Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to check out the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise later this summer when Mission: Impossible - Fallout debuts. There's a lot of anticipation for the sixth entry in Tom Cruise's biggest film series, as the movie looks like one of the darker installments to date. One element of the film that has fans intrigued is the inclusion of Henry Cavill as mysterious CIA agent August Walker, and according to Cavill during a recent interview, Walker and Ethan Hunt will clash over the nature of their jobs. Cavill explained:
Ethan believes that whatever Walker is doing, it's not helping. Ethan Hunt is a hero, the guy who makes sure everyone stays alive. Walker thinks the way Ethan carries out his business is ultimately more of a threat to the mission and more of a threat to the greater good.
So, while Ethan Hunt is concerned with saving the day at every possible opportunity, Walker is more of a company man who plays by the CIA's rules. Ethan views Walker as an ineffective asset, while Walker views Ethan as an IMF wild card who does more harm than good. It is a classic "buddy cop" movie dynamic in a certain sense (though they definitely don't look like buddies in the film), and it promises some major ideological challenges between the two badass spies.
As Henry Cavill explained elsewhere in his remarks to EW, much of this actually boils down to a fundamental difference of opinion in the value of human life. As the Man of Steel actor noted, Walker is far more willing to leave a massive body count in his wake when he operates, while Ethan seems to hold human life in much higher regard. After all, as Sean Ambrose noted in the John Woo's Mission: Impossible II, Ethan will "no doubt engage in some acrobatic insanity before he'll risk harming a hair on a security guard's head."
Of course, the differences between Walker and Ethan also seem to extend to fighting styles as well. As the trailers for Mission: Impossible - Fallout have shown us, Walker carries some big guns and also IS a big gun. He is all about raw stopping power, while Ethan tends to be quicker and a bit nimbler. With the two expected to come to blows at least once during Fallout's story, it will be fascinating to see how those styles coalesce with one another.
CinemaBlend will bring you more information related to the upcoming release of Mission: Impossible - Fallout as new details about the film are made available to us. The sixth installment in the long-running, stunt-heavy espionage series will hit theaters on July 27.
