Would you change something about the ending of Mission: Impossible The last Reckoning?
Only one thing - I would have liked to have had Ethan find Benji injured in the hospital or in the vaults. I understood why it didn’t happen - didn’t want to break the flow from Ethan’s landing, Luther’s speech, and then the reunion but my Benthan heart yearned for it. But at least there’s a plethora of brilliant fanfics about it.
Or a moment in Trafalgar Square where we see Ethan and Benji speak. But again, I understand why not - Ethan has chosen to walk away from missions and join Benji, and we are left standing where Grace stands, watching him walk away. We get to see the missions and all that happened but the life Ethan is walking away to - that’s not a mission, that’s his chosen peace, and we are not allowed to see that.
So basically - the Benthan in me would have liked a reunion or a conversation. The still-learning storyteller/film maker in me thinks it ended perfectly
Luther could have played the role of Ethan’s scientist with the arms dealers. He’s a tech guy too. And Benji is so nervous - I think this is all part of Ethan’s plan to rebuild Benji’s confidence and get him out in the field again. To make him feel sure of himself again. To give back what Lane took away.
I do love the way that Julia gives the ‘you didn’t destroy my life, you made it better’ speech, the one where she lets Ethan go and the second she moves back Ethan looks up and sees Benji and gasps and they lock eyes for ages….
Mind you, this is before Ethan (probably) finds out what Lane did to Benji because he could see Ethan cared so much. Which sends him back on his ‘I destroy everyone I ever come into contact with but especially those I love so I can’t allow myself to love Benji’ spiral.
Which he doesn’t snap out of until Donloe gives him the knife and the speech…
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
Being in Trafalgar Square today, thinking about Ethan just falling into Benji’s arms and the way Benji without hesitation pulls him in for the hug
And then thinking about how physically distant Ethan was with Benji through most of DR - even the shoulder touches were done with Ethan facing away from Benji
And how they seem to have got closer, how Benji knows his hug will be welcomed, is what Ethan needs and how Ethan without thinking takes his comfort from Benji - I’m guessing that very soon after DR and before Benji left for London, the two of them had another conversation about how Benji will not leave him, but also Ethan admitting, perhaps for the first time to Benji, perhaps for the first time to himself, just how much he needs Benji, how Benji makes it all better. How he survives and keeps going for Benji.
The Entity Box unlocked Ethan’s love for Benji, but they were already a bit closer than they had been since before Lane.
Thinking about how Benji is with Walker - rolling his eyes, ‘was the little car your idea?’, refusing to give Walker his name in return, Benji just gloriously, wonderfully bitchy to him or just ignoring him completely…
And Ethan just standing by and letting it happen. Even glancing at Benji in the rear view mirror to watch it happen (I think he enjoyed letting Benji loose on Walker like that)
I know it’s all part of the ‘let’s fool Walker that Benji is incapable’ thing but it does give an insight into how beautifully snappy and bitchy Benji can be with someone he doesn’t like.
(And it does make me laugh that Ilsa, despite not being part of the plan, behaved exactly the same way to Walker from the moment she met him. Benji Ilsa sibling energy)
The votes are in! Here are the daily and alternate themes for Benthan Week 2026, running from August 24-30:
Monday, August 24
Day 1: Presumed dead
Alternate theme: Ethan and Benji take care of each other’s emotional fallouts after The Final Reckoning
Tuesday, August 25
Day 2: One of them can’t speak/hear/see [mod was glad to find such interest in writing disability this year! to support, here are resources for respectfully writing disabled characters, especially Deaf and blind characters, without reducing disability to a narrative prop]
Alternate theme: They meeting during Mission: Impossible I or II timeline AU
Wednesday, August 26
Day 3: Ethan is actually a traffic analyst (or whatever his job was in MI3) but somehow gets roped into a crime unwillingly anyway, so Benji has to help solve it while not tipping off Ethan
Alternate theme: Historical period AU (WWII, Victorian, Middle Ages, etc.)
Thursday, August 27
Day 4: Someone wears a Benji mask in front of Ethan (or the other way around)
Alternate theme: Ethan being the damsel in distress
Friday, August 28
Day 5: Benji gets the mission to kill Ethan
Alternate theme: Benji takes Ethan clothes shopping to stop him wearing basic black
Saturday, August 29
Day 6: Ethan treating a badly hurt Benji
Alternate theme: After a concussion, Ethan thinks he actually is John Lark. Benji has to convince him he’s not.
Sunday, August 30
Day 7: Truth serum
Alternate theme: Benji and Ethan on the run together
Enjoy creating for the next month and a half (or, in time-honored tradition, doing it all the night before in a wild rush)! The blog will begin posting and the AO3 collection will be revealed around 8 AM US Central Time on the 24th. Looking forward to another fun year of Benthan 💖
Rogue Nation is such a special movie for me, especially because of the Vienna Opera scene. It was really fun to check out all the locations in the film 12 years after it came out(I feel old.
