbent on delving into that side of Hunt. In a breakdown of the recently released trailer with Empire Magazine, he emphasized once again just how crucial Hunt’s past becomes to the stakes of this two-parter. He manages to do this by bringing two characters from Hunt’s past at the forefront of his present-day life.
The first of these is Eugene Kittridge, played deviously by Henry Czerny. Based on McQuarrie’s comments, Kittridge will continue his antagonistic stance towards Hunt, even though he’s not really the antagonist of the story. The clash between Kittridge and Hunt boils down to conflicting priorities; while Kittridge is more concerned with the nation he serves, Hunt is fighting for the whole world. Neither is outright wrong, making this dynamic that much more fascinating.
He’s the same Kittridge, but different. He’s been in the game a very long time and still very much has his priorities straight. What’s fantastic about the dynamic between Ethan and Kittridge is that Kittridge is not a villain. He is not an evil character. He is very much an antagonist in that he does not share what he would call Ethan’s naïve faith in humanity. Under other circumstances they would be on the same side. It just happens to be that Kittridge represents the interests of his own country and Ethan represents the interests of the entire world.
The real antagonist of Dead Reckoning over both its parts is Esai Morales’ Gabriel. Originally set to be played by Nicholas Hoult, scheduling conflicts in the wake of the pandemic forced him to drop out, leading to Morales being case. That spurred a rewrite of the character to fit Morales, pitting him against a formidable adversary to Hunt as someone who returns from Hunt’s past to haunt him. It’s possible they both know each other from their pre-IMF days, with Hunt’s antics concluding things messily, leaving Gabriel with an eternal grudge.
Casting Esai allowed us to explore things with those characters and the notion of Ethan’s past. Ethan has a past that predates the IMF, and that allowed us to explore that with a character that knew Ethan before Ethan was Ethan. That’s part of who Gabriel is.
The fact that we now know this antagonist’s name was also not lost on McQuarrie. He stressed the amount of detail and thought that was put into every single aspect of the franchise, including Gabriel’s name, so take what you will from that:
Every detail of the story is very carefully considered. People who want to do their homework can derive from that whatever they please.
With all these developments, Dead Reckoning is shaping up to possibly be one of the franchise’s finest adventures yet.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is set to release on July 12, 2023.
