| “ | His fate is written. Shall we write yours too? | ” |
–Gabriel's most famous quote., Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning | ||
Gabriel is the main antagonist of the 2023 spy action film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and its upcoming sequel Mission: Impossible 8.
He is a mysterious terrorist who serves as the liaison of the cryptic artificial intelligence known as the Entity and seeks to recover the key to its secret. He is also an old adversary of IMF agent Ethan Hunt and had a role to play in how he became the heroic secret agent he is today.
Biography[]
Past[]
In 1993, Gabriel was responsible for killing a woman named Marie whom Ethan Hunt was involved with - thus earning Ethan's enmity in the process. As a result, Ethan was blamed for Marie's death and only escaped prison by becoming a member of the Impossible Mission Force. Although he was believed dead, Gabriel in fact stayed in the shadows for an unknown period of time.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning[]
Thirty years later, Gabriel eventually came into contact with the Entity, who selected him to carry out its will by recovering the two keys to one of its secrets and killing Ethan. Because the Entity had deemed Ethan a threat to it, it specifically chose Gabriel to be its messenger because of his history with Ethan.
With one half of the key lying in the possession of the White Widow, and the other in Ethan's hands after Ilsa Faust gave it to him, Gabriel made his first move to obtain it at the airport where a buyer for Ethan's key was expecting to receive it. Gabriel's right-hand woman Paris killed the buyer, only for him to not have the key, as it had been swiped from Hunt by Grace, a pickpocket employed by the White Widow to recover the other half of it.
Gabriel and Paris then pursued Grace to Rome to retrieve her half of the key from her there. Gabriel sent Paris with a team of henchmen to recover half the key from Ethan and Grace, but the two were able to evade them before separating, with Grace continuing her journey to deliver the half key to the White Widow. This did little to stymie Gabriel's attempts to recover it, however, as the Entity simply made contact with the White Widow to arrange a party where the two halves of the key could be auctioned off. Gabriel was then sent by the Entity to attend the party and recover both halves of the key. At the party, Gabriel encountered both Grace and Ethan, as well as Ilsa.
After all of them were brought before the White Widow, Gabriel revealed that it mattered not who the White Widow chose to give the key to, as by the Entity's calculations, Gabriel would still obtain the key on the Orient Express as long as he killed either Ilsa or Grace. Ethan then attacked Gabriel and the White Widow's guards in order to give Ilsa and Grace a chance to escape, but Gabriel and Paris were soon in pursuit of them. After evading the White Widow's goons, Ethan went after Gabriel to help Ilsa and Grace, only for the Entity to hack into his comms with Benji Dunn and, mimicking Benji's voice, give Ethan fake instructions to lead him into an ambush from Paris and one other goon. As Ethan fought Paris and the goon in a narrow alleyway, Gabriel confronted Grace on a bridge and overpowered her. Before he could kill her, however, Ilsa showed up and fought Gabriel next. After fighting off both Paris and the goon, Ethan raced to the bridge to assist Ilsa and Grace but was too late. Ilsa was dead by the time he got there.
Gabriel on the Orient Express.
Gabriel was later able to sneak on board the Orient Express by hiding in a large suitcase with an oxygen mask on. After Paris boarded the train and met up with him, they went to retrieve the key from the exchange that was to take place between the White Widow and her buyer, US government official Eugene Kittridge. Along the way, the two met with CIA director Denlinger, who revealed his role in creating the Entity by infecting the Sevastapol submarine with an early prototype of it. After stating his plans to seize control of the Entity and use it to transform the US into a new super-state, Denlinger attempted to form an alliance with Gabriel but the terrorist refused, guessing that Denlinger would betray them at some point and choosing to kill him instead. Gabriel then fatally wounded Paris as well, believing she would also betray him since she had been spared by Ethan earlier.
