#lifetreesrambles

And now looking back at the source material, I’m also genuinely impressed that somehow, MI movies being a franchise with 8 installments and Ethan Hunt being the absolutely undoubted main character, he is still somehow a mystery. I love that he’s someone with a perfect poker face that’s impossible to read, he’s whole life is basically about wearing masks and being someone else, but sometimes he can also be as easy to read as an open book. I love that it’s always very “show don’t tell” when it comes to what’s going on in his mind that leaves so much space for imagination (and fanfiction.) l love that we would never ever know what was in his mind when he was throwing a stone to the walls in a Russian prison, when he was alone on the balcony in Venice, when he drowned in the arctic sea. All the space for your mind to wonder about. It creates such a loneliness as well. Ethan is the main character for 8 movies and 30 years but we almost never know what he was thinking, we can only learn it from his actions. That’s really clever writing and some franchises struggle with their main character writing at only two movies .

Even in the very precious few moments in fallout where we catch a glimpse of his mind, the dreams were still very ominous and leaves huge space for all kinds of interpretations and I LOVE that.

The RN spoilers podcast. Is a gold mine. There’s so much good stuff I’m putting in my notes that I might post later but the Benthan stuff is INSANE I had to get it out right now

- There was a version/deleted scene where Ethan sent a message to Benji before he heads to Vienna in a very mission way. He recorded a mission briefing just for Benji and put it in a Halo 5 disk and sent it to Benji. I’m utterly speechless so I’m just gonna put the transcription of the podcast here

Host: Isn’t it mean to indicate that Benji lives a lonely and solitary life? That he couldn’t just call up the woman he liked and say, let’s go to Vienna for a couple of days?

Mcq: It’s–and–there was a whole other story, about how Ethan got that message (to Benji). That Ethan ends up getting–there’s the little thing that he’s(Benji) playing video games, at his desk; he goes home that night after being interrogated, he goes home to his lonely little apartment, in his electric BMW–

Host: (laughs)

Mcq: –We had to do product placement–and he goes into his apartment, which is completely spare and, there’s an empty fish bowl–

Host: Oh my god–

Mcq: And all he has is this kick ass home entertainment system. That just dominates one end of the room. And on outside of his door, is the latest version of whatever video game which would be product placement, eventually dictated to be Halo 5. And he sticks it in–and you see him like wondering what it is because he didn’t order it, he puts it in and kind of, nothing happens and then you do a timecut and he’s just playing Halo, he’s like 48 levels into it–and suddenly he gets to a certain level and stops, and it’s a message from Ethan. And then it was ”Good evening, Mr. Dunn.” and he (Ethan) gets this message for Benji. And of course Benji was like stops it, he was quickly writing down what Ethan was saying–and of course Tom reads it and says “He’s a spy man he wouldn’t write it down, you memorize it.”

Host: (Laughs)

Mcq: And of course, it says this message will self-destruct in 5 seconds and Benji was just sitting there like what do I do, and not paying attention to the fact that it’s counting down, only realize it when it gets to one and ”OH MY GOD“ he rushes to–and it wastes he’s entire sound system.

The implications. Of this scene. What the heck Mcq you can’t just drop a nuclear bomb and shrug it off saying “yeah we deleted that” !??!?!

Benji lives alone in his spare little apartment… he has an empty fish bowl… I’m gonna write in every single one of my RN fanfics from now on about Benji mourning his pet gold fish that died because he went out for a mission for too long

Having the bare minimum but a kickass entertainment system in his apartment is actually such a Benji thing I love it() and the only good thing was destroyed by Ethan’s message…rip kickass entertainment system I hope Benji kicked Ethan’s ass about it later

And the Ethan side. Where do I even start. First of all he knows where Benji’s apartment is. Then he knows Benji really loves Halo. I highly doubt Ethan would know anything about video games so I’m assuming Benji told him about it. And then the way he hid the message in the game—triggered only when you reach a certain level—means he knows the game play. I wonder when would Ethan ever play video games other than playing with Benji. And it’s not done yet. Ethan knows Benji would be playing the game the moment he got them, and that he would be so invested in the game that he will reach the level for the message on that exact night so Benji wouldn’t miss the time for the mission. Guys I think Mcq just single handedly invented the Ethan goes to Benji’s apartment playing video games trope way ahead of his time. A true visionary.

