Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Featurette Breaks Down AI Villain

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing in theaters, and it sees Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) facing off with a whole new villain: The Entity. This AI is a hyper-advanced artificial intelligence AKA “a self-learning, truth-eating, digital parasite” that goes rogue after becoming self-aware. Considering how much AI is advancing in the real world, this new Mission: Impossible villain is hitting close to home for many. In a new featurette shared by Collider, director Christopher McQuarrie breaks down The Entity in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. 

“In an exclusive new #MissionImpossible7 featurette, @chrismcquarrie discusses the film’s ominous AI threat known as ‘The Entity,’” Collider shared on Twitter. “When we were in post-production, we started to recognize that what The Entity had turned into what was now starting to resemble a reality that was developing around us,” McQuarrie explains. You can check out the full video below:

Why Is Dead Reckoning in Two Parts?

It was previously announced that the film would be split into two parts, but it might be a while before fans see Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two due to the current WGA and SAG strikes. During a recent interview with Collider, McQuarrie explained why Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning has been split into two parts.

“Well, we knew with Fallout. Fallout really grew because of all the character and emotion we were putting into the story, all the things that we had discovered in Rogue Nation that was so unexpected,” McQuarrie shared. “I knew I wanted to expand the cast, and I knew I wanted to give each one of those characters more to do, so I knew the movie was going to be bigger and longer than Fallout.”

“And at which point I said, ‘Why are we fighting this? Why are we going to try to jam this into two hours? Let’s just break it in half and make it two movies.’ That really was the rationale behind it being a two-part movie. It just it wasn’t just that the story was bigger but that we wanted more emotion in the movie,” he added. 

“Yeah, it’s massive, and it was complicated by the fact that certain things in Part Two required stopping Part One to shoot them, whether it was because of weather or actor availability. And so, with all the other challenges that were confronting this movie while we were making it, there was the challenge of stopping in the middle, not even knowing what the full movie was, and trying to predict what it was in the second film. It’s a testament to how great this team is and how patient this cast is. It’s really something,” McQuarrie explained. 

What Is Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning About?

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which premiered in theaters on July 12th. It’s the beginning of the end for the action-packed franchise, as Cruise reteams with longtime collaborator and filmmaker 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.