(Editor’s Note: The following contains spoiler for Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1.)
The most unlikely mission humanity will face until 2023 Mission impossible Franchises are disappearing Bechdel test. Over the first six films, the franchise shined thanks in part to Vanessa Redgrave, Thandiway Newton, Michelle Monaghan, Keri Russell, Paula Actresses like Patton, Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby — the roles are mentioned, but women can’t have them. A non-male conversation between them.
The seventh film does manage to pull off this very basic task, thanks to skilled thief Grace (Hayley Atwell) and international power broker Alana (Vanessa Kirby) A conversation between Alanna about the job that Alanna hired her to do. However, Grace and Alana’s groundbreaking conversation is followed by one of the film’s many messy dialogue scenes, in which AI henchman Gabriel (Esai Morales) declares that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) will have to choose in his semi-platonic dialogue that the brunette will die, a prophecy only later fulfilled.
I say “only somewhat” because the chase through the streets of Venice that resulted in Ilsa’s death didn’t actually give Ethan much choice as to who would die – if anything, Ilsa at least seemed It’s the one who chooses to hunt down Gabriel, though her reasons for doing so are unclear. Did she feel the need to protect Grace? Did she feel… anything? who knows. Blame it on the self-aware artificial intelligence that is the movie’s villain.
This is just one of many scripting issues inherent with dead reckoning part 1, but it also points out why it’s not a good idea to use the Bechdel test to measure a film’s feminism. Despite passing the test and having a wide variety of female characters, dead reckoning part 1 Continuing the series’ proud tradition, it’s regressive at worst and weird at best when it comes to half the world’s population.
it could have been worse
first Mission impossible There are four prominent female characters in the film: two members of Ethan’s IMF team die in the opening scene, his ultimately mistrustful teammate Claire (Emmanuelle Béart), and the amazing Max (Vanessa Redgrave), who feels like she’s having an illicit pleasure during the brief scene where she flirts with Ethan. (Redgrave, 59, called Cruise “dear boy,” in perhaps one of the series’ sexiest moments, thanks to the unexpected chemistry between the actors.)
Ethan ended the film romantically as a free agent, leading him to an affair in the eventual sequel with perhaps the series’ best-developed female character, Nia (Thandiewe Newton). . Of course, ironically, mission impossible 2 is the most misogynistic of the series.