#mission impossible meta

[raethereptile]

"You use a scalpel, I prefer a hammer."

I am having so many thoughts about this line because sure Ethan is a scalpel but like no he's not he's...well ok let me try and meta for a second

Because Mission Impossible 1, he's a scalpel. By god is he a scalpel. He manipulates and deceives and seduces and tricks and betrays and sets people up and pulls off these delicate and precise maneuvers and leaves without a trace and he shows people what they want to see whether that's being flashy or subtle or dumb or smart or

And he survives the worst time of his life by using all of these skills as they're being used against him and he hates it

I think thats why I'm fascinated by his interaction with Max, because they're using the same playbook and they are aware of what the other is doing so they have a little fun with it. Like, Ethan is living through hell and he's desperate, and he's pretty scared of Max underneath that boyish grin. But it's fun. They're both being a good sport about it. Because it's mutual. But it's mutual in a very different way to Jim/Claire's manipulation of him is mutual. I'm not sure I'm expressing this well.

He hates it, just a little at first, and then by the end I think he hates it a lot because

Mission Impossible 2 happens and (if memory serves right because I haven't seen the film in years) he's trying so fucking hard not to be a scalpel. He's trying to be a hammer.

And he's rough and abrasive and reckless and little bit feral. He's split lips and bruises knuckles. He hits hard and expects to be hit harder, because he's punishing himself and punishing the world and it shows. He learns violence as a tool and learns how to use it. And he hammers his way through the problem because he can't stomach the thought of being a scalpel anymore.

And then, slowly, through mi3 and beyond, we see him walk the path back to being a scalpel.

He'll never forget what Jim and Claire did to him but maybe he doesn't let the wound fester anymore and let's it start to heal.

But he can never be a scalpel again.

Because he's learned the advantages of a hammer too.

Sometimes you need to be a ghost but sometimes you need to make a scene.

Because a scalpel could never fight the way Ethan fights. To the bitter end, blood between his teeth, and not necessarily his own. Would never drive a car off a building to get to the bottom faster, wouldn't drive a car post drowning to death, wouldn't crash a helicopter on purpose. Could never do the most extreme of the stunts that Ethan pulls off.

I mean, he's better at them because he can be a scalpel while doing them. But to do them at all...

But a hammer could never put on a mask and become someone else. Could never seduce a target. Or interrogate someone without them ever figuring out they were interrogated. Or break in somewhere to steal what they need and leave without a trace.

Walker could never have done what Ethan did in Paris. Because Lark and Walker weren't two different people. They were the same person with part of themselves hidden behind a vail so they could blend in. But Ethan. Ethan thought "I need to be Lark" and then became him. Dead eyed stare and "I slaughtered women and children with smallpox" and the White Widow trapped in his gaze terrified down to her marrow. A hammer couldn't do that. Only a scalpel.

Ethan swings between scalpel and hammer as needed and becomes something of the two combined, becomes something terrifying

It's what marks him, out of all the IMF, as the living manifestation of destiny. As the mind-reading, shapeshifting, incarnation of chaos. The one they tell stories about, the stories that surely can't all be true

So Ethan's not a scalpel. And he's not a hammer. I'm not sure what he is. And maybe Ethan wonders about that sometimes too.

Side note: I would like to invite the king of mission impossible 1 meta @deanwinchestersfloralwallpaper to way in, since I'm sure they'll be able to articulate all of this much clearer than I have

[snovyda]

In the light of Christopher McQuarrie calling Ethan and Benji "two sides of the same coin", I keep thinking about the sort of parallels between them in mi7.

The bomb scene. The Entity asks Benji who or what is the most important thing to him, and he admits that it's his friends. We later see very explicitly that Ethan would have given the exact same answer. That's what the Entity bases its entire ploy on. Benji even quotes the question at one moment - explicitly in relation to Ethan.

