That one time I really read into the latest Mission Impossible

SPOILER ALERT for Mission Impossible: Fallout. See it before reading. Having seen it in theatres and now once again, I just kept analysing it for fun as I remembered the plot being pretty damn complex. So let’s go through my notes on this “important” matter…

Every movie has something they just HAVE to get right, at least in order to achieve 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. For movies based on books it’s how the movie adapted the book. Excluding comic books movies, because no one expects them to adapt one on one as then we would all know how the story goes and it’d be boring. So in case of a shared universe, it’s more important to have a coherent story before anything.

For Mission Impossible it has to be its action sequences. Cruise and whoever happens to direct has even said out loud that they first figure out the sequences on storyboards in a detailed manner and then they try to find a story embedding those sequences that could perhaps have couple of twists in there as well. I consider the latest (Fallout) to be my top3 action movie of all time. Mainly due to plausible, gritty action, which is yet so captivating thanks to Cruise doing everything himself, great camerawork (wide shots), the soundtrack and places like Paris and London shown in a colourless manner having their signature city architecture be the environment while not beating us over our heads with their famous monuments and such. Also, after each viewing I just had to go running.

That being said, I’ll focus on the plot, dialogue and characters — why I think it is also written really well by having clever foreshadowing and every character behaving in a way they should aka story serving the characters not the other way around. Full disclosure, I have no idea if these details that I’ll bring forward were actually intended in the writer’s room.

Main focus is Henry Cavill’ character, Walker/Lark — how he became a villain story beat after a story beat. First of all, a great name that indicates that he always walks in the movie in contrast to Ethan who always runs. Also, Lark sort of is the part of Walker’s name as an anagram. I always imagine that writers try to put in as many cool snippets of information threads whenever they can, because it creates pathways (clusters) in the brain in order to make it easier for you to remember the names etc. So, chronologically…

In the scene where they talk to Nils Delbruuk in the “hospital” Ethan tells him that they know all about Lark who is essentially the guy he has to catch. Delbruuk tells him “you know nothing”, to which Ethan reads into it(by slightly emoting to that response)… that if they knew who he was (a CIA agent) then they would not talk about him in such a manner. Which is why Delbruuk knows that they don’t know yet that they have a traitor anarchist inside, thus calling their bluff. If Ethan hadn’t bluffed by seemingly showing his hand he would have never gotten any information out of Delbruuk, who didn’t know who Lark’s identity but knew that he had to be an insider as he could “come and go like a ghost”, a line used later by Walker/Lark himself when talking to Sloan (Angela Basset’s character).

A quicker foreshadow worth mentioning was actually the very first scene where Ethan received the mission. When he was informed about the Apostles a picture was shown with ‘blackened/hidden eyes’ and one of them (left up) was Walker. That makes it seem that he was probably he guy orchestrating the nuclear attack (final/third act), but the Apostles did not take orders from him, even though they had worked together. One bad choice by the movie, though, was to show that kind of a photo that no secret military team would never take. Because they could simply be identified if someone like IMF got their hands on it. Now, when I think about it…I actually believe that it wasn’t meant to be Walker on the photo as otherwise IMF would have instantly recognised him, as they knew who Walker was — “his reputation precedes”. So the photo was taken with Cavill as a foreshadow for the viewer, but actually it wasn’t Walker. Makes sense. Move on.

