Mission Entity

Action spy film Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is out now in theatres.

Starring Tom Cruise, the film follows Ethan Hunt, an agent of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) who puts up a fight with an artificial intelligence (AI) enemy called ‘The Entity’, which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe and is a major threat to the world’s governments.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the film is set to be a sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and the overall eighth in the franchise.

The director said that the earliest conversations about the film, the production of which was wrapped up in 2024, began years earlier, when artificial intelligence was not as commonly discussed by the masses, and the crew wanted to think of a new threat not explored in previous instalments.

“We’ve done nuclear threats, we’ve done chemical threats, biological threats. In trying to keep it fresh, we were looking outward, and the big conversation I had with Tom (Cruise) very early on was about technology, information technology, and what, now, everyone is talking about is AI,” Christopher said.

“Two or three years ago, this idea would have been too intellectual for most people. We would have been explaining too much of what it was and what I count on from the audience.

“I felt, in the zeitgeist, this anxiety about technology and how technology was beginning to influence our lives, and how we take that anxiety that the audience is bringing to the movie and give them a release? That’s really what the movie boils down to,” he added.

The Mission: Impossible film series is based on the namesake 1966 TV series created by Bruce Geller, and the films have been directed, written and scored by a variety of filmmakers and crew, while also incorporating the original musical themes from the show.

Throughout the years, the film franchise has been received generally positively by critics and audience, and is the 17th highest grossing production of all time. It got its first Academy Award nomination last year, with Dead Reckoning being shortlisted for best visual effects and best sound.

With an estimated budget of $300 to 400 million, the new addition is one of the most expensive films ever made.