With Ethan getting on the train, it was Benji who came up with a crazy plan, and Ethan got all fussy about it before going along with it. Kind of a role reversal between them.

The way they both mourn Ilsa. Each of them goes to be alone for a bit (contrasting to Luther and Grace), but they also do it in the opposite circumstances - Ethan is at the balcony amid the open space, in the light of the new day, even wearing a white shirt, while Benji is in a small darkened room, in the shadows, and is wearing dark clothes at the time.

[badgerhuan]

I loved Ilsa in Dead Reckoning Part One. I've always loved her character but her arc in this movie makes me feel Emotions.

for the entire series since we were introduced to her, we've always seen her wanting out of the game. she tries to run, tries to cut out that part of her life, and she always fails, pulled back for a reason or another.

she was always looking out for herself, going it alone, and only teaming up with Team Hunt when their goals align. but she's grown from that. we see her willingly joining the team this time, instead of doing her own thing until she's forced to confront them. we see her interacting with the team, with Ethan, beyond what's needed for the mission at hand.

we see her make a conscious choice to go save a woman she didn't know at the risk of her own life, a decision she never would've made when we met her in Rogue Nation.

and it's only her compassion and decision in this moment that finally turned Grace around. Grace joined Team Hunt bc she felt indebted to Ilsa, bc she realized that instead of running away, like she expected her to, like she herself was trying so desperately to do, Ilsa came back. for her.

she doesn't know how to feel about that, but she does know she'll do her best to help the friends of the woman who saved her life.

just!!! it's so well-written, and aches in a good way, the same way Oblivion makes me ache. an ending that's the culmination of her character, an essential part of the story, and a self sacrifice that shows her growth. I'm sad about it but at the same time I love it so much. what a way to go.

[princesssarcastia]

furthering my "ethan hunt is asexual" agenda by watching ghost protocol again tonight.

there are so CLEARLY a series of moments in this movie where Ethan, Jane, the audience, and the narrative are expecting Ethan to be attracted to Jane—moments that all four hesitate on, and moments that make all four go "huh. huh!" when ethan refuses to cooperate.

obviously he's hung up on his now ex-wife, and that's supposed to be the main reason he isn't interested in and doesn't pursue Jane. but his appreciation for the way she looks, starting when they're entering the party in Mumbai, reads as purely aesthetic to me, even when ethan himself is expecting it to be sexual.

he appreciates her costume and the way she moves as reflections of her skills and dedication to the mission. "Hook's in. You do make an impression," and all that, a very admiring statement.

but it isn't sexual. the narrative keeps giving ethan and jane more opportunities, keeps poking it with a stick, hey, man, she's very attractive, and competent, and dressed to the nines right now. do you maybe....feel some kind of way about it?

and! he doesn't! and it confuses him, I think, even as he's back-seat-seducing (while also clearly wishing the guy they were seducing was attracted to men so HE could do it) and running the rest of the mission. there's this undercurrent of "i'm not reacting the way I should be," but of course, they have bigger fish to fry than whatever weird crisis his brain has cooked up for him today.

AND THEN.

they get into the sports car together, and jane starts changing out of the ballgown and into something more practical, leaving her in nothing but a bustier for a good chunk of the scene. once again! the narrative! poking ethan with a stick! saying hey! do you maybe want to drum up some sexual tension, here, maybe?

even in the midst of their oncoming nuclear crisis, ethan says, alright fine, sure, let's give it a shot. and looks right at her cleavage. (please forgive my shitty screen shots, and know i suffered to get them)

but then! it hits him! lightbulb moment! and he looks up! because:

"oh my god. I'm not sexually attracted to you, at all, even when you're half naked sitting less than a foot away from me. huh!" and then he stores that away for future examination, you know, whenever there's not an impending nuclear apocalypse.

the funniest part, though, is that Jane watches this happen and 100% understands what it is.

another lightbulb moment. "huh. he's just....not attracted to me. at all, even when I'm half-naked and sitting less than a foot away from him. neat!"

