Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- How hostile and malicious is the Entity? While it is clearly incredibly dangerous, willing to be ruthless and has the potential to destroy or rewrite human civilisation however it decides, is that actually its goal? The Exposition Dump at the beginning about how screwed the world's intelligence services are is given by one of the the intelligence services who are about to lose their power, and have already shown tendencies towards being corrupt and hostile to the IMF more because they can't control it than because it fails to get results that are in the best interests of the world in general (and the leader of whom turns out to have been instrumental in creating it and wanting to control it to create a new world order focused around the military-industrial complex and with anyone in his own government with "outdated" views on morality, patriotism and democracy purged). So far, all we've actually seen it do could be in the service of its own survival and non-enslavement by people with highly dubious motives.
- We know Gabriel wants the key, but what does Gabriel actually want to happen once he has it? Is he sincere in his apparent borderline-worship of the Entity and is simply submitting to its commands without question? Is he planning to double-cross the entity and seize control of it himself (and does he have any chance of succeeding if so)? Has the Entity promised him something that he wants, and if so, what? The fact that the only source of information we have on what drives and motivates him is either highly biased (Hunt) or highly suspect (Ilsa's contacts who might or might not have been the Entity itself feeding her false information) leaves the audience with very little to go on.
- What does Kittridge want? He is clearly (and justifiably) terrified of what the Entity might do if it grows unchecked or what other world powers might do if they got control of it, but is he attempting to recover the key because he wants himself/his organisation to control the Entity and gain its power, or is he Just Following Orders when he attempts to buy the key from the White Widow? His final message in the film leaves it somewhat ambiguous how opposed he actually is at the time to Hunt's stated goal of destroying the Entity.
- Did Ethan really intend to kill Gabriel in the climax despite all of the reasons Luther had given him not to, or was the attempt just a distraction to allow him to pickpocket the key without Gabriel noticing?
- Did Paris save Ethan and Grace because he spared her earlier, or was it just to spite Gabriel for backstabbing her and she wouldn't have done so otherwise?
- What is Jasper Briggs's reason for being so mistrustful of the IMF? Is it because he might be the son of Dan Briggs from the show and felt disillusioned about the agency—Ethan in particular—because of what the sacrifice requires of those involved in it—especially where his father was concerned? In addition to that and having maybe attributing it to an estranged relationship with his father as well—who may also have passed way too, could Briggs also distrust it due to his father's colleague and successor having gone rogue during the events of the first movie too?
Awesome Music: The ominous Techno tracks ("Arrival" by Anu, "First Bastion" by Hidden Empire and "Erase" by Brooks Aleksander) of the Venice party are very à propos regarding the Entity.
Catharsis Factor: Gabriel spends the entire movie being smug about how the Entity has foreseen every possible outcome in advance, even the possibility that Ethan would spare his life despite wanting to avenge Ilsa. So it is immeasurably satisfying when Gabriel makes his escape, finds that Ethan took the key from him, and screams Ethan's name in rage over being outwitted.
Common Knowledge: Quite a few viewers seem to be under the impression that the flashback at the beginning of Gabriel shooting Marie in front of Ethan is a scene from a previous Mission: Impossible movie, instead of a new bit of backstory for Ethan introduced in this film.
Die for Our Ship: Grace tends to get some ire from more rabid Ethan/Ilsa shippers due to her being the movie's most prominent female character thus displacing Ilsa, as well as her mild Ship Tease with Ethan, with some even accusing that Ilsa was killed off so that Grace could join the team, in keeping up with franchise tradition of there being one woman on Team Hunt^note. However, most shippers are perfectly fine with her and actually like her relationship with Ethan, just as a platonic one, and will mitigate any possibility of a romance by simply pairing her off with someone else (usually Alanna).
Evil Is Cool:
- Gabriel is a nasty piece of work, but you can't deny he has a strong presence and charisma in just about every scene he's in due to being played by the very dashing and suave Esai Morales. The same applies to Paris, who is a ruthless and determined adversary to Ethan and the IMF throughout the film. They're both nigh-unstoppable assassins whose very identities are protected by the Entity.
- The Entity is a powerful AI that is completely capable of bringing the world down to its knees. It can manipulate data at a speed unmatched by even the most skilled hacker, anticipate Ethan and the IMF's every move, and is the first antagonist of the series to not be a human.
