| “ | We cannot escape the past. Some of us are doomed to repeat it. Grace may believe you saved her from her fate, but you and I both know you merely bought her time. But that's the pattern, isn't it? A cross you've been left to bear. The closer someone gets to you, the harder it is to keep them alive. | ” |
Eugene Kittridge (born c. 1960s) was a major protagonist in the 1996 film Mission: Impossible, although he has mostly acted as an antagonist to Ethan Hunt. Kittridge returned in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and will return in Mission: Impossible 8.
He is a former deputy director of the Impossible Mission Force who tried to capture Hunt because of his suspicions of being a mole in his agency, unaware that the mole was actually Jim Phelps. He eventually succeeded Erika Sloane as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and became greatly involved in a global race surrounding the emergence of the Entity, a rogue, self-aware artificial intelligence.
Biography[]
Mission: Impossible (1996)[]
Kittridge's first appearance.
In 1996, Kittridge tasks Jim Phelps and his IMF team with the mission of proving the theft of an IMF NOC (Non-Official Cover) list and the apprehension of the thief and its buyer. After the mission appears to result in the death of all IMF Agents on the mission except for Ethan Hunt, Kittridge asks Ethan to meet him at a restaurant.
Hunt arrives and Kittridge expresses his condolences but Hunt notes that several people present in the building are IMF Agents. Kittridge reveals that over the past two years IMF Operations have had blowback and that there is a mole in the IMF who is working with Max, an arms dealer. Kittridge indicates that he believes Ethan is the mole due to his family mysteriously receiving $120,000 recently.
Ethan escapes the restaurant after Kittridge suggests they leave quietly.
Kittridge receiving a phone call from Ethan Hunt upon Hunt hearing of his mother's arrest.
Later, Ethan meets Max and prompts her to boot up a disk containing a false NOC list as well as a tracer which leads Kittridge and his subordinates, including his partner Frank Barnes, to go to the building. The agents start searching the building for them, but Ethan and Max manage to escape.
After Ethan and his new team steal the real NOC list at the CIA headquarters which results in its caretaker William Donloe being sent to Alaska on Kittridge's orders, Hunt contacts Kittridge (who has since falsely arrested his uncle and mother for drug trafficking) to bring him to Ethan's (and Max's) location. After Ethan hangs up the phone Kittridge realizes Hunt wanted him to know he was in London.
Aiming to have Kittridge apprehend Jim Phelps (the real mole), Ethan sends Kittridge train tickets so he will be present when the real NOC list is exchanged. Attempting to buy enough time for Kittridge to apprehend Max after giving her the real NOC list, Ethan has Luther Stickell jam all transmissions so that Max cannot sell the information on the list online.
When confronted on the train with Phelps, Ethan transmits video footage to Kittridge proving Phelps is still alive (whom nobody knew was alive until then). Phelps, after killing Claire and trying to escape the train, is killed by Ethan along with Franz Krieger another rogue IMF agent. Kittridge recovers the list from Luther and greets Max.
While dining with Luther in London, Ethan is asked by Luther on whether he likes Kittridge, but Ethan says he does not due to having family arrested. Later, Kittridge meets with Ethan once more and accepts his decision to resign from the IMF before arranging to offer him another mission on a airplane flight like the one Jim Phelps took when assigned the NOC List mission. Over the next 27 years, Kittridge leaves the IMF and ascended through the ranks of the CIA.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)[]
Kittridge as the CIA Director.
In 2023, Kittridge has now become the new Director of the CIA, succeeding Erika Sloane. He attends a briefing with the Intelligence Community and Denlinger, the Director of National Intelligence, about the possibility of a new terrorist threat called "The Entity", an artificial Intelligence that could be used to launch a massive global terrorist attack. Ethan Hunt, disguised as Kittridge's personal secretary, infiltrates the meeting and gives Kittridge a gas mask before he subdues others in the room with a sleeping gas bomb. There, Hunt tells Kittridge about the potential danger of The Entity and a key that could connect to its main computer which one of them belongs to Ilsa Faust. Kittridge gives Hunt the green light to launch a mission in retrieving the key. Denlinger's phone rings, to which Kittridge answers when the complex's security becomes aware of a situation in the office. Kittridge assures security is fine before Ethan disguises himself as Kittridge and shoots him unconscious with a taser gun.