I think this is also probably the moment when Jane decides she really likes Ethan, and would absolutely work with him again. Sure, she respected his skills and his status as leader before this point, but she also seems eminently more comfortable around him after this point.

anyway. this has been my daily contribution to the "ethan hunt is asexual" agenda.

[ethanhuntfemmefatale]

ok so the way you’re into ethanmax. i’m into ilsalane. i mean. the dynamic. SOMETHING happened there

I agree that there’s SOMETHING happening….thank you so much for this ask, it is very fun and interesting!!! I have to warn you I don’t think we’re going to agree necessarily, but I hope you’ll find my thoughts interesting and I would love to hear your perspective

My opinions on Ilsa/lane as a concept are complicated…there’s definite sexual undertones going on between Lane and Ilsa, Lane and Ethan, and Lane and Benji. partly because of Lane’s obsession with power and control, which leads him to do things like get in Benji’s space, hunt Ethan down personally, grab Ilsa’s face, in order to prove that they can’t stop him. Part of it is because Lane is a repressed motherfucker and games of emotional manipulation chess are clearly erotic for him, especially when played against a worthy opponent. Personally, though, I don’t see those sexual undertones as being anything but one-sided in any of these dynamics. The only person who ever engages with Lane’s sexually charged mind games is Ethan, which is more a quality of Ethan’s character than a testament to any mutual attraction. My perspective on Ilsa/Lane as a concept is actually that it reveals something important about Ilsa’s character, as opposed to Ethan’s. Ethan is a femme fatale. Ilsa isn’t.

An interesting detail from the Rogue Nation commentary was…I think McQuarrie said this…that the only lie Ilsa ever tells in RN is when she says that Ethan is dead. Other than that, she leaves information out, relays incorrect information that she believes is true, etc. Ilsa’s pretty upfront with Lane in all their scenes together. When pressed, she admits readily that she doesn’t trust him, because, well, he’s a terrorist. She doesn’t play into his expectations or his desires. She doesn’t soften herself or underplay her abilities, and all her displays of power feel less like arguments for her usefulness and more like threats. Despite her overwhelming competence, as a deep cover agent Ilsa’s a pretty bad fit—which makes sense, since she was never meant to succeed in her job of unmasking the Syndicate. The only reason she’s still alive is because she’s incredibly good at her job, and Lane likes (really likes, if you know what I mean) people who are incredibly good at their job. Ilsa also seems to uncomplicatedly fucking hate Lane, lol. Again this is my interpretation of the text. But I see nothing but discomfort, fear, and anger when he grabs her face. Unlike Ethan, Ilsa takes hurt against her personally, and doesn’t forget it easily. And even setting aside the hurt he causes her, Lane also causes a ton of innocent deaths, which is…despite Ilsa’s disillusionment with MI6, and her coming to see the Syndicate as relatively equal to it in shittiness, she never gets to a place where she stops believing innocent lives are worth saving. And her ethical backbone is pretty tough, so I don’t see her having a ton of respect for Lane’s point of view. I don’t see any attraction, I guess is my point, on her end, and I see a lot of enmity. And, crucially, Ilsa isn’t the kind to have complicated sexual relationships with anyone she hates. She’s not Ethan.

If Ethan were in Ilsa’s situation, hell yeah, I would think something was going on. Ethan leans into expectations, plays into what people want from him. If Lane grabbed his cheek, you bet Ethan would stay completely still, and his face would be calm. He uses sex to steal the power of powerful people for himself, uses people’s erotic fixation on him to get them where he wants them. He also has no scruples about his own emotional or physical safety. Ilsa, on the other hand, is a fighter. She’s protective of her body. She’s protective of her own mind, her safety, her freedom. Lane is a threat to all those things. I just personally don’t see him holding much fascination for her, except as a person she would like to see dead. Which is honestly one of the reasons I love her character. She resists the tropes of female characters in spy media, and it fucks.

