As Dead Reckoning: Part 1 hits US theaters, I thought I'd write an entry about why I like Ethan Hunt.
First, Ethan has a very strong moral center. This secret agent won't be careless with the lives of others. He cares about the one life as much as the lives of millions. And he's willing to lay down his own life for it. Ethan is a very people-oriented person. What's not to like about that?
He won't hesitate to defy his superiors if his conscience requires it. Yes, obedience to superiors is important and a Christian value, but there are times when obeying your conscience takes priority.
As for the "lying" that comes hand-in-hand with espionage, Catholic theologians and apologists have categorized it as discreet language rather than outright deception. Catholic teaching allows for discreet, ambiguous language in situations when a person doesn't have the right to know the full truth.
Additionally, the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines lying like this: "To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth." (Paragraph 2483).
This last bit is important, as there are situations where a person's right to the truth is not absolute. Instead of using the hackneyed Gestapo scenario (The Gestapo comes to your door and asks if there are Jews hiding in your attic or basement), I'm going to use an example from the Mission: Impossible movies. In Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan and his team, plus a professional thief named Grace (Hayley Atwell) need to obtain the other half of a Cruciform key. An arms dealer known as the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) intends to buy it from a seller on the Innsbruck-bound Orient Express. The White Widow intends to sell the half of the key to whoever wants it and most likely, her buyer will be some shady person wanting to harness a renegade AI known as the Entity, which the whole key unlocks, for selfish and/or nefarious ends.
Ethan, recognizing the risks that the Entity poses to truth and reality itself, intends to kill it. So he and his team devise a plan to obtain the half of the key from the seller on the Orient Express. This plan involves Grace using a mask and voice synthesis patch to pose as the White Widow to incapacitate the real White Widow and buy the key half. It can be argued that the seller had no right to know the truth, as he was originally going to sell the key half to someone who would in turn sell the key half to another shady individual.
Mission: Impossible-Fallout was my first exposure to the M:I film franchise. At the time of Fallout's release, I was also doing a James Bond movie marathon, guided by Catholic movie reviews backed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. If an individual 007 movie was deemed morally objectionable, I skipped it. If an individual 007 movie was not labeled morally objectionable, then I watched it. So when I went to see Mission: Impossible- Fallout, I did so not expecting Ethan Hunt's moral fiber to be much stronger than Bond's. Bond is morally complex and often finds himself in morally complex situations.
In the film, Ethan makes a deal with the White Widow. Part of the deal is helping extract Solomon Lane (played by Sean Harris) , the leader of a terrorist group, as he is being transferred from one prison to another. When the White Widow and her brother explain their plan for the extraction, the plan plays itself out in Ethan's mind. The plan involves killing many of the police officers carrying out the transfer and Ethan is rightly horrified by this.
A little later on in the movie, Ethan and his team are trying to discreetly leave Paris when a policewoman arrives on the scene. But then, four bad guys also show up, and one of them shoots her several times, injuring her. As the bad guy is about to finish her off, Ethan draws his pistol and shoots all four bad guys, killing them. Then, he approaches the woman and crouches in front of her. He offers her words of comfort and reassurance in French before holding her radio up to her mouth so she can call for an ambulance. But since he has to continue his mission, he expresses his sympathy to her in French and having made sure she's gotten help, he leaves before he can make sure the ambulance arrives.
So I was pleasantly surprised by Ethan's strong moral compass.
Second, he's played by Tom Cruise.
I won't deny that Tom Cruise is a very controversial figure and don't bother trying to change my mind about him. There probably isn't a single unflattering story about Tom Cruise that I don't know about. I can't tell you how many allegations against him are unsubstantiated and how many stories of abuse regarding him are unverified, but it's absurd. Hearsay from people saying he's a jerk and a monster and tabloid rumors are not things I will give deference to. And people in the Ex/Anti-Scientology community say one shouldn't give deference to unverified stories from ex-Scientologists. But I say one shouldn't give unverified stories from anyone deference
And I know Scientology is a very harmful organization with a lot of abuses in its ledger.
I like Tom Cruise with a clear conscience because I like him as an actor. He's hardworking and dedicated to his craft. Plus, he's handsome. And I firmly believe that he loves movies and his profession more than he loves Scientology.
I can live with liking Tom Cruise as an actor and I'm not willing to change my mind on this.
Furthermore, because of TC, I'm watching movies that I wouldn't have even dared to watch 10 years ago. Even so, I'm very picky about which ones I'll watch (Tropic Thunder is absolutely out of the question while Vanilla Sky, Rain Man, & The Last Samurai are on my to-watch list).
I won't tolerate any shaming or conscience policing for liking him and going to see his movies.
That's all there is to it.
Third, Ethan is smart and resourceful.
One of the many examples of Ethan's ingenuity and intelligence is the plan he comes up with to get inside a skyscraper in Shanghai and retrieve a bioweapon in Mission: Impossible III. With guards patrolling the main entrance and almost every floor in the building, Ethan devises a plan to enter through a section of the roof, which opens up. And it is pretty satisfying and nerve-wracking to see him execute that plan.
For me, Ethan Hunt represents the kind of person I want to be: compassionate/caring, morally upright, and selfless.
Do you like Ethan Hunt? If so, why?
