We Can't Stop Thinking About The Best Line Of Dialogue In Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
This article, if you choose to read it, contains spoilers for "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1."
If Tom Cruise is to be considered something of a unicorn in our current era of filmmaking, standing out as one of the last examples of a bona fide movie star who's willing to put his body on the line and bring crowds of moviegoers back into theaters almost singlehandedly, then that only scratches the surface of Ethan Hunt's reputation as a living legend within the world of "Mission: Impossible." The longtime IMF agent has wracked up quite a list of accomplishments in his time, from breaking into CIA headquarters to infiltrating the Kremlin, not to mention scaling the Burj Khalifa and stopping the breakout of nuclear war — on multiple occasions. Not surprisingly, "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1" ups the ante even higher by pitting him against the threat of a rogue artificial intelligence known as The Entity, with motivations as murky as its origins.
But what's any of that matter to the living manifestation of destiny himself?
The franchise has gotten quite a bit of mileage out of Ethan's ever-expanding reputation for overcoming any and all obstacles, no matter the odds, but "Mission: Impossible" truly reached another level once it began to directly comment on that aura surrounding its superhero-like protagonist. We've seen allies and enemies alike united — if ever so briefly — in sheer disbelief over the lengths that Hunt is willing to go if it means completing his mission. And that's led to some of the absolute best and funniest lines of dialogue throughout the series. That may have reached a crescendo early on in "Dead Reckoning," adding yet another feather in Ethan Hunt's cap and proving that, like its main hero, "Mission: Impossible" can still top itself.
The legend of Ethan Hunt grows
There's an unspoken rule that has remained consistent throughout the majority of the "Mission: Impossible" movies: Cast the most charismatic actors with the most gravitas in the world and simply let them deliver all the best lines. There's Jon Voight in the original (his monologue when Ethan figures out the truth is still an all-timer), Philip Seymour-Hoffman literally every time he's on-screen in "Mission: Impossible III," and Alec Baldwin in both "Rogue Nation" and "Fallout." Now, finally, character actor extraordinaire Shea Whigham can place himself among their ranks in "Dead Reckoning."
When Whigham's agent Jasper Briggs is sent to take down Hunt and traces him to Abu Dhabi International Airport, he's given the chance to deliver an absolute barnburner of a description of their target — and he makes a total meal out of this speech, too. While debriefing his team on what to expect from Hunt, advising them to recover the half of the mysterious cruciform key in his possession takes at all costs, he drops this piece of cinematic gold lightly paraphrased below:
"He's a mind-reading, shapeshifting incarnation of chaos."
Furthermore, he adds that the only way to know for sure that he's dead is to plunge a wooden stake through his open heart. No algorithm could ever come up with something like that, eh? As a writer, you just know you've hit it out of the park such dialogue manages to elicit both laughs and cheers at the same time, as it has at both screenings I've attended. But more than anything else, it's just a perfect in-universe description from a franchise newcomer to remind us just how absurd the legend of Ethan Hunt really is. He scales cliffs, he pilots helicopters, and he can hold his breath just as well as the Metkayina in "Avatar." In fact, that just makes us want to appreciate every time characters observed just how ridiculous Hunt really is.
Shaking hands with the devil
You didn't think the man, myth, and legend of Ethan Hunt was only a recent phenomenon, did you? All the way back in the 1996 original movie, those in Hunt's orbit were already treating him like the superhuman master of disguise that he so clearly was. That much was clear from the cockiness the shockingly young Ethan shows during the first mission debriefing we see in the franchise, but he put his money where his mouth was by surviving the massacre of almost his entire team and the immediate aftermath upon going into hiding. Of course, despite obviously being framed for the crime, he comes out from the cold for one meeting with his IMF handler: Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), who strongly suspects Ethan of being the mole responsible for the deaths of his teammates.
In one of the most iconic scenes in the entire series, director Brian De Palma stages an impossibly tense standoff between Hunt and Kittridge. Convinced more and more of his guilt, Kittridge angrily puts away all pretenses and demands that Hunt turn himself in. Driven to his breaking point, he finally lets the mask slip and spits out the line of the century at who he (understandably) assumes is the greatest threat to the IMF:
"You have bribed, cajoled, and killed, and you have done it using loyalties on the inside. You want to shake hands with the devil, that's fine with me. I just want to make sure that you do it in hell."
Everyone remembers the famous aquarium explosion that follows, setting the stage for the first dangerous stunt that Tom Cruise performed in the franchise. But it was in the steadily mounting and brutally incisive exchange that came before that helped put this sequence in all-timer territory.
A walk in the park
Ethan Hunt's had a tough time getting along with his various IMF bosses, hasn't he? "Mission: Impossible II" is commonly regarded as the redheaded stepchild of the series, preserved in amber as this quintessential relic from the year 2000, bursting with all the stylized flourishes that director John Woo is known for. But as much as the film is treated as something of a joke, it also contains a quip from IMF higher-up Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins) that deserves its status as one of the best descriptions of Ethan from any of the movies.
Early on, Hunt is informed of the need to recruit professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton) in a mission to apprehend a former IMF agent turned rogue. But rather than make use of her skills, IMF only wants to take advantage of her for her previous romantic relationship with their target. Ethan, having already met her and fallen for her charms, is understandably reluctant to betray her trust like this. That's when his unsympathetic Mission Commander delivers a line that somehow both cuts Ethan down to size and stokes his ego as an unparalleled agent.
"You mean it'll be difficult," Swanbeck sarcastically replies when Ethan expresses doubt that he'll be able to successfully recruit Nyah.
"Well, this is not mission difficult, Mr. Hunt, it's mission impossible. 'Difficult' should be a walk in the park for you."
Does this make a ton of sense in-universe? Do IMF agents really go around reciting the title of the franchise to each other? Would this line ever have been allowed into the final cut of any "Mission" movie in the time since? The answer to these questions are all "No," but who cares! Hopkins understood the assignment and we should all be grateful.
The living manifestation of destiny
Up until "Dead Reckoning," unquestionably the best descriptor of Ethan Hunt came from director Christopher McQuarrie's "Rogue Nation." In a movie all about the usefulness of the IMF (and, by extension, Hunt himself) in a modern world that's moved past such silly organizations, the 2015 film took the time to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt why everyone still needs a hero like Hunt to save the day.
Remember that moment in the original "John Wick," when acting legend Michael Nyqvist got on the phone with an underling to demand answers as to why his obnoxious son got beat up in embarrassing fashion? Upon discovering that the mob boss' snotty kid messed with the wrong man, his single utterance of the word, "Oh," said absolutely everything we needed to know about the mystique and aura surrounding Wick. Well, the "Mission: Impossible" equivalent of that scene came late in "Rogue Nation," when Hunt's on-the-run team is pressganged by villain Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) into accosting the Prime Minister (Tom Hollander). Director Alan Hunley arrives first in an attempt to thwart Hunt, informing the world leader of just what Ethan Hunt is capable of. Five movies into the franchise, the following monologue remains a high-water mark:
"Hunt is uniquely trained and highly motivated, a specialist without equal, immune to any countermeasures. There is no secret he cannot extract, no security he cannot breach, no person he cannot become. He has most likely anticipated this very conversation and is waiting to strike in whatever direction we move. Sir, Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny — and he has made you his mission."
Need we say any more? Nothing would be the same after this monologue.
"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning" in currently playing in theaters.