The Unmasking of Ethan Hunt: How Mission: Impossible - Fallout Broke Franchise Tradition

The Evolution of Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Ethan Hunt is a master of disguise in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and Mission: Impossible - Fallout broke a related trend for Tom Cruise's character after 22 years. The sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise is highly regarded for taking the action series to new heights. Director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise managed to elevate the story and characters, as well as the action sequences. This meant Mission: Impossible - Fallout's ending gave audiences a great experience filled with the usual traditions of the franchise, such as daring stunts, clever plot twists, and more.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a pivotal installment in the series for Ethan Hunt in particular too. The film brought a greater connective tissue between the franchise through returning characters and a story that evaluated how much good he has really done with the IMF. In many ways, Mission: Impossible - Fallout brings the best out of Cruise's character. This also meant continuing a number of key character trends, such as Tom Cruise's running in the Mission: Impossible movies. However, the film was also responsible for breaking a streak for Ethan Hunt that dates back to the original installment.

Henry Cavill, Tom Cruise, and Rebecca Ferguson in Mission Impossible Fallout

The Unmasking Trend in the Mission: Impossible Franchise

The Ethan Hunt trend that Mission: Impossible - Fallout broke comes with the franchise's use of masks. The movies routinely put Ethan Hunt and other characters in believable prosthetic masks so they can pose as other people. Ethan's mask-wearing is the most frequent in the series, as he has worn at least one in every installment except for Mission: Impossible - Fallout. The film remains the only time in the entire franchise where Ethan Hunt does not wear a mask in one of the movies.

Ethan's history of wearing masks began in the original 1996 Mission: Impossible, as he actually wore three masks throughout the duration of the film. Cruise's character went on to wear two masks in Mission: Impossible II and one in Mission: Impossible III. He technically is shown wearing two masks in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, although one of the examples comes in a walk-through scenario that did not actually happen. Ethan wore another mask then in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, skipped out on having one on in Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and then tied a franchise record by wearing three masks in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1.

The Fallout Effect: Breaking the Mask Tradition

There is actually a good reason why Ethan Hunt does not wear a mask in Mission: Impossible - Fallout. He was supposed to wear one for his meeting with the White Widow, but the technology to create the mask was broken during the bathroom fight. This made it impossible for Ethan's plan to continue and left him exposed to show his real face. Mission: Impossible - Fallout would have delivered another Ethan mask reveal if his plan had worked. Its likely the franchise wanting to subvert audience expectations played a part in the decision to provide an in-movie explanation for breaking Ethan's mask tendencies.

As a result of this decision, Mission: Impossible - Fallout's mask usage is even more notable. The film still delivers two mask twists by finally putting Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn behind the reveals. This means Fallout is the only Mission: Impossible movie where someone wore more masks than Ethan did. Mission: Impossible II came close to setting the record as Ambrose and Ethan each wore two masks. Mission: Impossible - Fallout broke all the usual rules with masks as a result.