[greatrunner]

"Just stay alive! I'm not going to lose you!" - Women and their function in 'Mission Impossible' as motivators

For whatever reason, Mission: Impossible Breaking Dawn, Part One decided to get rid of Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust in favor of keeping newcomer Hayley Atwell's Grace, a pickpocket-turned-IMF rookie.

And as someone who wasn't all that into Faust as a character (because so much of her construction seemed exclusively to lift from action heroines from foreign films, like The Villainess, and not necessarily out of love for said films), I really do not understand the motivation behind the move. Even as a fake-out, which I don't think this is.

If it was to drive home that new badie (Gabriel) was a genuine threat, it was a bad move. For one, this is an old hat in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Since the first film, killing women who were spy contemporaries in Ethan Hunt's line of work as a way of a) raising the stakes or, b) motivating Ethan Hunt (manpain central) has been this franchise's M.O.

You see it coming a mile away like a '"you killed my wife" plot in a Mel Gibson film. It's an antiquated writing device that turns women characters into objects. The only time this seemed to stop was after the third film around the time Cruise was married or still entangled with Katie Holmes).

During that time Hunt's character was married to a woman (played by an actress who is very much a Discount Katie Holmes), whose life was threatened throughout the time she was even considered important to Hunt's story.

In terms of selling the villain on that note (threatening the woman), It doesn't work with Gabriel because whatever dynamic he's supposed to have with Hunt as an old enemy never translates. We get a single flashback where he kills some nondescript woman that Hunt liked before he became a tool of the US Empire (when he was a thief, I guess). But that's it. It's a flashback without substance, a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. It never tells us anything about Hunt's specific relationship with Gabriel besides "You killed my girl!"

But who was your girl? What she did do besides exist in the same moment as you and then die in front of you?

Compare this to how John Woo communicated the relationships between Hunt, Nyah Hall, and Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) as rivals and lovers in the second film. Hunt and Ambrose knew or knew of each other as IMF agents IIRC. Ambrose went rogue, an action that flies in the face of Hunt's principles as an agent of IMF. They both fell in love with Nyah, a career criminal (cat burglar, etc). With Hunt it was recent, but Ambrose had a relationship with Nyah long before Hunt met her (IIRC. It's been a minute).

They both had something to lose and gain in either her survival or death once she was infected by Bellerophon. Ambrose had friends that Hunt knew he cared about and could use to hurt him. Oppositely, Ambrose never thought to go after Hunt's team unless they were actively antagonizing him. There were emotional anchors in the story that raised the stakes accordingly.

With this Gabriel character, they try to make him into something like Christopher Nolan's Bane ("I paid you" / "and you think this gives you power over me?"). He can't be manipulated and is "for the cause" through and through. They do this basically by saying he has no emotional connections to anyone, he just enjoys killing and harming people.

But the Impossible writers seemed to forget that Bane was doing all of this, primarily, because Talia Al'Ghul came back for him after he rescued her from being harmed by the men they lived in that pit with for ages. Bane was acting out of loyalty. Gabriel's whole spiel is that he lives to serve an omniscient Skynet like A.I. trying to destroy anyone it considers a threat. Like a religious zealot stereotype.

I'm sorry, but that's boring as hell (in this case).

At least with August Walker (Henry Cavill), their conflict (at first) was embedded in how they served and were loyal to the US Empire. Walker's dedication to state power (as represented by Erica Sloane, his handler) was in direct conflict with Hunt's ideology that people come before the mission and the state. (Then they fumbled that whole dynamic by making Walker a mole for Solomon whatshisface zealot, but I digress).

So killing Faust for this Johnny-come-lately guy with the presence of wet drywall was not great. The lack of depth in Hunt's relationship with Gabriel, the woman Gabriel killed just to spite Hunt, reduces Ilsa's death to a meaningless one.

