Actress Rebecca Ferguson Confirms Her Fate In 'Mission Impossible' Which Will Now Go Down As One Of The Biggest Mistakes The Franchise Has Ever Made
Pascal Le Segretain. Getty Images.I completely understand that the audience of this blog is very niche. Well, a ton of people watch the Mission Impossible movies, but I'm not sure they care enough for a blog like this. I don't even know why I care this much. It's downright stupid how many articles I've read on this shit.
Either way, we're going to talk about Rebecca Ferguson's character Ilsa Faust and her fate in the franchise. If you haven't seen Dead Reckoning yet then I don't know know what you're doing here. Get out now and go watch it.
Spoilers ahead (this movie came out last summer so this is silly)
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Dead Reckoning Part One (I believe they've since scrapped the Part One piece of the title) was an incredible action movie and a very worthy addition to the Mission franchise. The one thing that really held it back from being all-time in the series was the handling of Ilsa Faust's fate. Like the loser that I am, it's one of those things I haven't stopped thinking about since I left the theater.
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Towards the end of the film, Faust is stabbed on the bridge by the villain Gabriel as she valiantly saves Grace from the same fate. She seemingly dies right there as Ethan arrives too late to rescue her.
Just like that one of the bigger fan favorites from the franchise is gone. But from the moment the movie ended the theories from fans ran wild. I was convinced she faked her own death for a number of reasons that I'll quickly run down below.
-one of the opening scenes of the movie involves her faking her own death in the desert. It almost seemed so obvious she was alive based on how little time they spent on her during the moment Ethan finds her.
-Before attending the party we don't really hear them talk out their plan, which is uncharacteristic of the team. They do, however, talk about needing to be a step ahead of the Entity, which would could imply faking a death to trick to the A.I.
-In the fight, Ilsa has a fucking sword! She's a trained killer, meanwhile Grace, a thief, held her own with a knife. Ilsa loses that battle with a goddam sword? Come on…
-They don't even mourn her! The team spends maybe 30 seconds total on her death before they regroup with Grace to get on the train. This is a character who Tom's Ethan Hunt is basically in love with. She's been there since Rogue Nation and played a huge part in Fallout (the best action movie ever made). Just like that she's gone? And what? Benji Dunn is the most bent out of shape about it all?
-Gabriel's accomplice Paris is stabbed in basically the same spot of her chest by a similar knife and survives.
I didn't even consider it grasping for straws to try and convince yourself that Ilsa is still alive. Then Rebecca Ferguson spoke about it all the other day during his Dune press tour.
Besides seeing how the next movie unfolds, this feels to me as concrete and definitive of an answer to confirm she's dead as we're going to get. Ferguson also touches on how she didn't exactly love how they decided how to write her off, giving me more fuel to the fire at how much of a botch this all was.
(The Playlist) “I think for me, when they came to me with the offer, and I said I wasn’t interested, that was the result; it was very much what was planned in my schedule,” she explained.
“And how it was executed was very much, umm, an interpretation for everyone. I guess I [would] wish my husband would grieve me more than Ethan did,” she said with a wink, clacking her jaw to express a minor jab.
“So when the relationship came to a point where—there was not more to be done really with Ilsa,” she explained of her character’s arc. “And we have three picture deals in Hollywood, and when they come up, we as actors have the decision to say yes or no to a continued offer; they will make a good, something dramatic out of it, and all I can do is embrace it.”
“I hope people enjoyed it; I know a lot of people didn’t, and I know there’s a lot of articles out there, and I’m not the writer,” she added before I could ask a follow-up question to clarify. “I do my job, and I do it as well as I can, and I serve the character because I think Chris wrote a fantastic character. And I’m so honored and grateful that I got to play her.”
For the most part Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie can do no wrong with the direction of these movies. They're unreal at what they do. Pure wire to wire box office entertainment every time they release a movie. If you go to the movies to see Mission and you're going to have a blast. Whenever they end you'll leave wishing there was another hour to go. But the handling of Ilsa's fate is such a glaring mistake and you can see she agrees herself with those quotes. It's almost so poorly done that you think a different director took over for the scene. Using her death solely as motivation for Ethan's further pursuit of the Entity is lame and lazy, no? Looking back, her death scene was completely underwhelming, similar to if she died in the desert earlier on. All of it so fucking dumb. They really all filmed this and thought that was the right way to send her away? I'm mad all over again.
Don't get me wrong, the opening night that the next film comes out I'll be there, but man this is a bummer. While I trust them to figure this out and deliver another great blockbuster, there's going to be a dark cloud around this movie forever. What a waste of a death. So poorly written and executed. I'm almost here sitting and wanting to believe this all some crazy, elaborate, secret plot to bring her back in a surprising way for the next one. Then again, you can't really say you're done more than she just did. She's practically screaming it right in front of our faces and no one wants to believe her. Goddammit.
If this is it, so long Ilsa. They did you dirty.
P.S. If you're looking for more Rebecca Ferguson and haven't watched Silo yet, go treat yourself on Apple TV. She's also in the Dune movies.