Christopher McQuarrie Likens Mission: Impossible 7 – Dead Reckoning's AI Bad Guy To The Cold War

Batman has his famous rogues gallery. James Bond has Blofeld and S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Ethan Hunt has everyone's favorite anarchist criminal mastermind (checks notes), Solomon Lane? In all seriousness, Tom Cruise's maverick Impossible Mission Force agent has battled his fair share of memorable opponents over the years, ranging from his back-stabbing former mentor Jim Phelps to Henry Cavill's arm-cocking August Walker. But Ethan's true adversaries are existential threats like the CIA's NOC list being made publicly available to the terrorists of the world or a nuclear explosion that could cause a chain reaction of events, culminating in the deaths of one-third of the world's population.

What could Ethan possibly face in the franchise's potential two-part finale, "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning," that would make the dangers in his previous outings feel like small potatoes? Well, how about AI, a topic that we, unfortunately, have to spend seemingly every dang day talking about now (given the ways studios have already started using it to further screw over their employees)? It turns out that Christopher McQuarrie, who assumed the reins on the "Mission: Impossible" films back with "Rogue Nation," and Cruise had that exact idea while planning the "Dead Reckoning" films. In fact, McQuarrie told Collider they were discussing this very topic as far back as 2018. In his words:

"Very early conversations, probably the earliest conversations about this were in 2018/2019, and we were looking for the villain, the next threat in 'Mission.' We've done nuclear threats, we've done chemical threats, biological threats, you did the Rabbit's Foot, and God knows what threat that was. 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."

According to Christopher McQuarrie, "Dead Reckoning Part One" will see our boy Ethan doing everything in his power — including riding motorbikes off cliffs, sending trains flying off their tracks, and, most importantly, lots and lots of running — to stop an AI weapon that threatens all of humanity. McQuarrie admitted that he held off on making AI a "Mission: Impossible" villain too soon, worrying it would've felt "too intellectual" in the past. Cut to the present, and a story about Ethan and his IMF family sticking it to the machines almost hits too close to home. McQuarrie compared our situation to the Cold War, explaining:

"I felt, in the zeitgeist, this anxiety about technology and what and how technology was beginning to influence our lives, and how do 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. When you go to see 'Top Gun' in 1986, the Cold War was a very real thing. That anxiety was something you were bringing to it, and you enjoyed that movie because that movie was telling you that everything was ultimately gonna be okay. You were showing them a way out."

While watching Ethan punch a computer in the face, or however he saves the day in "Dead Reckoning Part One," obviously won't help us defeat the existential threat AI poses to so many people's livelihoods, it may provide some much-needed catharsis. That goes double for "Part Two," by the sound of it. "[...] There are things very prescient in 'Part Two' that, if you think this is trippy, it'll freak you out in 'Part Two,'" teased McQuarrie.

"Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" hits theaters on July 12, 2023, with "Part Two" scheduled for June 28, 2024.