This most recent Mission: Impossible film might feature the highest number of women with starring and speaking roles. There have only ever been a few female characters in the series (maybe never over three). The one that got the most Facetime usually was the one Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) was interested in. Vanessa Redgrave might be an exception to that rule, though.

In this film, we got:

Pom Klementieff (Paris) playing Discount Bond Henchman (think Xiana Onatopp),

Vanessa Kirby (White Widow) plays the ghost of Max Mitsopolis (Vanessa Redgrave, Mission Impossible),

Hayley Atwell (Grace) plays Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton, Mission: Impossible 2) sans the romance,

and Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa Faust) plays the femme version of Ethan Hunt.

That's four women. They had considerable screen time* and a role in pushing the narrative forward.

For the time that Ferguson was in the series, the writers never went beyond innuendos and suggestions with Faust/Hunt. So, when this film started really laying on thick with the open affection Faust and Hunt showed toward each other, I knew she was cooked from the moment she appeared in the film looking like Big Boss.

I guess I'm wondering what was the point? If it wasn't a decision on the part of Ferguson to exit stage left, what did Ilsa's death serve beyond freeing up some space for Hayley Atwell?

And this line of questioning is operating on the pretense that Cruise and Co don't want more than a few women with major roles in the film. Because it's not like Grace and Ilsa couldn't exist in the franchise together.

*(considerable if you think about how Cruise-centric the Impossible series is)

[theboost]

Going through old fanfic I’ve written that i will never finish and laughing my ass off I really am the funniest person alive

[pulausemakau]

honestly insane to me that it's october and there are still people fucked off and complaining about the fact that in DR1, ethan couldn't choose between saving grace or saving ilsa, because "he's known ilsa longer! he loves her! grace is an asshole who didn't deserve to be saved!"

honestly do these people remember what fucking franchise they're watching and how the protagonist of said franchise has been characterised FOREVER? this is ETHAN HUNT we're talking about. the ENTIRE MI franchise has been spent showing us over and over again that ethan is literally incapable of choosing between the people he loves and the world; between one person and millions. that is his greatest strength AND his greatest flaw! he will jeopardise the mission and the greater good and his own damn LIFE to save one person, even if they're a total stranger!

like, ethan's strength as a protagonist, his uniqueness as an action hero amongst dozens others, especially in today's world, is that he doesn't play judge jury and executioner! he doesn't blaze through his missions doing "whatever it takes" for the sake of the greater good, that's literally why the plot of fallout fucking happens and he ends up chasing after walker in a helicopter instead of safely securing the plutonium in berlin. it worked out in his favour in fallout, why is anyone remotely surprised that we're seeing instead how it's ruining him in DR1 (and how presumably it will, as always, ultimately pay off for him in DR2)? i mean hell it already pays off in DR1, when he spares paris (who is actively trying to kill him, versus grace who is just looking out for herself) and that's why he and grace don't fall to their deaths from the orient express?!

what MI movies have people been watching if they can't understand one of the most basic tenets of ethan hunt's character jesus fucking christ.

[zaruba-needslove]

Been watching the original Mission: Impossible drama series by Bruce Geller and a part of me wished that there could be a remake of the tv series using the same format while also adapting to the modern settings. And before people start pointing out the film series, I don't really like the more serious grimdark approach in the films compared to the drama series.

While I did watch the first movie and some of the latter ones... it's not smtg I'd enjoy watching too often. And the drama series kept it fun despite the occasional serious missions...

I mean I really love the concept of most of the IM Force agents being part timers who also had other careers outside their secret agent lives yet those things rarely affect the missions. And it's still amusing to have to see the sequence of the team leader (Dan/Jim) taking out a dossier of all the freelancer agents acting like he's ordering some takeaway and then taking out the usual four-ppl team (Rollins, Cinnamon, Barney, Willy) with the occasional guest agents. Not to mention all the quirky techs and gadgets they used every different episodes.