Now to the scene on the plane before HALO jump where Ethan and Walker first talk. The first time Ethan starts having suspicions that Walker might be Lark or at least connected to the Syndicate (from the previous movie) is when Walker tells him “if you have a problem with my methods, you can always stay behind. Your mission, should you CHOOSE to accept it…isn’t that the thing?” Ethan even sees it as conspicuous. That sort of information, how the missions are given to IMF agents, should be privy to the members of the agency with a high level security clearance. The reason why Walker might know this is because in the previous movie (Rogue Nation) the Syndicate knew that this is how the missions are given as they created a fake video recording for Ethan listening to it in the record shop before they captured him. So even though there is a chance that Walker might know of this through CIA connections…it is certainly lower than him knowing it through Syndicate (now Apostles) operatives. But the reason Ethan doesn’t take it as a sufficient proof that he could be Lark is because of what Hunt says beforehand : “if you wouldn’t have gunned down every Syndicate agent they sent you to FIND, I wouldn’t be here.” meaning Walker never brought anyone in. Ethan still sees it as a probability that Walker who had been assigned to take down the Syndicate/Apostles might have gotten some information out of them before killing them. Such as stuff about IMF that they know. As an alternative he was joining forces, covering for them by telling his handlers that he killed them…and that is why he knows of this signature sentence. Still, Ethan believes the former to be the case, which is why he saves Walker’s life over Paris. Also, Walker makes the jump despite the storm, because he has to find the fake Lark ASAP as he knows that CIA has people waiting to escort him out. Meaning that if CIA (or the paid contractors/assassins) get to him before Walker then his plan of framing Hunt is pretty much blown and there’s a chance CIA/IMF will get closer to him being the real Lark.

In the restroom scene I would say there are couple of tells. The easy one is Walker telling Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson’s character) that his name is Walker. Hoping to “spread the word” about his protagonist identity. Firstly, Walker needs to break the facemask machine. First, because on the plane Ethan scans his face. Now, let’s assume that there is no database of faces like in Game of Thrones — that you have to scan the face with the same machine the mask is produced with. Otherwise, the following argument would be negated. Assuming that, Walker cannot risk them having his face, because if they were to somehow learn he was Lark they could assume his identity and pose as Lark. Or they could more easily frame him. All in all, it’d make things more difficult for him. Secondly, he could not have Ethan go to the meeting with White Widow wearing a mask of fake Lark aka the overpowered (presumably) Chinese fighter (character name unknown, call him OP) who destroyed them both in the bathroom fight. That they filmed for four weeks if I’m not mistaken. He doesn’t want their plan of Ethan using the face of the Chinese to go through because then he would not be able to frame Hunt, telling Sloane that Hunt has assumed his terrorist identity. And framing Hunt was the very mission he had (as the antagonist)— that was the part of the deal with Solomon Lane who would only provide him with the plutonium in case Walker/Lark succeeded in framing Hunt or at least have Hunt be there to witness his failure in the third act. Therefore, when Ethan was about to stick OP the needle before the random dude interrupted to wash his hands…Walker looked straight at OP pretty much telling him that ‘we are here for you, mate’. He wanted Ethan to fail with the needle and the look alerted the OP so when Ethan attacked he deflected the needle. Giving Walker a great excuse for defusing OP by hitting him in the face. He could have used his fists to knock him out, but it was plausible to hit him with the briefcase (facemask machine) for the following reason. That for the same reason you could afterwards see Ethan fighting not with his fists, but his elbows. It’s that their next move was meeting White Widow and if they had a messed up appearance by having their knuckles and faces bloody then the White Widow might have assumed that they just had a fight with the real Lark and were now posing as him. Again proving that every character beat was about them behaving in a way they should which is great. Thus, they would have messed up their only lead to the plutonium by raising suspicion that Ethan was not Lark. We saw quite clearly that Widow is very suspicious as she constantly tested Ethan to make sure he was Lark e.g. “…or do you draw a line at killing cops?” to which Ethan replied “I’ve murdered women and children with smallpox. I have no line” Hell of a corny line, but enough to cement Ethan as a believable Lark. Also, Walker needed to keep himself clean as well as he always had the intention of joining Ethan and Widow in her lair. In order to be there when they break Lane out.

I’m not gonna go into the scene where Walker and Sloane talk about Ethan being Lark, near Eiffel. This is an obvious tell to anyone that Walker cannot be trusted and although many saw that as too obvious of a tell compared to the relative complexity of the rest of the plot…I thought it was necessary according to the Hitchcock principle for creating tension, by there being a ticking bomb under the table (that only the audience knows about) while two people have a casual conversation.

