Spoilers for “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” follow.
Ethan Hunt has had his final reckoning, and “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” has become a box office win. The film is absolutely loaded with Easter eggs, call-backs, and fan-favorite characters returning to enjoy their overdue moment in the sun.
But there is one character whose absence is felt in every frame of the very long movie: Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust. First introduced in Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” as the ultimate foil to Tom Cruise’s superstar spy Ethan Hunt, Isla won audience’s over with her uber-capable spy skills and her inability to wink. The film ended up changing the entire path of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, and Isla is no small reason why.
That’s why when Ilsa died in “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning,” many in the audience were just as heartbroken as Ethan Hunt. McQuarrie admitted that it was a “really tough decision” to lose Ilsa but insisted that it was an important part of Ethan’s story that he be forced to say goodbye to her.
Since “Final Reckoning” has been advertised as the final film in the series, many fans were disappointed to find we didn’t get one last moment with Ilsa before Ethan hung up his hat for good. But what if, like the expert spy she was, Ilsa was hiding right under our noses?
Who is that next to Ethan Hunt at the end of The Final Reckoning?
Just before the credits roll on Ethan’s final adventure, the final remnants of the Impossible Mission Force reunite in Trafalgar Square to say their goodbyes before going their separate ways. We get to see Benji, Paris, Theo, and Grace bid farewell to Ethan as he declares victory over the villainous AI known as the Entity.
But as Ethan walks away, many eagle eyed Ilsa fans noticed a mysterious woman with a remarkably familiar hairdo walking alongside Ethan in the final shot of the film (there’s already bootleg footage of this moment floating around the internet, if you’re incline to search for it).
The only thing we know for sure about this woman is not Rebecca Ferguson. For one thing, she was busy filming the Apple TV+ sci-fi series “Silo” at the time they were making “The Final Reckoning.” And also, it would be criminal negligence on McQuarrie’s part to bring her on set and not let her kick some ass like old times.
That being said, the resemblance is uncanny, so much so that it really looks like the filmmakers took a shot of Ferguson walking from a previous “Mission” and digitally inserted it here. This could be a sly Easter egg buried into the final frames of the film, or maybe this is all just a coincidence and that’s not Ilsa/Rebecca Ferguson at all.
Maybe this is a case of fans coping, desperate to see Ilsa again. Or is this a tease of what might come next in the “Mission: Impossible” story? Only Ethan Hunt can give us the answer to that question, if he chooses to accept his next mission.
