I went to see the newest "Mission Impossible" movie - and I did so largely because I wanted to see whether or not Rod Dreher's understanding of the movie made any sense. Dreher is described by Wikipedia as follows:
Rod Dreher is an American conservative writer and editor living in Hungary. He was a columnist with The American Conservative for 12 years, ending in March 2023, and remains an editor-at-large there. He is also author of several books, including How Dante Can Save Your Life, The Benedict Option, and Live Not by Lies. He has written about religion, politics, film, and culture in National Review and National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.
Wikipedia has not yet been updated to mention Dreher's latest book, Living In Wonder, which is subtitled, "Finding Mystery And Meaning In A Secular Age." Among other things, Dreher takes very seriously the existence of a spiritual dimension to reality, populated by demons, among other things. Here is some of what he says about the latest "Mission Impossible." You can get the entire write up by clicking this link.
As viewers of the previous M:I know, the world is endangered by a super-powerful AI, called “The Entity,” which has gone rogue, and seeks to exterminate much of humanity and to enslave the survivors. Only Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) can save the world. In this new film, Ethan’s team refers to The Entity as “The Anti-God” — a reference that first emerged in the third M:I film, referring vaguely to a technology that could wipe out all of humanity.
If, when you hear the characters in the new film say “The Anti-God,” and you think of “The Antichrist,” well, then the whole enterprise takes on a deep and relevant theological dimension.
In the opening sequence of the new film, we learn that The Entity has so thoroughly infected and seized control of the global Internet that nobody really knows what truth and reality are anymore — and that the world is headed towards war. It seems that The Entity is manipulating reality — which is to say, narratives about reality — to turn people and nations against each other. Its final task is to infect the arsenals of the world’s nuclear powers, to unleash global Armageddon....
Anyway, let us consider that a rogue AI is the Antichrist. The film doesn’t ask you to believe that there is an evil spirit behind it. It simply … is. It might be non-sentient, or might not — it doesn’t really matter. The Entity behaves like an evil god, so it might as well be one (emphasis added).
As I understand it, Dreher is seriously suggesting that A.I. (just emerging) may well turn out to be the "Antichrist" that the Bible talks about, and that he is also suggesting that this thought is central to the latest "Mission Impossible" movie. I am NOT a fan of A.I., as you can probably guess from my blog posting yesterday. This is why I wanted to see this latest Tom Cruise film. Even if you don't take the "Antichrist" literally, as Dreher and many Christians do, it makes a certain degree of sense to think of A.I. as having some kind of inhuman potential, some power beyond human understanding, a power that might hold, ultimately, an ability to assert itself over human lives and to imprison them within its own, inhuman and unholy reality.
Is that what I saw in this Tom Cruise movie? I guess this is what Dreher saw, but I have to say that the kind of religious critique of A.I. that Dreher advertised as central to the movie didn't strike me as having any kind of central role. I remain a critic of A.I., and I can actually believe that there is a possibility that the penetration of A.I. into every aspect of our lives could lead us up to the threshold, and then over the threshold, into nuclear war. That possibility makes me more than nervous, but the theological dimensions of A.I. did not seem, to me, to be a main messaage of "Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning."
If you like lots of action, and improbable or even impossible stunts, then Tom Cruise delivers in his latest movie. As for any "deep and relevant" theological insight, or any meaningful critique of A.I. as it actually exists, the latest "Mission Impossible" movie is not where you're going to get that kind of analysis and exploration - at least not in my opinion.
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