Due to that reveal you knew that Ethan was in this alone (except Luther and Benji) so things will probably go awry. Which is the very reason why a simple couple minutes of escorting Lane until the actual action starts is building up tension so well…it’s because the scene where we learn Walker cannot be trusted leads right into it. It also raises the stakes as later Ethan escapes from the police we know that if he got caught he would be branded a terrorist a Lark. Moreover, him being the bad guy according to other agencies besides IMF is pretty much as signature plot point for the series. Otherwise we would consider that even though the French might catch him he should eventually be okay as the American agencies know him to be their operative and can possibly get him off the hook, even though according to “Inception” extradition from France to the US is not an easy feat.

So the chase scene. Before the escort gets to them Walker tries to make it seem like he doesn’t know that much about Lane by asking Ethan about all the horrible deeds he has supposedly heard about. He also knows obviously that Ethan was the one to catch him, but seems surprised by it. There is also a very specific purpose for reminding Ethan of all of those horrible deeds (by Lane) like crashing a plane to kill one person and gassing a village of 2000 to bankrupt a company. It’s because unlike the other goons (of Widow) Walker knows of their actual plan that Ethan has come up with in order to spare the police officers. This following scheme is pretty complicated, but genius. So Walker reminds Ethan why it is essential to not have Lane go free by having the Apostles have him through the broker (Widow)…as Lane would continue doing all these terrible acts. He also tells Ethan after “learning” that he was the one to catch Lane : “how long do you think he’s gonna keep that to himself?” Making Ethan ever more doubtful if he should go through with the Widow deal. But why does Walker not want this to happen? The thing, he doesn’t want it straight away (in Paris), but later. Why As Walker is CIA he already knows that Widow is working with the CIA, which we learn later on. That is also the reason why he (quite explicitly) is not a bit nervous in her house when Hunt is posing as Lark, although if Hunt failed then if Widow wasn’t CIA’s accomplice they’d kill them both. So as he knows that if they let Widow have Lane then one way or another Lane would still end up in captivity. Therefore, he wants to make sure Hunt has no intention of letting him go, which Hunt later states to Lane as well. It clever of Ethan to hide the real plan from Walker — that he did plan letting Lane go, which we later learn. So Walker knows if they were to do the exchange between Lane and the plutonium there in Paris he would not have the time to set up a team to extract Lane out of that meeting. But now as they got him and they are ordered to go to London by Widow…he will have time to get the Apostles in place inside the CIA tag team who later attacks them. The same team that probably would have intercepted the meeting with the Widow and Apostles at the exchange. Which is why he is at first pissed when they plan to have Benji be Lane’s double and Lane himself not going to the meeting. But once (so at least seems) they agree to have Benji go as Lane and Walker guard the real Lane…he is pleased as you can see that after all this scheming he is now so close to escaping with Lane with no one to stop them. So he thinks, of course, before the reveal that it was Benji who stayed behind.

As the final section of this massive thing…let’s go back to the Paris chase for the final foreshadow. So they ram Lane’s “armoured box” into the Seine and escape with the truck. Eventually getting stuck in the narrow street, which is Cavill’s second time doing that the previous being in ‘The Man from UNCLE’. His signature move I guess. They break the windshield and Walker is the first to get on the motorbike, thus having the opportunity to choose. He takes off and Ethan has issues with his bike. Walker asks what’s wrong, so it would seem as a surprise to him. Eventually Ethan takes off, showing that something was damaged, but not in an obvious way. Indicating that Walker corrupted the bike, but made it seem like a production fault as he didn’t straight up cut the oil tube or something. The proof of that is that he is the one who placed the bikes and a car in the garage. How come? Because when they get into the car after a scene with the French (woman) police officer and he again introduces himself as Walker to make sure everyone knows him as such…Benji tells him “was the little car your idea?” Which we can infer from that (first) he put them in place and (second) he thought there is going to be four of them max, because he hoped that Ethan would be caught due to the corrupted bike. Which is why Walker chose the little car. In addition to the obligatory BMW product placement, of course.