Later on, Denlinger and Kittridge address Grace as a target who has the keys after she encountered Ethan Hunt in the Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Kittridge then shows up on Orient Express from Innsbruck, as the buyer for the keys where he meets the White Widow, the daughter of his old adversary Max (and whom Kittridge once last met when she was a child). Unbeknownst to Kittridge, Ethan's new ally Grace has disguised as Alanna and she proposes to be protected and a clean slate in exchange to giving him both keys. Grace nearly accepts at the last minute but backs out after realizing her loyalty to Ethan Hunt, with whom they are carrying out a mission to stop Gabriel, the Entity's liaison. When the real Alanna appears, he tells Zola to go after Grace, before Community agents Jasper Briggs and Degas appear. The agents mistake Kittridge under a disguise, but are given orders to pursue Ethan and Gabriel while telling them to not acknowledge his presence.
After Ethan's scuffle with Gabriel, who has killed the train engineer and fireman and also blown up a bridge, Briggs and Degas are convinced by Ethan to save all other passengers on board, as Briggs tells Kittridge to escape with Alanna at the back. Ethan then escapes with both keys via his speedwing, as Grace meets Kittridge for the first time and tells him that she decided to join IMF as per Ethan Hunt's instructions. She decides to collaborate with Kittridge in defeating the Entity by revealing the truth of its main computer which could be activated by the keys located in the now sunken Russian submarine called "Sevastopol". Kittridge then nods, presumably accepting Grace into the IMF. And seeing that Ethan still trusts him despite their disagreements, Kittridge gives Hunt unofficial approval to continue his mission to take down the Entity, but warns him that he and his team will have to operate without any assistance.
Characteristics[]
Personality[]
Kittridge is ruthless, single-minded, opportunistic, and seemingly an antagonist until it is revealed that Jim Phelps is the mole. In light of that, Kittridge's less than appealing personality is seen as that of a high ranking agent who is world-weary and (amusingly) cynical.
Abilities[]
To be added.
Behind the Scenes[]
- Eugene Kittridge was portrayed by Canadian actor Henry Czerny in Mission: Impossible and returned to the role for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and Mission: Impossible 8.
- Czerny teased Ethan and Kittridge's relationship in a 2021 interview and where Kittridge was in between the first and the seventh film. [1]
Trivia[]
- Czerny also portrayed CIA Deputy Director for Operations Robert Ritter in the 1994 movie Clear and present Danger.
- With the release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, it has been over 26 years since Kittridge's first appearance in Mission: Impossible.[2]
- It is unknown if Kittridge resigned and was replaced by Brassels or Swanbeck.
- Brassels was framed by Musgrave like how Phelps tried to frame Kittridge by saying to Ethan that Kittridge shot him.
- Kittridge's framing of Ethan's mother preceded her death by several years.
- Kittridge first noticed a mole within the IMF in 1994 after bad results in IMF Operations.
- During an early scene in Dead Reckoning, Kittridge attends an Intelligence community meeting at the office of the Director of National Intelligence. At this meeting, a photograph can be seen hanging on the wall. The woman in the photo looks like the previous CIA Director Erika Sloane. The photo is similar to the portrait of the President of the United States that hangs on the wall of every high-ranking government official. It is implied that sometime between Mission Impossible - Fallout and Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Erika Sloane either stepped down from her position as CIA director or her tenure ended and following that she entered politics and was elected President of the United States and possibly appointed Kittridge as the new CIA Director.