Ok words at the front: there are guides of mi filming locations everywhere on the internet so this is more about my particular interest instead of a very detailed guide. Also it's gonna be very benthan biased. You have been warned.
I think I'm gonna cover this by the order they showed up in the film, so for the start we have: opera tickets.
(The nerd me would say that probably it would never be "Vienna Opera" on the flyer, if it had to be in English it should be Vienna State Opera. I wondered if it's because of license problems, but on the ticket there's clearly the logo and name. Who knows, maybe it looks nicer)
I did find a picture of a 2019 ticket that looks fairly the same.
And then the subway station! Here, it was actually a movie trickery because there are actually 2 subway stations involved here.
The first one is the Schottenring station, where the underground part of this sequence is filmed
It was really weird to go to this subway station and. not get on any train but just taking pictures everywhere.
I only realized this was the wrong side of the tunnel as I'm checking the photos now. Very sad but you get the idea
But the most iconic part of this station is probably these stunning X-shaped frames
Judging from the angle I think I was at the exact location where the camera rolls
Schottenring is an exchange station where Benji went from the purple-colored U2 line to the green-colored U4 line
This was also the wrong side of the platform. I am stupid
Which is actually very funny because he should be going the other way around! I mean, the trickery here is trying to make it look like he exited from this exact station, but if he'd just gone the other way around (from U4 to U2), it would actually be the correct way to go to the opera.
The station where Benji actually exited was the Karlsplatz station, you can see the reflection of the signs on the wall
Which is why I said if he'd gone the other way around, it would've made total sense because you can literally see he got out of the train that was actually heading for Karlsplatz XD
The actual underground part of Karlsplatz is a very cozy market sort of thing, so they probably want something more in line with the vibe of the film (like the super cool X frames
There was also a funny guide that roasted Benji for going straight across this very busy main road instead of taking the pedestrian crossing right next to this exit
And now... we are in(hacker voice
(If you are not a super spy, then there are two ways to get into the opera: either by having an opera ticket, or you can take a guided tour. You have more freedom to wander around in the building if you just get an opera ticket, and they have standing tickets every day for less than 20 euros. But the off-season is in the summer, so during that time only the guided tours are available)
And then the first thing I did was. Get to the Nice Tux™️corner.
There is one thing that isn't really obvious in the picture, and that is these two spots are SO CLOSE. The camera lenses make it look very far away but I think the direct distance can't be more than 10m. I'm pretty sure if Ethan just jumped from that place he could have landed on Benji
Also I've been telling my friends via this diagram that there's no way Ethan could escape Benji's notice unless he just hid behind this column. This will be my mental picture of this scene from now on
Another thing if you haven't noticed already... after 12 years it's still the same carpet
This staircase is slightly harder to find because it was not directly accessible from the ground floor. But very luckily, there was no trickery in filming the interior structure of the opera building (excluding everything involving the backstage), which means I was able to find this place by locating Ethan's booth first and walking backwards
This door actually leads to this booth which is not something often happens in movies
But I'm 80% sure this door Ethan went in later is actually the door to the toilet.
The lighting booth is supposed to be one floor higher; in the film it took over all of the best, most expensive central seats, where in real life the chancellor should be (which is also slightly funny if you think about it
The Ilsa corner, as I call it, is on the top floor
Which kind of explains why Ethan could find her so quick as his booth was also on the top of the building. And only now did I realize that there is some sense to the roof escape route; since his booth is on higher floors then it makes a lot of sense to go even higher up.
But as I've been there myself, I think the staircases are really a labyrinth. I think it's totally possible to escape by switching different stairs on different floors but what are you talking about this is mission impossible we are not using stairs unless we are in a car chase
I've exceeded the 30 pic limit, but another funny thing is that there's a cafe right next to the place where Ethan and Ilsa slide down. Imagine you are just having a lovely piece of Sachertorte and these two people just dropped in front of you Mary Poppins style then calmly walks away
And that's all! It was really like a dream to go to Vienna and visit all of these places that I've seen in movies for hundreds of times :'D
Benji is all set to attend his local Pride festival when he gets a surprise guest at his door. And his day only gets more surreal from there.
⚠︎ Includes brief spoilers for Mission: Impossible I (1996), if you haven't seen it yet.
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The way Benji is officially made team leader is just...
Ethan says, "You're team leader now", and Benji's immediate reaction is to shake his head, to refuse, he's not ready, he doesn't feel that he is ready.
And then Ethan just says, "Benji, take care of your team".
And this is an actual task. Taking care of others. This responsibility is a lot, but Benji cannot and will not avoid it, he will take care of them, he will make himself rise to the task. This is his mission now, and he accepts it.
And he does take care of his team, guiding them to do things they had not thought themselves to be capable of, just like Benji himself.
Just like Ethan, whom Benji has also sometimes pushed to do things he hadn't thought possible.
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