Hey, writers. Yes, I saw Mission: Impossible – Fallout. And yes, holy crap, I loved it.

Hit the jump, writers, let’s do this.

So my intention was to write this article at the same time as the previous article. But to borrow some words:

“Life…ah…ah…gets in the way.”
— paraphrasing Ian Malcolm

So there’s a lot of points I want to cover today. Let’s just dive in 🙂

I am not overly fond of what follows

The airplane jump was so beautiful. I did some digging for this post and apparently they had everyone jumping out of planes multiple times. There were practice jumps before trying for the final jump(s). All the practice was done because they needed to shoot at dawn and it was a three or so minute window. Pretty crazy. The final product is actually three different jumps stitched together. Pretty dope.

I mention this part because of the exchange between Ethan (Tom Cruise) and Walker (Henry Cavill). When Ethan lands, after having saved Walker’s life, Walker mocks him about losing his air tank. This, of course, was coupled with Walker mocking him prior to jumping and asking about Ethan fearing lightning.

At first I asked myself why Ethan didn’t tell him something like, “I just saved your life, you idiot.” Then I thought about it some more.

I remember hearing somewhere that blackouts at high altitude are a common enough thing, and Walker strikes me as the kind of guy who wouldn’t admit to making a mistake. So…it’s cool.

I like this exchange between the two and I enjoyed seeing it play out on the big screen with actions “speaking” louder than words.

I am the storm

Bruh. That exchange for the package was so bad ass. I loved it so much. I tried to find the source but I don’t know who said it.

Fate whispers to the warrior, “You cannot withstand the storm.”
And the warrior whispers back, “I am the storm.”

Writers, if you can source this, by all means throw a comment at me. Good stuff.

Death is the only adventure I have left, Smee.

Writers, I want to talk about the red hook from the battle between Ethan and Walker. Man, was it red. I can’t help but think about its redness. Okay, I’m being silly here, but when it first showed up my eyes were instantly drawn to it.

There’s a quote I like and try to put it to when I can.

“One must never place a loaded rifle
on the stage if it isn’t going to go off.
It’s wrong to make promises
you don’t mean to keep.” — Chekhov

I think it’s solid writing advice and when I saw the red hook, I thought that there would be a payoff…and I was sort of right. When the helicopter falls off the cliff it is the hook that stops it from falling further. Had I not seen the hook earlier, I might have questioned why the helicopter stopped so abruptly.

Then of course, we see a hook to the face. Harsh stuff, but a good scene nonetheless.

Now, my question, and it’s a serious question is: Why was the hook red?

There are two ideas that I have to bring up. Please pay extra attention to the first idea as it is a mantra I have heard more than once.

1 <> The audience is dumb. You need to over-explain everything.

Okay, that’s important. Keep that in mind as you read the second idea:

2 <> The audience isn’t dumb. You don’t need to explain everything.

“Hey, AlohaAlvin, you just gave us completely contradicting ideas.”

Yup.*

Seeing double?

There was that part in the movie where all the men are about to get into a car and then a door raises. Standing outside of that door was a woman. That woman looks at them and they look at her…and everyone freezes.

Alright, writers, be honest with me here: Did you think that was Ilsa Faust (played by Rebecca Ferguson)?

I know I did.

So first, obviously there was a “failure” in the Krystal Test here. Keep in mind that in this movie we have Ilsa, and Ethan’s wife, Julia (played by Michelle Monaghan), as well as this random woman. All three of them are thin, white, and have dark hair.

The scene quickly goes from confusion to a confrontation with the officer. I’m grateful in how it played out as well as how it ended. The part where Ethan grabs her walkie-talkie for her was a very nice touch.

I can’t help but acknowledge that I was sucked out of the moment. That casting choice blinded me, if only for a second.

Could the officer have been a minority? Perhaps weigh a hundred or more pounds? Maybe extra tall or extra short? (See my first Krystal Test article or second article for where I’m going with this.)

I don’t know.

Second, I have to ask myself…was it supposed to be a failure of the Krystal Test?

Hear me out, writers. In the dialogue with Luther (played by Ving Rhames), we hear that Ethan has only loved two women. The dialogue here is not handled the way I would have handled it so it makes me think I need to dissect what they said when the movie comes out on DVD.

Now, given that Ethan has loved two women that fit into that body type and hair color…maybe the director was making a statement here? Maybe this sudden happenstance situation was supposed to catch the main character (and therefore us) off guard? I can’t say for sure, but it is interesting.

I know the director has his own attention for detail. For instance, I heard the bathroom scene that I loved so much looked that way for a reason. Look at this shot.

See how sterile the room is? I remember hearing something like, the director wanted the room to feel like if a roach walked onto a set of white tiles. You couldn’t help but stare at it. That, my friends, is a very direct and clear intent.

Was the casting/costuming/timing of the Krystal Test failure all intentional? I don’t know, but it’s an interesting thought.

I know 1,000% that I’ll try to watch future Mission Impossible movies. Having said that, I’m going to keep an eye out for thin, white, dark haired women. I’m theorizing they’ll be characters we’re supposed to care about.

A writer-to-writer sign out today:

Have you ever specifically
“dumbed” something “down”
so that your readers would
better understand you?

Aloha,
Alvin

P.S.  Now that I think about it, the other two, big, female characters in this movie?  Well, one was a black woman with a completely different haircut, and a woman with blonde curls.

*Okay, I wanted to end it there, but I’ll go a bit deeper into it here. Most writing advice is pretty straightforward and consistent, but then you get some nuggets that are good…and confusing. I think it boils down to personal choice here. For instance, I like what they did with the red hook. Then again, I generally believe that it’s better/easier/simpler to “feed” the reader the information instead of hoping they get your meaning. Case in point, I had some friends and loved ones read some of my writing recently, and only a fraction of the people got what I was hinting. (I attacked the problem from three different angles.) The lesson for me? Cut what didn’t work and keep what did work.