Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning retcons the Rabbit's Foot into an even more important object, and here's what it really is and how it connects to the eighth film. The Rabbit's Foot is an item that was first introduced in Mission: Impossible III, with it being the MacGuffin that the villainous Owen Davian wants to get his hands on. Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt manages to stop him and put the Rabbit's Foot in the hands of the IMF. After it had presumably been under the control of the U.S. Government since 2006, it has been revealed to be back.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning continues Ethan Hunt's battle against the Entity, the seemingly all-powerful artificial intelligence that hopes to take over the world. The eighth film reveals that in the months since Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One ended, the Entity has grown significantly. It has taken over most of cyberspace as well as the world's nuclear arsenal. Ethan learns that the only way to take it down is to obtain its source code from the sunken Sevastopol submarine and combine it with a virus made by Luther, kicking off his final mission.
& It Is The Only Weapon That Can Defeat It
As it turns out, the Rabbit's Foot from Mission: Impossible III is actually what helped create the Entity before the events of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. Early in the eighth film, Ethan and Grace are kidnapped by Gabriel, who wants to take control of the Entity. He tells Ethan that he must get to the Sevastopol and obtain the source code of the Entity, allowing him to take over. Ethan knows that this is the only way for the Entity to be stopped. However, he doesn't know the true origins of the Entity.
As Gabriel explains, the Entity actually came from the Rabbit's Foot. The Rabbit's Foot is the name of the core module that contains the Entity's source code, with the Entity growing out of this. Back in 2006, the Rabbit's Foot contained a proto version of the Entity, with Davian and several others wanting to get their hands on the powerful weapon. When the Entity became self-aware, it knew that the Rabbit's Foot was its only weakness. Thus, it decided to sink the Sevastopol, ensuring that its source code would remain at the bottom of the ocean forever.
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Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning's biggest death is a bittersweet but fitting farewell for one of the best fixtures of the series.
Luckily, Ethan Hunt made sure that this wasn't the case. Most of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning centers around Ethan's journey to reach the Sevastopol and get the Rabbit's Foot. Luther gave Ethan the virus early in the film, meaning that the Rabbit's Foot was the next piece of the puzzle. Interestingly, Ethan's race to get the Rabbit's Foot means that The Final Reckoning's story is a bit of a repeat of Mission: Impossible III, although there are some major differences.
How Did The Rabbit's Foot Become The Entity After Mission: Impossible III?
It Is Thanks To Denlinger
J.J. Abrams undoubtedly did not originally intend for the Rabbit's Foot to tie to the Entity nearly two decades later, meaning that there are a lot of questions left surrounding the connection between the two. Mainly, how the Rabbit's Foot became the Entity. After the events of Mission: Impossible III, which takes place in 2006, the Rabbit's Foot fell under the control of the United States. It caught the eye of Cary Elwes' Denlinger, the Director of National Intelligence. Denlinger decided to use the Rabbit's Foot as a weapon, taking down foreign tech that was a threat to the United States.
As Denlinger continued to use the Rabbit's Foot, it grew stronger. Then, Denlinger used the weapon on a dangerous Russian submarine: the Sevastopol. During this use, the Rabbit's Foot artificial intelligence became self-aware, birthing the Entity. The Entity decided to not only deactivate the submarine's cloaking, but also to destroy it. It tricked the Sevastopol's crew into thinking it was in a battle, leading to the submarine being sunk. This took place in 2012, six years after the U.S. gained control over the Rabbit's Foot.
From 2012 until the early 2020s, the Entity quietly operated in the shadows. It gathered intel from world governments and gained human allies, such as Gabriel. It predicted that Ethan Hunt would attempt to stop its plans for world domination, gearing up to battle him and the IMF. Luckily, Ethan managed to stop it in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, foiling its decades-long plan.
He Was Responsible For Turning The Rabbit's Foot Over
The most interesting part about the Rabbit's Foot's connection to the Entity is that it ties Ethan to the AI's creation. By getting the Rabbit's Foot for Davian and eventually turning it over to the IMF, Ethan kickstarted the chain of events that would eventually lead to the Entity's birth. Although Ethan didn't know it at the time, he is partly to blame for the Entity's creation. Luckily, Ethan atoned for this by fighting to take down the Entity, which the team successfully does in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
How The Rabbit's Foot Connecting To The Entity Retcons The Franchise
Was Davian Aware Of The Entity?
Interestingly, the use of the Rabbit's Foot in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning completely retcons its Mission: Impossible III story. It was never explained exactly what the Rabbit's Foot was, although it was stated that it was a weapon of mass destruction. The commonly accepted theory was that the Rabbit's Foot was a biological weapon, with Benji even referring to it as the "Anti-God." It turns out that the Rabbit's Foot wasn't biological at all, with it instead being an equally dangerous artificial intelligence.
This reveal also completely changes the motive of Owen Davian, the villain of Mission: Impossible III. Presumably, Davian knew what the Rabbit's Foot actually was, with him being one of the first villains to seek out the artificial intelligence. The same could be said for Davian's potential buyers. However, this makes it a bit odd that no world governments were concerned that the Rabbit's Foot went missing. Denlinger's usage of the Rabbit's Foot should have raised some red flags, causing the Entity to be discovered earlier than it is in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
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Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
PG-13
Action Adventure Crime
8/10
31 9.0/10
- Release Date
- May 23, 2025
- Runtime
- 169 Minutes
- Director
- Christopher McQuarrie
- Writers
- Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen
- Prequel(s)
- Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible 2, Mission: Impossible III, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
Cast
-
Tom Cruise
Ethan Hunt
-
Ving Rhames
Luther Stickell
- Franchise(s)
- Mission: Impossible
