#samothy.txt

[sirsamothy]

showing two of my friends the mission impossible movies and we finally reached rogue nation yesterday and during the benji hostage scene one of them said, “…..does anybody write fanfiction about these two kissing?” and i had to pause to catch my breath bc BROTHER DO I HAVE GREAT NEWS FOR YOU 💀 BOY DO THEY EVER!!! and then i got to send them some of my own. i didn’t even have to say anything before they came to that conclusion organically it was beautiful

[sirsamothy]

i think something the mission impossible movies are, by and large, pretty good at is establishing team dynamics that have clearly developed offscreen. in the first movie, that team has obviously worked together before. they have a familiarity with each other that comes from having spent time together and having done missions together. they trust each other, they know when to joke and when to get down to business, they work as a well-oiled machine. in the third movie (we don't have to include mi2 in this bc they don't have that kind of team going on), we're introduced to two new agents that also clearly know each other and know ethan well enough to joke around with him and well enough that they'll risk everything for him. AND we see that luther and ethan have evidently kept in touch and continued working together throughout the years. then when ghost protocol happens, ethan is surprised that benji's in the field, but the way he approaches it, the way they speak together, feels much more familiar than it did in mi3. it's less coworkers/acquaintances who barely know each other and more coworkers who have become something closer to real friends. and at the start, you also see that benji is on a mission with other agents who ALSO know each other and work well together (rip hanaway) and he knows them at least well enough to feel for them. he's still new, but it's not his first time out, and he works well with his team (it's not like he could have prevented hanaway's death).

putting the rest of this essay under the cut because it got a little out of hand lol

by the time we get to rogue nation, there's a much more solid team dynamic with ethan, benji, luther, and brandt. it is apparent that they have all been working together for some time, enough that they can tease each other and yell at each other and get pissed without it feeling like a real fight. and with ethan and benji, the banter they have also demonstrates that more time has passed and their bond has grown stronger (however you'd like to interpret that, this post isn't explicitly about romance, just connections in general). luther barely knows brandt, but he'll work with him because he wants to save his friends (not just ethan, but benji, too, reinforcing that they're ALL a team who have worked with each other for a while). and then there's the polygraph: benji is experienced enough that he can fool a lie detector test (let's ignore that fact that in the real world these are not accurate lol) and he does so willingly for ethan, no matter what the consequences might be should he be caught. and then, of course, there's the scene that i will never stop thinking about after the opera ("that's not your decision to make, ethan!") where benji demonstrates that he know ethan well enough and understands him enough to instantly cut through to the heart of all this: he knows that ethan is unintentionally taking away benji's autonomy because he's terrified of losing him, and he needs ethan to understand that he DOES have autonomy, and that he feels the same care for ethan that ethan does for him. he knows that this is what ethan needs to hear, that he needs someone to push back and tell him that he needs to let his loved ones make their own choices and assess the risks for themselves, and that they will do this for ethan because they CARE. that kind of understanding comes from a very real friendship, not just a surface level one (yes, i know that ethan verbatim said that he can't protect benji and that's why he needs him to leave, but benji clearly understood that already and understood that it was deeper than that).

the jumps between films don't feel like wild leaps, they feel like natural progressions in the characters' relationships. the missions we see on screen aren't the only missions these people have ever done with each other. they're just bigger missions in a long string of ongoing missions that have led to closer and closer connections between the members of the team. you even see that little moment in fallout where julia asks luther how ethan is with such a casual and familiar tone that we see, even if luther hadn't said he'd taught julia how to be a ghost himself earlier in the movie, that they have an existing relationship that has further developed since mi3 and gp. the core team members go from being acquaintances to coworkers to friends to something closer to family, a deep bond that cannot be broken. anyway i think i've kind of veered a bit off course here, but i've just been thinking so much about these goddamn movies lately and i really enjoy how efficient they can be in relaying these relationships to the audience without anything feeling stilted or jarring. the inside jokes help, too, like "foosball table" in mi8. i know this isn't unique to the mission impossible movies lol i know it's just a thing that people do in writing in general, but it's fun to analyze nonetheless.

[sirsamothy]

would anyone agree with me if i said that i think julia meade is the kind of person to actually want her former spouse to be happy and find love after they part ways and that i think ethan is, too, except he's bad at it and can't turn his feelings off despite thinking it intellectually. like i don't think he's jealous of julia's new husband, i think he's glad she found someone, he's just also still attached to her because how could he NOT be. he contains multitudes. he is never going to fully get over anyone ever but he moves forward anyway. he gets stuck in the past and can't let go of people he loved in a past life while still knowing he has to keep going despite that. he just keeps generating more love for more people and with it, more grief. am i making sense. can anyone hear me.

[sirsamothy]

i know i have literally written multiple fics (only one is published but still) where benji and ethan get together before mi8 but i honestly think it makes the most sense for them to not really let themselves get there until after the final reckoning. sure, i will always find ways for it to happen somewhere between ghost protocol and then, and i think there are absolutely ways to make that believable without being out of character, but to me? i find the slowest slowburn both the most compelling and the most believable. benji has been pining probably since he first met ethan, although he maybe didn’t admit to that until later down the line. ethan probably started thinking about it during or after rogue nation. but neither of them want to do anything about it, it never feels like the right time. and then after mi8, i imagine they realize there is no right time. there’s no point in dragging it out any longer when they could lose everything at any given moment. and at that point, all they have is each other, in a way.

which isn’t to say that there aren’t other important people in their lives, but they’ve been together for so long that they have a unique bond. and yes it would obviously be difficult to deal with all the grief and trauma, but i don’t think it would be toxic by any means because they’ve never been toxic, not in that way. they’d learn to work through it all together. you see in mi8 that ethan has learned to trust benji fully and give him agency, instead of worrying somewhat obsessively about him like he did in rogue nation. not that he didn’t trust benji before, but ethan has a hard time letting anyone other than himself take risks, especially if it’s on his behalf. and in turn, benji has learned to trust both himself AND ethan, to know what ethan is capable of and trust him to do it (even though he does worry. i think the interesting thing about benji is that while he does throw ethan into risky situations, he does it bc he knows ethan can do it, and he also still worries about him in the process. i have a lot of thoughts on that which i won’t get into here) while also talking on responsibility himself. they’ve been equals for a while now, and we really see that in the last film. the trust is mutual and deep. i don’t have a larger point to make here, i just find them interesting, and i really like what tfr did with their characters, though i wish benji had more screen time.

[sirsamothy]

i like that sometimes when benji yells at ethan he looks a bit surprised that he’s just done that but keeps doing it anyway. silly silly man.

[sirsamothy]

ethan hunt. a man who has trouble understanding why people would put themselves in danger for his sake but also has a desperate need to be Useful. a man who loves people so much it hurts and has to stop himself from pushing them away because he wants them to be safe. a man who has a charming smile and a penchant for making anyone in his vicinity fall at least a little bit in love with him without even trying. a man who would probably instantly combust if someone called him good boy. sorry what was i saying.

[sirsamothy]

unfortunately for benji it is just too fun to write him being in various forms of distress. yearning, stress, frustration, mortal danger, etc. sorry benji i just can’t help it!

[sirsamothy]

benji dunn.