Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Director Says THAT Death Was Planned for a While

Paramount Pictures has finally released the seventh installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise and fans have been raving about the film. Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One was released to some positive reactions, and it was due to the performance from Hayley Atwell and all of the action of the film. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, and he's faced off with his greatest foe yet, and he even has to deal with a significant death in the franchise. A major character dies in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and it seems that the death was planned.

THAT Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Death was Planned

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has been in theaters for a few weeks, and now McQuarrie is revealing some incredible details about the film. In a recent discussion with Empire Magazine, the director said that not only was Ilsa Faust's (Rebecca Ferguson) death planned, but it was also necessary for the character.

"It was one of the earliest conversations – around the set of Top Gun, we were already talking about it," McQuarrie revealed about planning Ilsa's death. "Any place you took that character would make less of her. It would suddenly become frivolous, which is something we're always trying to avoid. The character would become frivolous, or she would just become a romantic interest. And it was never about creating a character who was defined by her love story with Ethan Hunt. Their relationship transcends a traditional love story."

"It's a very heroic death for that character. It is not in any way, shape, or form disposable. It's a noble and heroic death. That, to me, is the hardest thing to find for a character," McQuarrie continued. "Her death was one of the first things we shot. But the reasons came later – and we were not satisfied the first time I cut the scene together without those reasons in place. As a scene all by itself in a vacuum, [it] didn't work," 

Christopher McQuarrie Expected an Emotional Response 

With every franchise, when it comes to killing off fan-favorite characters, the people behind the scenes always expect some emotional response, and McQuarrie was no different. The Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director reveals that he expected people to walk out of a test screening when Ilsa Faust dies, "In the very first test screening, I was fully expecting people to just get up and walk out of the theatre. And at that moment, when it ended and we cut back to the safehouse with Luther and Grace, two people got up and left and didn't come back. And I knew that was a possibility. I don't revel in that. But I know there will be people upset. It's not whether or not a character dies. It's not what group that character represents, when that character dies. It's not what emotion that character instils in the protagonist when that character dies. It's the value of that character's death," he argues. "It's not any more complicated than that: did they die for a reason?"

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Director Changed Film Due to Brutal Email

McQuarrie recently revealed that he received a pretty critical email from a friend of an editor named Eddie Hamilton after a screening of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and it made him sick to his stomach. The Mission: Impossible director changed the movie after the email and even credited Hamilton in the special thanks mentioned in the credits.

"He wrote the most brutal email I've ever read – not hostile, but just both barrels right to the chin, things that were not working for him in the movie, things that were really bugging him, and that he was not a big franchise action movie guy to begin with," McQuarrie recently revealed. "He was not a huge fan of Mission: Impossible. And I woke up that morning and read this email and just wanted to vomit. It was so brutal. It just forced me to look at things through another person's eyes, which is really what the value of testing is."

What Goes Down In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One?

Tom Cruise is back as the iconic action hero Ethan Hunt in the seventh installment, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which is set to make its way into theaters next week. It's the beginning of the end for the action-packed franchise, as Cruise reteams with longtime collaborator and director Christopher McQuarrie for more death-defying and breathtaking stunts. Hunt and allies Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) attempt to track down a new weapon with the power to tear the world apart. Actors Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Esai Morales join the cast for the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which is set to wrap up with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is in theaters now with a second part, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, in production and will hit theaters on June 28, 2024, but could wind up being delayed due to the ongoing WGA strike. Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for more updates on the Mission: Impossible franchise as we learn it!

What do you think about Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One? Do you think that Ilsa Faust should have died? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!