Warning! Spoilers ahead for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

Summary

Director Christopher McQuarrie explains that killing off Ilsa was a necessary story decision in Mission: Impossible 7 because it raises the stakes and makes the villains more threatening. After two previous movies of a will-they-won’t-they dynamic, McQuarrie felt that the Ethan and Ilsa storyline was “looking for its resolution,” as he never wanted Ilsa to be defined by her relationship to Cruise’s character. The decision to end the Ethan and Ilsa romantic subplot in tragedy adds weight to the film and a degree of emotionality that is often not present in the franchise.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director Christopher McQuarrie explains why the Ethan and Ilsa romantic subplot ends with her death. The seventh installment in the long-running action franchise sees Tom Cruise return as Ethan Hunt to take down a new AI enemy and its human emissary. Hunt is joined by his regular team on the mission, which includes Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa, who tragically dies during a particularly emotional sequence in Venice.

Now, in a recent interview on the Empire Spoiler Specials podcast (via EW), McQuarrie clarifies how Ilsa’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One death was decided. Ultimately, he explains, it was about doing what was best for the story and for the characters. Check out McQuarrie’s full explanation below:

“It was one of the earliest conversations. We were on the set of Top Gun, we were already talking about it. We knew that that emotional arc was of a certain emotional tone… Ilsa is a wonderful character, and a character of which I am enormously proud, and Rebecca is an actor of such unmitigated power and presence.
“And yet, where we had gone with the character from Rogue to Fallout…[the] place you took that character would either make less of her, it would suddenly become frivolous… or she would just become a romantic interest, and it was never about creating a character who was defined by her love story with Ethan Hunt. Their relationship transcends a traditional loving story… They’re doomed to be together and yet doomed never to be together… It felt like that story was looking for its resolution and so we said this has got to happen.”
“What really needs to happen in the story is the stakes have to be real, they can’t be implied. We have to have the courage to let [Ethan] fail and it has to cost, the mission has to cost, and without that, the villain simply will not have a threat…what you’re seeing in the escalation of the story is what it costs Ethan personally in Venice.”

McQuarrie Is Right About Ilsa’s Dead Reckoning Part One Death

Ilsa’s shocking Mission: Impossible 7 death has proven somewhat divisive, with some calling for her resurrection in the next installment. This ultimately speaks to her strength as a character and Ferguson’s performance, but it also solidifies one of McQuarrie’s main points. Ilsa’s death raises the stakes of the movie and makes The Entity and Gabriel (Esai Morales) feel like real threats, which only makes Ethan’s mission harder and more emotional.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Part Two are the only films in the franchise to be directly connected. In order for this to be effective, the story needs to feel epic and the forces of antagonism arranged against Ethan need to be great. Ilsa’s death, while tragic, accomplishes this. Ethan stresses at one point in the film that, even in the face of world-ending threats, the lives of his team members are not expendable, and Ilsa’s death challenges this core tenet of his being.

Mission: Impossible 7’s teases of an Ethan and Ilsa romance also speak to McQuarrie’s other point. After two movies of a will-they-won’t-they dynamic, it felt like the Ethan and Ilsa subplot needed to go somewhere, and having them end up together just didn’t seem like the best option for the story or the characters. Ilsa’s end in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is undoubtedly tragic, but it adds weight to the franchise and sets up an even more intense movie to come.

Source: Empire Spoiler Specials (via EW)

Key Release Dates Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two