Honestly guys we don't talk enough about how fucking SUBVERSIVE the Gay Submarine Scene™️ in mi8 was (pun intended). That was the type of scene in an action movie where usually the Hot Woman who's there for eye candy for the audience of straight men is gratuitously stripped down in some way and looks indignant or helpless as the Action Movie Men oggle her (a simplified explanation of The Male Gaze). But instead of a woman who's only in the movie for 5 seconds it's ETHAN HUNT, the MALE STAR of the action movie. He's stripped down to his boxers and bashfully admired by several burly men. Captain Bledsoe was very obviously flirting with him. And this isn't even MENTIONING the role that KODIAK played. Her and Ethan's banter was indistinguishable from two sweaty buff male leads in a testosterone-filled 80s action flick who are very obviously eyefucking during their rivalry. Those types of scenes are gay enough as they are. Except in the Gay Submarine, one of the masculine male roles was played by a WOMAN, complete with muscles and short hair and that tired yet eager stare that screams 'dominant,' FURTHER scrambling up the gender roles and throwing them out the window. There was nothing heterosexual about how she and Ethan interacted, just like how there was nothing heterosexual about how Ethan and Bledsoe interacted. The Gay Submarine Scene™️ was queer. it was Lesbian. it was transgender. it was homosexual. it was butch. it was beautiful. AND IT WAS IN A MAINSTREAM ACTION MOVIE SERIES INSTALLMENT SEEN BY THE WORLD. Those types of movies ALWAYS have The Male Gaze scenes. Not Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. This movie had The McQ Gaze, and the hot woman being objectified was internationally beloved Hollywood movie star and president of movies Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, showing off his tits and the curve of his ass in a distinctly non traditional way. Amen. Tony Scott is smiling down upon us, I just know it.