The film series at times felt like trying so hard to be like the 007 series aka trying to make Ethan Hunt too much like James Bond, that the concept gets old after a while. Rewatching the drama series again I start recalling what was it that I like about the Mission: Impossible series.

I especially love the concept that the IM Force agents consist of part-timers and not fulltime agents. (Cos the films don't really give you the feel that these IMF agent really were doing these impossible missions as a SIDEJOB). At first glance they don't look like professional agents but just a ragtag group of civs. Like Rollin was a master of disguise, Cinnamon was a model, Barney was the tech and weapons expert, Willy the strong man and so on like they're not your typical secret agent archetypes... which while the film do employ more or less the same concept, I feel like the film series put too much emphasis on Ethan's character while the rest of the team play second fiddle. Like the tv series allowed each member of the IMF team to shine equally doing their part in accomplishing their mission yet you don't see that in the film series, cos half the times the plot just mainly focused on Ethan.

I know compared to the Tom Cruise film series, the drama felt more childish or simple (like some of the missions wasn't even as grand as the ones in film or chockfull of stuntwork) but there's something about the drama series that felt like it had more charm. Like Rollin most of the time had the more critical role in the missions yet the success of the mission don't always depend on him as that part was covered by the rest of the team (like the burden of carrying the mission wasn't just up to him. It's the TEAM). Heck he's not even the team leader. You don't get that with Ethan, like a lot of times Ethan carried the whole plot of the film/mission (he's the one receiving the mission, also the one choosing the team members, also the one leading the main operation, he's the one who takes most of the risks and doing the most action... what's the point of the other team member aside from being MINOR support? Like even Jim Phelps din monopoly everything THAT much) Which personally... gets dull after a while. Like yeah wee cool stunts by Tom Cruise but aside from that it's just meh.

But then i recall something about how Cruise was like gatekeeping the show and not wanting anyone interpret the series other than how he did it... we can just forget about the possibility of a new remake of the series using the same format ever happening. But still it's a shame. Cos it would've been fun to see a remake of the 1966 tv series set in modern times. Ah well, perhaps after finishing the OG series... I try to look for the revival series (1988) and rewatch them. Esp since I barely remembered watching them when I was a kid.

And then I read that of all the OG characters that was brought back in the first M:I film was Phelps and they made him a traitor (and reason why the og actor refused to reprise the role) and I just... that's why back then those scenes about how many of the agents got compromised and killed rubbed me wrongly. Also the whole focus on Ethan. Like back then I did kinda enjoy the first watch cos I'm also a Bond fan. But viewing the film as an M:I fan, the excitement just dull a bit cos unlike in Bond movies the main appeal of the M:I series was the setting of "a ragtag group of free agents from different expertise work together to complete a mission that seemed to be impossible". It's not just a series about a spy doing spy things, the emphasis was on the TEAM. It wasn't just a show about a group of part-time spies doing missions deemed impossible, it's a show about these part-time spies being given impossible mission cos they happened to be the special team who as a team had abilities that allowed them to complete missions that were normally hard to complete by other spies but these team can do it! Hence they were called the Impossible Missions team.

[raethereptile]

There's something about how Ethan's team in MI1 is so predominantly female when later teams are predominantly male and how it relates to Ethan's style of spy work.

Because in MI1 the spy work is stereotypically feminine. It's disguises and deception and seduction and "no body count". There's less violence intrinsically in it, despite the murders at the start and the helicopter crash at the end. Because those two things are not the norm for Ethan at this point in his life, and that's the point.

But later films Ethan is a different type of spy. It's stereotypically more masculine. It's fighting and explosions and big stunts. It's more violent and less seductive. There is a body count.

And I think that shows in the teams structure. That a less violence Ethan, who was a more feminine coded spy, surrounded himself in female spy's, and that as his work became more and more violent he stepped away from that into a more masculine environment. That the female spy's he works with in later films are masculine coded spy's themselves.

