Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning killed off Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and this emotional moment was actually rooted in franchise plans that go back 29 years. With the real meaning behind Mission: Impossible being explored in the latest film, the characters have become so much more important. With a team that has included such figures as William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), and Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) throughout the series, Luther’s importance might be the highest of anyone on the team, making his loss that much heavier.

Luther’s death in The Final Reckoning is among the most impactful sequences in the film. Rhames is the only cast member to appear alongside Tom Cruise in every film, which makes his character’s death that much more difficult to contend with. In an emotional scene, Luther is forced to disarm a nuclear bomb, but in doing so, he sets off a smaller explosion that kills only him. This moment forces Ethan Hunt (Cruise) to contend with the reality that he is unable to save his friend, harkening back to plans for the first Mission: Impossible film.

Luther Was Originally Going To Die In 1996’s Mission: Impossible

The Character Would Have Been Killed In The Opening Of The Brian De Palma Film

Initially, Luther was supposed to die at the beginning of Mission: Impossible. While the character is introduced much later in the final film, the original plans had Luther as a part of Ethan’s team from the beginning. In that scene, one of the best Mission: Impossible opening sequences, the mission that the team undergoes in Prague falls apart, and nearly all of Ethan’s team is quickly killed. Luther was originally going to be another one of the casualties that was lost during this emotional and intense scene.

Changing the plan to kill Mission: Impossible‘s Luther actually changed the franchise overall, and it’s hard to believe he was nearly done away with in this opening scene. In a phone conversation with BuzzFeed News, Rhames explained that Luther’s fate being changed came from him challenging the idea, bringing up the fact that it felt strange for the only Black man in the film to be killed off so early. He went on to explain the details around this, claiming that his criticism was not intended as a cruel jab. It then led to major changes in the film.

“I said that kind of jokingly, but it was the truth in many films. As a matter of fact, saying it nicely, [in] all these action movies, you are fortunate if there is one African-American or one woman. You know what I’m saying? So then they changed the script, and I lived.”

Mission: Impossible Changing Luther’s Fate Helped Improve His Death In The Final Reckoning

Luther’s Death Is One Of The Film’s Most Important Scenes

Luther’s death in The Final Reckoning is one of the most important scenes in the film. Mortality and rubbing up against it through spectacular action and stunts is so important to the makeup of the Mission: Impossible franchise and these stories must occur in a world that has real stakes. Many Mission: Impossible characters have died over the years, with Ilsa in ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning being the most recent, but few of these deaths have felt as consequential as the loss of Luther in the latest film.

After nearly three decades of adventures with Luther, the character’s death feels so much more important. The tense and dramatic scene shows that Ethan cannot save everyone, even someone so dear to him for so long. Pursuing a life in the IMF is a dangerous path, and even the longest-running and most impressive agents still have the potential to be lost. Whether or not The Final Reckoning winds up being the last Mission: Impossible, featuring such an impactful death is an excellent way to make the series feel more real and dangerous.

The Final Reckoning Gives Luther A Much Better Death Than The Original Plan Would’ve Done

Dying In The Brian De Palma Film Would Not Have Allowed Audiences To Get To Know Luther

The opening to Mission: Impossible is powerful and tense, and seeing Ethan’s world fall apart around him is terrifying and emotional. However, the film does not give enough time for audiences to get to know most of these characters. While Emilio Estevez’s Jack, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Sarah, and others were given tragic Mission: Impossible deaths, audiences were only given the brief opening of that film to get to appreciate those characters. If Luther were a part of this scene, his emotional impact would only be a small part of that same cumulative effect.

If Luther died in the opening of Mission: Impossible, he never would have gone on to become the character that audiences have grown to love over the years. There could still have been room for Luther to make an interesting impact on the opening of that movie, but it would have felt so small compared to what had occurred instead. Rather than this, Luther was allowed to grow over the length of the franchise. This allowed his death scene the space to focus only on him, crafting a genuinely emotional scene of pain and loss.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is among the most important movies of 2025, and Luther’s death is a major part of that film’s resonance. Ethan’s story has been a multifaceted and dramatic one, set over many years, and Luther has been beside him the entire time. Seeing the consequences of their actions, and the dangers of their work fully realized with Luther’s death, greatly contributes to the success of the new film. It is certainly for the best that he was not killed off in 1996.

Source: BuzzFeed News