I haven’t even get to the message itself. I’m screaming kicking my feet as I imagine Ethan’s voice saying “Good evening Mr. Dunn” in a very neutral, mission briefing tone. That he recorded that message somewhere while he was on the six-month run chasing the syndicate and running away from the CIA. What was he thinking while recording that message for Benji. That he still managed to put that message into Benji’s favorite game and send it to him. I might be thinking about it too much but. They are doing an ETHAN HUNT PARALLEL FOR BENJI SINCE ROGUE NATION. Do you see it guys can’t you see it… this parallel is everything to me. Ethan giving Benji the mission briefing typically only for mission leaders as we seen in previous movies. He trust Benji as a seasoned field agent able to accomplish the mission alone. This fucking parallel…I think it’s saying to me that as the IMF is gone, Ethan Hunt is the IMF and for him, Benji is his Ethan Hunt. I don’t know if you know what I’m saying but. I have said what I need to say

There was also some deleted parts about how much Benji loves opera, he actively entered the ticket contest and hacked the event to win the tickets which is really funny and cute. There might be a few different versions because that sounds a bit against the “so I didn’t win those opera tickets” line Benji has in the actual film

Ok so before when thinking about Benji going to the opera house, I've always considered him sitting in the stalls. I think it was that shot of Lane that influenced me, because it's a very hide-in-plain-sight sort of thing to do.

But the other day as I watched it again I realized:

Ethan's ticket was this bloody fancy box. And for safety reasons he must've booked the entire box. So I draw my deduction here that the two tickets Benji had won are the tickets in this fancy box. (It also makes sense because for an event where you *win* the tickets, it's probably a good seating)

For other reaons the box seating is also very interesting. It's a great place to look over the entire opera house, because Lane could be anywhere and he needs to be in a place where he can catch sight of almost everyone in the audience. But that also means it's really exposed; he can also be seen from almost everywhere from the audience seat. I think that's also part of the reason that he only enters after the opera begins, when the lights are off. But at the same time I think Ethan knew he would be exposed here as he didn't even try to hide himself. Probably he knew that would happen the moment he asked for Benji's help and that telling Benji to inform on him was his plan all along.

That being said...it was kind of funny that the later comms dialogue actually worked. Yeah at first I was also thinking, "Is it really convincing that right after that voice stealing thing, Ethan would believe that it's really Benji telling him to do something that sounds like a suicide attempt?" Only after a while did I slowly realize that it made sense because that was... that was literally one of the most Benji things to do. The most important reason is that it might actually work. I think if it's the Entity, it would do exactly what it had done in Venice, which is simply telling him to go on a detour and miss the train completely. The Entity would take no chance, no risk at all. The second is that it was also a very typical Ethan thing to do and both of them knew this. So by this crazy proposal alone Ethan would know that it must be Benji on the line there. (I doubt that was behind the thinking process of the script though)

You want drama? Go to the opera.

Yeah so guess who's been to where...

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.

It would be really interesting from an outsider point of view, like maybe Benji watches Ethan doing one of these and finds it so weird because it’s so Ethan but at the same time so not-Ethan. And then as he comes back there’s this transformation again: one second ago he was still having annoying composure, flirty grin and cheeky face, the next moment he shakes all of that off and becomes Ethan again. Like peeling off an invisible mask or something.

Ethan - Jupiter

Brandt - Saturn

Jane - Venus

Benji - Pluto

I’m gonna assume it’s based on the planets because Benji complained about being Pluto which is not even a planet anymore, but then again when Jane was about to be the honey trap Ethan also said “be Venus” so I think it’s also fun to see from the gods they represent

Ethan being Jupiter makes a lot of sense (biggest planet force field etc) and Jane being Venus also for plot purposes, but really thinking about it I’m surprised that Brandt is Saturn? My first instinct was that he could be Mars. (Also if you consider the rover parallel it makes more sense for him to be mars?) Was it to show that he’s really similar to Ethan? Then again maybe Mars being the god of war is not exactly preferable considering they are trying to stop a war

I love Benji being Pluto though…on one hand, the only non-planet in the team, something doesn’t really fit in (he might also think so himself) but on the other hand…god of the underworld and the dead…and that it’s him killing Wistrom at the end finished the mission

And finally I’m very certain the Uranus line is only there for the joke but. Brandt commented Benji could also be Uranus which is the third largest planet in the solar system following Jupiter and Saturn.

Speaking of that it’s also fun to think about how they choose their code names. Since Benji was complaining I guess it’s somehow assigned. But when?? And how?? Since they’ve never met before this mission it’s unlikely they have a pre-assigned code name based on the solar system. Then it has to be on the plane? Which also makes it interesting to think about because 1.someone assigned Benji as Pluto and 2.although Benji complained about being Pluto he didn’t change it even though there’s multiple options still available. Mercury is pretty good honestly (my opinion) god of communication as he’s always on the comms and maps, and the metal layer of meaning also quite fit his role as a techie

Blame me for my benthan brain but I tent to think Ethan assigned the code names. Whether or not he thought that much about the meaning behind them…it would be fun to think about either case