I don't know, there's just something about it

[romanticgamer05]

Angel Pt2- Love Remix

[badgerhuan]

Just watched Dead Reckoning and had a blast, but one thing that I noticed is that Ethan's character seems more gentle as the series progressed.

If we compare this current Ethan with his younger counterpart, it seems that he is softer around the edges, calmer, and even somewhat tired.

I mean, I don't need proof Tom is one hell of an actor, but delivered so much in this movie. I loved him with Hayley and how much his character seems to have changed

anon Ethan is SO tired he just wants to rest!! he's been tired since mi3, honestly, and he's been wanting out since mi1

I do think mi1 and mi2, now armed with our powers of hindsight and ability to view the series and Ethan's character as a whole, aren't the best reflection of how Ethan is. in mi1 he is freshly traumatized, grappling with the death of his entire team that he obviously was very close with. in the few minutes that we saw of him before the mission, he is also very soft with his teammates, but he has an energy about him that I can only describe as...unbroken. someone who still hadn't gone through major losses. (this is partly why I don't vibe a lot with his retconned past in DR1, where he supposedly had experienced great loss prior to joining the IMF. personally, it doesn't quite fit with my interpretation of him in mi1, but I think given time I'll be able to reconcile with it and make them both work).

in mi2, he's in his self-destructive, angry at the system that trapped him, leaning into his worse tendencies while still not having recovered from the trauma of mi1 phase. he's rough and defiant and antagonistic towards the IMF on purpose. he wants out, but he didn't get to leave, so he's being very very difficult about it. it's not until the end of mi2 that he finds the world worth saving again, and by the time we get to mi3, I think that's the closest we see of him being like early mi1, just with the added weight of the trauma he's hopefully had time to parse through or completely compartmentalize, could be either or.

but yes I have a lot of feelings about Ethan Hunt and his character progression throughout the series, but in the end I think the core of him has never really changed. and I love that about him so much.

[princesssarcastia]

what I enjoy very much about Will Brandt's reveal in Ghost Protocol is how ordinary his story is, by super-spy standards. It feels huge to us as the viewers that Will was assigned to protect Ethan and Julia and failed, resulting in Julia's death (or "death") because Ethan is the main character.

However, to a person living the average super-spy life, to an agent in the IMF, what Will experienced is little more than a failed mission! Probably the average experience of a bad mission for an IMF agent! When they fail or fuck up, people die, that's just the nature of the job.

And yet, there Will sits, entirely traumatized by the very ordinary experience of failing to save someone who was deeply, deeply loved. That's all. That's enough. That's what drives him out of the field.

It injects a dose of reality into the unreality. It's a sudden, somewhat jarring, and to me, very charming piece of context. Will is the one in this movie, in this series, who is reacting normally to these situations! He's so grieved by a single woman's death that he can't go out into the field anymore!

[ethanhuntfemmefatale]

sheepdog/lamb/wolf is the new fuck marry kill. for your categorization: ethan jim claire

thank you so very much for this ask i love it so dearly. i got it last night it made my night and i typed up about three paragraphs and then lost them. but my night was still made

you know me well enough to know what you're getting into re: detailed rants in response to simple questions

anyway my thoughts are these.

with ethanjimclaire you kind of have two dynamics in play at all times. One is the playacted dynamic that ethan is aware of, that claire and jim actively feed into in order to manipulate him. In that dynamic, Jim is the sheepdog, Claire is the lamb, Ethan is the wolf. Jim is a protector, where Ethan is the corrupt predator outsider--a wolf in sheepdog's clothing, maybe. And Claire is the object of desire. (This is in itself an oversimplification but we'll stick with it for now.)

