Spoilers ahead for Mission: Impossible- Fallout
Mission: Impossible- Fallout is arguably the best action film since the acclaimed Mad Max: Fury Road. The film has been met with acclaim and is widely considered the best in the long running Mission: Impossible series. Although, the M:I series has never been all that great with its antagonists, Henry Cavill’s role as August Walker is actually pretty good and Cavill himself held his own against powerhouse Tom Cruise. We know that Solomon Lane from Rogue Nation is back from early on in the film but the marketing and the film’s trailers revealed Walker to also be a villain but only during later in the film, is Walker really revealed to be an antagonist.
Usually films tend to treat this as a plot twist and Walker’s reveal as an antagonist may have baffled some who were expecting him to be introduced as a villain early on in the film (if you’ve seen the trailers). For the most part, despite being sort of douche, he was still seemingly ‘good’ albeit a little suspicious of hunt (seemingly). This reveal would have definitely served up an interesting plot twist but obviously Paramount didn’t go that route with the trailers. However, there seems to be a reason for that.
Speaking on The Empire Film Podcast, Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie discussed the decision to portray Cavill as the villain in the trailers and apparently it was all Cruise’s idea. He said:
“He [Cruise] goes, ‘Here’s the one thing I don’t want. I don’t want the audience to be disappointed when they find out he’s a bad guy.’ He said, ‘If we set up Hunt and Walker wrong, the audience is going to be expecting them to be buddies at the end of the film. And, if we get to the end of the film and that’s disappointing, we’re dead. However you create this dynamic, just let them know that this is not the beginning of a beautiful friendship. This is all gonna end badly.’ And he was right. His instincts were absolutely right.”
This does make some sense since some twists don’t really sit well with audiences and they could really ruin an image of a character (looking at you Iron-Man 3). Cavill himself isn’t really known for playing villains, he’s Superman for God’s sake (by the way, his mustache looks fantastic in Fallout) so audiences would assume that Walker and Hunt would be buds for the rest of the film.
Well, it doesn’t really matter that much as Fallout is one hell of an action film and is definitely a must-watch if you’re tired of bulls–t like Skyscrapper and Tomb Raider. It’s probably not the last you’ve heard of this series.
Source: The Empire Film Podcast