After Ethan and Grace got the other half of the key from the White Widow, Gabriel showed up and got his hands on the complete key. Ethan chased Gabriel to the roof of the train, where the two had a fierce fight. Ethan was able to pin Gabriel down and contemplated killing him to avenge Ilsa and Marie's deaths, but before he could do so US intelligence agents Jasper Briggs and Degas showed up and demanded that Ethan surrender. When Ethan tried to tell the two agents that Gabriel's the one they want to arrest, Gabriel then seized the chance to jump off the train onto a waiting truck as his getaway, before activating the bombs he had placed on a bridge to derail the train. However, when he reached into his pocket, Gabriel realized that Ethan had pickpocketed the key from him during their fight, causing him to angrily shout Ethan's name.
Characteristics[]
Allies and Enemies:
Allies: The Entity
Enemies: Ethan Hunt, Luther Stickell, Benji Dunn, Ilsa Faust (victim), Grace, Alanna Mitsopolis, Zola Mitsopolis, Jasper Briggs, Degas, Paris (former ally), Eugene Kittridge, Denlinger (victim), Marie (victim)
Personality[]
| “ | It's not the killing he enjoys, it's the suffering. He knows the best way to get to me. Through all of you. | ” |
–Ethan Hunt describing Gabriel to his team., Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning | ||
Gabriel is calm, ruthless and pragmatic. He is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals and will not hesitate to kill anyone in his way should the need arise. Ethan describes him as someone who enjoys causing suffering and at the very least, Gabriel seems adept at weaponizing it against his enemies by inflicting personal tragedies on them in order to disorient them, as shown with his killing of Ilsa. Gabriel's willingness to kill even extends to his own subordinates, whom he views as expendable and is perfectly willing to dispose of should he believe they have a chance of betraying him or posing a hindrance to his plans.
Gabriel's reasons for serving the Entity are unknown. Ethan speculates that Gabriel may be working with it because he wants to see the suffering it will bring, while at other points Gabriel is referred to as a "fanatic" who seems to regard the Entity as some sort of greater power. Regardless of his motives for acting as the Entity's arm, Gabriel follows its calculations without question and curiously seems to be one of the few people after the key who isn't interested in gaining control over the Entity (besides Ethan and the IMF, who wish to destroy it so its power can never be abused).
Abilities[]
- The Entity's Calculations: As the representative of the Entity, Gabriel has access to its advanced calculations and is able to formulate intricate plans and time them to go off exactly as he needs them to based on the Entity's predictions about what will happen. He can also use the Entity to predict specific outcomes, such as what actions he needs to take to ensure he's able to obtain the key or identifying which allies of his are most likely to betray him so he can eliminate them beforehand.
- Knife-wielding: Gabriel is exceptionally proficient at fighting with bladed weapons, most particularly his set of knives. Gabriel engaged in close combat with Ilsa Faust and drove a knife through her heart, while demonstrating great skill, despite Ilsa wielding a sword, before engaging in battle aboard the train at the end of Part One.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Along with Paris, the White Widow, Zola Mitsopolis and Solomon Lane from Rogue Nation and Fallout, Gabriel is one of the four villains of the Mission: Impossible film series who appears in more than one film.
- In fact, given Solomon Lane's survival in Mission: Impossible – Fallout yet Sean Harris' lack of interest in staying in the franchise, it was initially rumored that Harris would be recast with Esai Morales as Lane in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. However, said rumors were proven wrong as the seventh film's official trailer instead revealed Morales to be playing Gabriel.
- Nicholas Hoult was originally cast as Gabriel, but dropped out from the film due to scheduling conflicts with his role in the third season of The Great and was replaced by Esai Morales.
- Director Christopher McQuarrie described Gabriel as "Ethan, before he was Ethan".
- Gabriel is the third Mission: Impossible villain to face Ethan in a personal way. The other two were Owen Davian and Solomon Lane.
- Interestingly enough, Gabriel is the only one that Ethan had interacted with prior to the start of the franchise.
- The scene at the end where Gabriel blows up the bridge stirred controversy with the Polish government due to the fact that the bridge in question was a historical landmark. In the end, a prop was built on a set in an unused quarry and destroyed for the scene.