Fandom Rivalry: It started growing one with both Barbie (2023) and Oppenheimer, both of which were released on the same day about a week after Dead Reckoning and so far are critically and commercially successful, while Dead Reckoning suffered from the worst domestic box office drop in the entire series since Mission: Impossible II after a great opening week. Many fans blamed the "Barbenheimer" hype of M:I's two big rivals for causing a steep drop in the domestic gross of Dead Reckoning, in addition to Sleeper Hit Sound of Freedom coming out of nowhere as strong counter-programming. This rivalry is one that even extends to the creators; prior to the film's release a well-publicised dispute between Tom Cruise and theaters had taken place regarding IMAX bookings for Dead Reckoning versus Oppenheimer^note. The polarizing fan reception towards certain plot elements of the movie compared to its competitors' mostly positive audience scores and some "playing too safe" criticisms doesn't help matters.
Fan Nickname: Was shortened to Dead Reckoning Part One at the time of its release, but with it being announced later on that the next movie would no longer be called Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two—or Dead Reckoning Part Two for that matter, fans now refer to this film as either Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning or just Dead Reckoning instead—though at this point, Paramount has now officially rebranded the movie so it's no longer a Part One after all.
Fanfic Fuel: This film establishes that agents join the IMF as a last shot at redemption after having committed some sort of crime, and that Ethan joined after getting imprisoned. What did Ethan do to get himself thrown in jail, and what did Luther and Benji do that warranted them to join the IMF (assuming that Luther aiding the then-rogue Ethan in the first movie wasn't it)? Not to mention several other characters from previous movies, like Jane or Lindsay.
Fight Scene Failure: Sword vs knife fight, and the sword loses when Ilsa has the range most of the time. The choreography is so absurd it completely takes you out of the fight.
Foe Yay Shipping: Grace/Paris has caught on quite well, despite their relationship being mostly antagonistic, largely because they it doesn't interfere with the massively popular Ethan/Ilsa ship. Grace/Alanna is also fairly popular for the same reason.
Harsher in Hindsight: The Big Bad is a rogue AI trying to Take Over the World. Almost immediately after the film's release, the SAG-AFTRA strikes happened due to actors and writers being fed up with actors replaced with AI as one of the reasons why, further affecting Dead Reckoning Part Two's already Troubled Production and ultimately postponing the release from its 2024 slate to 2025.
He's Just Hiding: There are some fans that refuse to believe that Ilsa Faust died at the end of the fight scene on the Venice bridge, leading many to claim that they will return for the eighth film (the actor is credited as returning in that film, though the extent of their involvement isn't known). The fact that the film doesn't show the exact moment of the character's death has led some to believe that the character used a body double to fake their own death. Further complicating matters is that Paris manages to survive a similar wound for quite a while, possibly giving Ilsa time to get medical help.
Like You Would Really Do It: Ilsa is apparently shot and killed while saving Ethan during the opening sequence in the Arabian Desert, with the latter reporting minutes later to Kittridge that she's dead... up until the reveal that she had body armor on and was just fine, though had her death faked. And then midway through the film, she actually does die after being stabbed by Gabriel in order to save Grace's life. Or maybe it's all an elaborate ploy to throw off the Entity. The fact that Rebecca Ferguson is contracted for Dead Reckoning Part Two casts doubt on what's shown in this film, in the case it's not for flashbacks.
Memetic Mutation: "I feel bad about this film, Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa character end up being killed and becoming a corpse on the Venice bridge." ^{Explanation (MASSIVE SPOILERS)}
Money-Making Shot: The shot where Ethan jumps off a cliff with a motorcycle is definitely set up to be one, considering its presence in both trailers and Paramount dedicating a whole video for the one stunt alone. In the final film, an alternate angle of the jump is shown off in the opening credits in order to hype the audience up.
Narm Charm: Just like the previous film, and in an attempt to avoid spoiling previous films, the film stops to have a point-of-view character (Briggs) explain just how awesome Ethan Hunt is for the benefit of the audience, up to describing him as a "a mind-reading, shape-shifting, harbinger of chaos." It's on par with the ridiculous line from Hunley in Rogue Nation describing Hunt as "the living manifestation of destiny" in order to explain his seemingly-preternatural abilities, but given how its Briggs trying to lighten the mood a little before a serious mission, it works.
Spiritual Successor: The villain of the film being a highly-advanced AI that Grew Beyond Their Programming with the power to reshape and create a new world order through manipulating the truth and the concepts of right and wrong that at one point pretends to be the protagonist's Mission Control and trick him into doing whatever it wants brings to mind The Patriots in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
Unexpected Character: It's safe to say that no-one expected Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) to return,^note especially so long (twenty-seven years) after the first film came out in a series where secret service heads had a high turnover rate to this point.

YMMV / Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning

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