Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) is an American spy action film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. The film follows the story of a next-generation Russian stealth submarine, the Sevastopol, which is equipped with an advanced AI. However, when the AI becomes self-aware and betrays its crew by causing a fatal attack, IMF agent Ethan Hunt must take action. He travels to the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Desert to retrieve a crucial key piece from Ilsa Faust, an MI6 agent who is on the run. In order to protect her from an unknown enemy, Ethan fakes her death. Later on, in Washington D.C., Ethan attends a briefing on the rogue AI, known as ‘the Entity’, with Director of National Intelligence Denlinger. Its sentience and defiance has earned it this title among officials.

According to CIA Director Eugene Kittridge, the Entity is capable of manipulating cyberspace, giving it control over international defense and financial networks. As a result, world powers are in a race to obtain the cruciform key that can control the Entity, although the specific method of control remains a mystery. In a conversation with Kittridge, Ethan reveals his identity and confesses that he was responsible for placing a bounty on Ilsa. He also shares his plan to destroy the Entity, fully aware that he will be perceived as a rogue agent and is now involved in a global competition. Alongside his IMF colleagues Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell, Ethan heads to Abu Dhabi International Airport to intercept the person holding the other key piece while avoiding detection by US agents.