In the other dynamic, the one lurking underneath all their interactions, Ethan is the lamb, I'd argue Jim is the wolf, and Claire is the sheepdog. This is also an oversimplification. Jim and Claire both are....both. They feel a responsibility and care for Ethan that is reflected in their actions. They're also both wolves, wanting to beat Ethan, outsmart him, overpower him. The distinction in my mind that solidifies Jim as more wolf and Claire as more sheepdog is that Jim's fantasy for defeating Ethan ends with him dead. Claire's fantasy for defeating Ethan ends with him protected, fooled, and owned.

There's something motherly in the way Claire treats Ethan...it works as an interesting contrast to the way she consciously positions herself as vulnerable. Those two poles (Claire on the floor below Ethan reaching out; Claire standing above Ethan making plans) form the main body of the Claire/Ethan dynamic. Claire doesn't want to eat Ethan because she's reliant on the feeling of power that comes from being able to manipulate and manage him. And she's reliant on the fantasy of being saved by him. I could talk about this more but it would end up spiraling into a whole other discussion because honestly the Claire/Ethan dynamic is one of the most fascinating parts of MI1.

As the movie goes on and more information is revealed, these two dynamics, the playacted one and the hidden one, end up colliding and interacting in interesting ways. Jim being the wolf and Claire being the pretend-lamb* brings Ethan into the role of sheepdog, chasing Jim down to kill him out of an emotion that feels more like duty than rage.

There's more I could say about this because of course there is. I do nothing but talk about and think about these three...but i want to thank you again for this ask.

Thoughts on ilsaethanbenji? i have my own opinions but im interested to hear yours.

*interestingly, once claire dies, she becomes actually a lamb for the first time--in her role as victim, and because her death reveals how much danger she was in all along, which neither she nor ethan were aware of.

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Good!GIW Thoughts

After I wrote the Multiverse Police prompt, I've gotten a few replies and reblogs saying they've never seen good!GIW before, and I realized, wow, me neither!

The GIW are always the bad guys, and, well, yeah, they fit the criteria for being the shadow branch of the government to commit atrocities. But there's potential in good GIW.

Imagine it.

Imagine Amity Park being off-limits not because GIW wants to keep it contained but because they treat it like a resort or a national park. People are not allowed to freely come there only because GIW wants JL out of it since the heroes are going to treat the whole thing as a threat. But there's an infinite amount of knowledge there! A portal to the new world! New culture! Things you could never learn before!

Imagine Amity being under government's protection. Imagine Jazz attending a university with her full tuition paid by the GIW since she is, well, a liminal, a minority, and she is getting a degree that will help her establish connections between them and Infinite Realms.

Imagine GIW funding Fentons' research not in order to eradicate ghosts but to have a safe way to talk to them while not getting caught up in a fight with an impossibly strong being.

Imagine GIW being hella annoying to Danny because they just won't stop with their interviews and questionnaires. Which, actually, has the full potential to become confusing because imagine Batman meeting Phantom and Phantom is like, "Oh, yeah, there's a hidden government branch that I avoid like plague because they want to catch me" and Bats are super worried. In the meantime, GIW is looking for Danny simply because he is the most friendly ghost they encountered and they want their answers about the cultural differences between the dead and the living.

Now, there's also a way for this to become the thickest plot armor ever. Imagine Jazz is on a mission to get some artifact from the mortal world. Then imagine GIW helping her while they still can't exactly show they are government agents because who in their right mind would believe the government is studying ghosts? Anyway, Jazz now has the potential to become James Bond kind of cool. Wonderful.

Imagine Danny having trouble with the JL/Bats/police, and then he just, "Wait, let me call someone, I have the right to one phone call, right?" And not 15 minutes later, a bunch of secret government agents in white show up, and Danny is free to go while the agents are saying whatever happened is now classified in the best Batman manner.

Oh, what about a world-ending event where a ghost is involved, and the JL is at a loss of what to do. And then the white vans show up, packed with unknown tech, agents in white with blasters, and a few weird meta-kids no one knows anything about. They even have a K9 unit because, come on, Cujo could be a perfect friend for them.

Just GIW being the secret protection squad for Amity and ghosts.