Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning Answers a Question Left Unsolved Since 1996

As supposedly the closing chapter in Tom Cruise’s beloved action franchise, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning attempts to tie every loose thread of previous installments. That means solving mysteries such as the true nature of Mission: Impossible 3 Rabbit’s Foot and giving fan-favorite characters such as Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) a proper farewell. In addition, The Final Reckoning also revisits Ethan Hunt’s previous exploits, dissecting how his choices and uncompromising nature have led to the rise of the Entity, a deadly AI determined to destroy humanity. Surprisingly, in its deep exploration of the past, The Final Reckoning brings Rolf Saxon back as William Donloe, a character last seen in 1996’s Mission: Impossible.

Warning: Spoilers below for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

In the first Mission: Impossible film, Ethan Hunt and his IMF team are sent to Prague to prevent a rogue agent from stealing a non-official cover (NOC) list containing the true identities of all IMF agents in Eastern Europe. However, the mission is a setup, and everyone on Ethan’s team is seemingly killed, and the NOC list is stolen. Ethan is then framed as the mole responsible for the mission’s failure and the deaths of his colleagues. To clear his name and find the real traitor, Ethan, along with fellow disavowed agent Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Béart) and two other operatives, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Franz Krieger (Jean Reno), plans an audacious heist to steal the authentic NOC list from the CIA headquarters in Langley. This leads to the iconic vault scene where Ethan, suspended by wires, navigates a hyper-sensitive, pressure-plated, and temperature-controlled room to access the list from a computer terminal, all while avoiding detection.

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William Donloe is a CIA analyst working at the Langley headquarters in Mission: Impossible. He is the supervisor of the secure vault from which Ethan Hunt steals the NOC list. Donloe is depicted as an officious employee who becomes physically ill due to a laxative-laced coffee given to him by Krieger, forcing him to abandon his post and inadvertently creating the window of opportunity for Ethan’s team to infiltrate the vault. After the security breach is discovered, a humiliated Donloe is shown being interrogated by IMF Director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny). In his final appearance in the film, Donloe is seen shivering in a parka and stamping papers at a desolate, snow-covered remote outpost, clearly a punitive reassignment for the security failure that occurred under his watch. Almost three decades later, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning explains exactly what happened to Donloe.

The Final Reckoning Reveals What Happened to William Donloe After Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning reveals that Donloe was once a legendary coder who designed the CIA’s vault, supposedly the most impenetrable data security mechanism in the world of espionage. However, after Ethan and his team broke into the vault in the first movie, Donloe was demoted and forced to relocate. Donloe is sent by the CIA to a Cold War-era listening station responsible for detecting and recording any unusual signs in the Arctic Ocean. The station, built on St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, is cut off from the world and engulfed by a perpetual winter. However,  Donloe eventually finds peace in this desolate place.

Donloe’s new position eventually leads him to meet and marry Tapeesa (Lucy Tulugarjuk), an Inuit woman with whom he builds a new life. By the time Ethan’s team arrives at the St. Matthew’s facility, Donloe has shed any hard feelings he once fostered. Now, he’s only grateful, as Ethan’s vault heist allowed Donloe to realize everything that was wrong with his life, while also giving him the opportunity to find a loving home in St. Matthew. Donloe and Tapeesa even join Ethan’s team in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, helping them to locate the Sebastol submarine and, in the final arc, disarm a bomb that Gabriel (Esai Morales) used to pressure Ethan into giving him the tools to control the Entity. As such, The Final Reckoning brings Donloe’s story full circle, with him helping the same people who once destroyed his career.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is currently available in theaters.

What did you think of William Donloe’s return for The Final Reckoning? Share your thoughts in the comments!