Don't Make a Scene: Mission: Impossible III

The Story: The Kubler-Ross Model. In it, the Five Stages of Grief are Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance

In this scene from Mission: Impossible III, agent Ethan Hunt goes through all of them in the first three minutes of the movie.

All, that is, except Acceptance.

But, then, I've never accepted Mission Impossible III, either. Or 2. Well, all of them, really. Because it's less a team effort (ala Bruce Geller's TV concept) than it is like the Original Star Trek, whether the lead actor was working under the assumption that it was "The Captain Kirk Show". It's all about Ethan Hunt, per Tom Cruise's deal—his production company produces, he calls the shots, so he's the Big Star. He's the focus of the series. Ethan should have been the head of the Impossible Missions Force, by now, instead of just an operative, but...don't get me started.

Now, the way the movie gets started...that's what interests me. In fact, the rest of it is just a momentum machine that makes little sense and is just an excuse for Cruise to run (always), ride a motorcycle (always), do some wire-work (always) and look cool. Forget that what everybody is running around looking for—the "Rabbit's Foot," in this case—is a MacGuffin of the laziest sort.

Oh, what's a "MacGuffin?" Here's a short explanatory video, courtesy of the man who used it the most and also had some joking contempt for it:

It's giving away no secrets that the secret of the "Rabbit's Foot" is that nobody knows what it is. Well, they might, but it's never revealed. And Ethan never finds out what it is. But, everybody wants it, hence the movie. Making it tangible threatens to shorten the film's credibility shelf-life ("they were worried about micro-chips? How 2020's!")

But, that opening. That's pretty radical. From the first frame, Abrams cuts right to the most tense part of the film. There's no explanation of what the situation is, who the woman at the business-end of the gun is, how they got there. It's just *Boom* Hunt is manacled to a chair and can't move (hasn't he broken hand-cuffs in the series?) while a woman he knows is threatened with extinction. All he can do is bargain. And talk. And bluff. But, his enemy is implacable and unforgiving. How will he get out of it?

 

Or, the better question is, "how will the writers get out of it?"*

It doesn't feel original (and it isn't, it's a hybrid of the laser beam sequence of Goldfinger, melded with the Orient Express confrontation with the assassin Grant in From Russia With Love—both from the Bond series**), but putting it at the beginning of the movie feels original, and risky. Kubrick did it with Lolita...and if I gave it a day, I'd probably come up with another example. It builds suspense in an action movie that is not all that suspenseful. Abrams—in his first job directing a feature—keeps it tight and tense (he did quite a few episodes of his series "Alias", after all) and one neat touch, at some point the camera is attached to the chair, so whenever Cruise struggles in his chair, the camera gets caught up in the fight.

It's an interesting scene, and is a great set-up for what I'm planning the next few weeks in this spot.

 

The Set-Up: IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is in a bad way. We don't no why.

 

Action. 

OWEN DAVIAN: We've put an explosive charge in your head.

DAVIAN: Does that sound familiar?

DAVIAN: The Rabbit's Foot. Where is it? 

ETHAN HUNT: I gave it to you.  

DAVIAN: Ethan, where's the Rabbit's Foot?  

HUNT: Wait... 

HUNT: What are you saying? That wasn't it? - What I gave you, was that... - 

DAVIAN: I'm going to count to 10. You're going to tell me where the Rabbit's Foot is...

DAVIAN: ...or she dies. 

HUNT: Jules, it's going to be okay. 

HUNT: It's going to be okay. Do you understand?  

DAVIAN: One. 

HUNT: You listen to me. I got exactly what you asked for. Did you want something else?

HUNT: Because if there was a misunderstanding, I will fix it. I can get it, whatever you want. 

DAVIAN: Two.

HUNT: Listen. Talk to me. 

HUNT: We can talk, like gentlemen. - 

DAVIAN: Three. - 

HUNT: God! 

HUNT: All right. 

HUNT: All right, all right. 

HUNT: I know where the Rabbit's Foot is. I can help you. 

DAVIAN: The way you helped me on the airplane? 

DAVIAN: That way? 

HUNT: You put the gun down. I'm not talking to you like this.  

DAVIAN: That's your choice. Four.  

HUNT: The Rabbit's Foot's in Paris. 

HUNT: You want to know where in Paris? - 

HUNT: Then let her go. 'Cause you will not... - 

DAVIAN: It's not in Paris. 

DAVIAN: Five.  

HUNT: I can get it for you. But you kill her, you do this, you get nothing. -   

DAVIAN: Six. - 

HUNT: Are you listening to me? 

HUNT: The only way you're going to get what you want is 

HUNT: for you to... -  

HUNT: No!  

DAVIAN: Do you think I'm playing?-

HUNT: Son of a b*tch! 

DAVIAN: Do you think I'm playing?

DAVIAN: You don't think I'll do it? 

DAVIAN: Where is it?  

HUNT: Jules...

DAVIAN: Where the hell is it? - 

HUNT: Look at me. -  

DAVIAN: Where the hell is it? - 

HUNT: Stay with me. -

DAVIAN: Seven! 

DAVIAN: Seven! 

HUNT: I am going to kill you. 

HUNT: I swear to God I'm...

HUNT: ...going to kill...

HUNT: ...you! -

DAVIAN: Eight! - 

HUNT: No, please. 

HUNT: Please. Don't do this. 

HUNT: Just let her go. 

HUNT: I promise you. 

HUNT: I promise you. - 

HUNT: I can figure out how to get whatever... -  

DAVIAN: Nine. 

HUNT: Listen to me.

HUNT: Listen to me. 

HUNT: I want to help you. I want to help you get whatever you want.

HUNT: But you got to do what's right.  

HUNT: What you know is right. 

HUNT: No. No.

HUNT: No. - 

DAVIAN: Ten. -  

HUNT: Don't!

 

Mission: Impossible III

 

Words by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and J.J. Abrams

 

Pictures by Dan Mindel and J.J. Abrams

 

Mission: Impossible III is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Paramount Home Video.

* How DO the writers get out of it? By the time, we get to the sequence again—and it is repeated line by line but with tighter editing—we understand all the stakes, but ultimately...it doesn't matter. Not at all. I mean...it's a great scene, but...well, the writers cheat. I mean, it "works" in the film series' fanciful world where technology always works and illusions are always convincing (that wasn't the TV series, by the way), but...nah, they just cheated.

** ...and the Bond series does it with every film, putting a mini-adventure at the beginning before the credits. Often—*cough*The Spy Who Loved Me*cough*— it's the best part of the film.