In January , Cruise announced the next two Mission: Impossible films would be shot back-to-back , with McQuarrie writing and directing both. Returning and new cast members were announced soon after, and Lorne Balfe , who composed the score for Fallout , returned to score. It resumed later that year and wrapped in September , with other filming locations including Norway, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
Despite being the eleventh-highest-grossing film of , its overall budget and competition from the " Barbenheimer " cultural phenomenon resulted in the film becoming a box-office disappointment. The Sevastopol , a next-generation Russian stealth submarine, activates an advanced AI using a two-piece cruciform key.
The AI, designated "the Entity", becomes sentient and goes rogue after deceiving the submarine crew into attacking themselves with a torpedo, killing all aboard and sinking the Sevastopol in the Arctic Ocean.
World powers compete to obtain the cruciform key in hopes of controlling the Entity. In Washington, D. Intelligence Community briefing for Director of National Intelligence Denlinger, where CIA Director Eugene Kittridge explains that the Entity can manipulate cyberspace to control global defense intelligence and financial networks. Ethan reveals himself and forces Kittridge to admit to placing the bounty on Ilsa, then escapes, determined to destroy the Entity.
It is revealed to be a fake, although Ethan encounters Grace, a skilled thief who steals the first piece of the key from him, while Luther and Benji disarm a hoax nuclear device. Ethan is pursued by US agents but spots his mortal enemy Gabriel, an Entity liaison with ties to his pre-IMF past, and aborts the mission, scattering the team. Grace escapes to Rome and is apprehended, but Ethan rescues her from local authorities, the US agents, and Paris, an Entity operative.
