’Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s Alternate Ending Had Grace Betray the IMF

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article contains spoilers for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.

If you’ve seen Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One this past weekend then you’ve been undoubtedly treated to the brilliant performance of legendary actor Tom Cruise as super spy, Ethan Hunt. The latest installment in the long-running action franchise has been making a great impression at the box office, and while the film continues to draw new viewers, it has been revealed that there existed an alternate cut that would have dramatically changed the final act.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One follows Ethan Hunt in his quest to retrieve a device with highly advanced AI which could, in the wrong hands, have devastating consequences for the globe. Drawn in to help Hunt in his mission, is the sleight-of-hand professional, Grace (Hayley Atwell) who despite being a newcomer to the series, ends up as a major standout for the film. Dead Reckoning Part One ended with Grace on a redemption arc that sees her join forces with Ethan and the IMF team to put together the full key. However, in an alternate ending for the film, Atwell’s character had been primed for betrayal.

Speaking to Variety, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One editor Eddie Hamilton reveals that the alternate ending would have seen Grace betray the IMF at a moment when they could least afford it. The scene would have seen Grace tranquilize the team. including Hunt, while boarding the train solo to “try to get money from the buyer and maybe bargain her way out of the situation she’s in,” Hamilton said. Ultimately, the Oscar-winning film editor reveals that “the test audience didn’t really like that idea, so we came up with this idea.“

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The Mask of Redemption

The decision to go with the present cut helps Grace complete a redemption arc that could see her become a valuable ally in the future in light of Ilsa Faust’s (Rebecca Ferguson) demise. The final cut also offered an avenue for that exciting mask scene, in which Atwell believes Grace was reborn. “I’m taking off the old identity of who Grace was from the first half of the movie, when she realizes, ‘If I had taken the money, it would have been more than the key I was giving away.’”