In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley says to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, “You had a terrible choice to make in Berlin. One life over millions. And now the world is at risk.” This single line reverberates across the over three-decade-long action film franchise, underlining the core personality of its protagonist. Honestly, a secret agent who defies the extent of physicality and will, surpasses average human survival probabilities, charms every woman he meets, uses awesome gadgets, and goes up against indomitable global forces to save the world, is not new to the world of cinema. The aforementioned grammar for a suave killing machine can be applied to Britain's famous spy, James Bond, and Jason 'the stoic CIA agent who can turn any inanimate object into a weapon' Bourne as well. Familiarity is not the biggest crime in storytelling.
But what makes Ethan Hunt click? The easiest answer for why the character works every single time is Tom Cruise. The man who gleefully throws himself inches away from the jaws of death in every film to capture the most awe-inducing spectacles on screen. But Ethan Hunt is also memorable because he does what all good action stories do best: Make you feel the vicarious thrill and joy of being a hero. And what sort of hero is Ethan Hunt? It is perhaps best to ponder that question by asking what kind of action hero he is decidedly not.
In Casino Royale, the sweet-talking British spy falls for Vesper Lynd. However, after it is revealed that Vesper has betrayed her, Bond decides to never trust anyone again and delivers one of the coldest lines in the franchise's history. When asked by M if he is saddened by her death, he says, “The job's done. And the b**ch is dead.” And right before the credits roll, we hear the iconic Bond theme for the first time, signalling how the cold and lethal spy we all know and love has finally arrived. In The Bourne Supremacy, after the love of his life dies in an assassination attempt aimed at him, Jason Bourne wreaks havoc to dismantle the very organisation that trained him. James Bond is the ever-loyal sword of Great Britain, Jason Bourne is the self-ascertained lone wolf who stays away from any type of leash. Ethan Hunt is definitely a cold secret agent archetype, only with the mix of an irony: emotional attachment.
In a tense scene in Mission: Impossible III, Hunt’s wife Julia is tortured in front of him to see if he has surrendered the original bioweapon instead of a decoy. A man known for deception, Hunt could have attempted to fool the antagonists, but no, it is revealed that he was indeed ready to trade the original weapon to save his wife. Therein lies the heart of the character. Right from the first film, Hunt’s emotional attachment to those close to him is the factor that makes almost all of his missions (almost) impossible. He would rather go to extraordinarily inhuman lengths instead of facing the death of a loved one. Who would decide to memorise the names of several bank accounts worth 2.4 billion so he can destroy the memory device and turn himself into a leverage and release his friend Benji from being strapped to a bomb? This is perhaps why James Bond never meets his American friend Felix Leiter every weekend for Martini and why Jason Bourne talks to a trusted aide through a burner phone while he scopes her from afar with a sniper rifle.
Ethan Hunt might not be as emotionally cold as Bond and Bourne, but his brand of coldness comes through his rock-solid conviction to stick to his core principle of saving those around him. In the trailer to Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning, Ving Rhames’ Luther says, “None of our lives can matter more than this mission,” to which Hunt assertively retorts, “I don’t accept that.” What makes him admirable is his relentless adherence to what he believes in, even in the face of insurmountable odds.
Ethan Hunt is the physical embodiment of an answer to the seemingly impossible thought experiment, The Trolley Problem. The thought experiment ponders the moral implications of an imaginary scenario where an unstoppable trolley is headed towards five people, and the only way to save them is by diverting it to a track with a single person standing on it. Ethan Hunt will refuse to accept the deterministic constraints of the scenario, and will divert the trolley, slow it down so he can evacuate the people inside, and blow it up before it reaches the one person.
As Alec Baldwin’s character says, “Some flaw deep inside the core of your being won’t allow you to choose between one life and millions. You see that as a sign of weakness, but I think it’s your greatest strength.” Ethan Hunt lights the fuse only when he knows his team is well beyond the blast radius, and he will go to jaw-dropping lengths to make sure the fuse is long and lethal. And come this weekend, it will be time for his team and the audience to do the one thing we have always done when it comes to Ethan Hunt and the MI films... Trust him, one last time.