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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL (2011)

‘Blamed for a terrorist attack on the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the entire IMF agency are disavowed by the U.S. government, while the president initiates the Ghost Protocol. Forced to go "off the grid" -- left without resources or backup -- Hunt must somehow clear the agency's name and prevent another attack. Complicating matters even more, Ethan must undertake the impossible mission with a group of fellow IMF fugitives whose actual motives are suspect.’ - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

EXECUTION OF STORY LINE

An agent called Trevor Hanaway is killed in Budapest by an assassin, Sabine Moreau, who takes a file containing Russian nuclear launch codes the Hanaway had stolen. Moreau plans to sell the codes to a man known as “Cobalt.” (En.wikipedia.org, 2018). This shows the audience the main mission of the movie and what they will be focusing on getting throughout, making this clear to the audience from the beginning. By doing this it allows the audience to understand why they have to travel around the World to different locations to gather the correct information to be able to retrieve the file. This allows the audience to enjoy the movie without having to be trying to figure out what is happening or why they are travelling across the globe, making the audience comfortable and allows them to easily enjoy the character development and fights/stunt scenes.

The movie starts with a prison Break in Moscow where Ethan is an inmate, Benji being the technician to help Ethan escape, opening the doors that he wants to access and over running the camera footage. The whole prison scene sets the tone of this movie to the audience, seeing Benji bringing some of the comedic relief to the film but the serious tones and amount of action still being similar to the first three films, setting the scene to the audience incredibly well. It makes it clear to the audience how well this team works together. Once they have escaped and are in the van, it is made clear that Benji and Jane were both involved in the Budapest mission where Hanaway had died, making them be connected to the actions of Ethan. This makes it easy for the audience to understand how they had become a team and why they are all mutual in their decisions.

The next main part of the film, if not the most important, is when the president initiates “Ghost Protocol”, this also being the first scene where Ethan meets Brandt. When the SecDev is shot in the head along with the driver, the car goes awry and the two agents end up in the water. This sets the tone of the rest of the film, Brandt escaping with Ethan and making their way to the train for their escape, the audience now understanding the title of the movie and how the team was formed. This scene in particular also shows the dynamic the characters will have between each other to the audience, showing their relationships with each other and how different each character is in comparison to each other.

The team discover that Moreau is travelling to Dubai to give the launch codes to the Hendricks which leads to Ethan climbing the Burj Khalifa when Benji informs them that the security is too difficult to hack and the server room can only be entered from outside. This scene is one of the tensest scenes throughout the whole film, the incredible amount of height to the building and the way the camera is angled keeps the audience on the edge of their seats throughout the whole scene. When the equipment starts to malfunction, it makes the audience start to worry and become scared for the character, this being effective storytelling and cinematography to make the audience feel this way. The incredible height helps to make the audience feel this, the audience being able to understand how much danger the character is in and what could happen if they fell. When watching Ethan jump and Brandt catching him, it makes the audience hold their breath, showing how well planned and shot this scene is to make the audience feel this way when watching it.

The audience understand that they are in Dubai to get launch codes from Moreau, disguised as the Hendricks to get the codes discreetly from the Burj Khalifa scene, the audience being able to follow the story clearly. At this point the audience are aware of this being their main mission from the beginning of the film where Hanaway is killed, linking the whole film back together and keeping the story line strong and understandable for the audience. This shows the audience that they aren’t just going to different locations for no reason, this solidifying that every location they go to is of importance to get to this point in the film. Throughout this scene it also sets up the next main story plot where Brandt is able to fight away Moreau and the Hendricks’s agents although he is only an analyst, this being pushed back for later in the film which allows the audience to know that this is of importance in the film.

Once they get out safe the audience know the next main turning point of the film is Brandt’s past, the director (Brad Bird) having made this clear to the audience in the last mission. As Ethan is the only one who saw Brandt’s skills, he pulls a gun on him that Brandt easily disarms, Ethan leaving the team to go and get help and leaves Brandt to explain why he is involved and why he stopped being a field agent and became an Analyst. This scene allows the audience to connect with Brandt’s character and to understand how he is affected by being on the mission with Ethan Hunt, having connection to the death of his wife. It shows the audience the amount of weight that Brandt carries and that he isn’t able to bring it up with Ethan which makes it worse for him. This allows the audience to relate to him as he becomes grounded and realistic to the audience, the only character out of the team burdened by something they weren’t able to change which makes him relatable and humanized to the audience.

Next they travel to Mumbai to get information from the Indian telecommunications entrepreneur, Brij Nath, in hopes to gain control over Soviet military satellite. This allows the audience to see the team function properly for the first time after their argument and provides some comedic relief throughout the scene from Benji’s remarks and Brandt’s stretches of nervousness; a joke to the actor of Brandt, Jeremy Renner, who does stretches when nervous (4:22-4:37). This scene is more of the classic and traditional scene that is involved in spy films but with the witty remarks from the characters and the relatability of Brandt during this scenario, it makes the scene funny and memorable to the audience, making it unique to other spy films with similar scenes and plot to this film.

The final scene is in Seattle where Ethan offers his team to join him in the next mission, Benji and Jane accepting the mission without thought but Brandt is shown to still be reluctant, standing and not picking up the phone. Ethan stops him and reveals to him that his wife wasn’t actually killed, Ethan having had to fake her death to protect her. This allows Brandt to have relief and closure and he accepts the mission, showing how far the characters have developed since the beginning of the film and that this team will become more important in future films of this franchise, revealing Brandt as a new main team player. This scene allows the audience to see the friendship that the team have gathered between each other, all of them laughing at Benji’s statements about the danger of the next mission but also shows just how breakable these characters can be, the prime example of this being Brandt. It reminds the audience that the characters, although do impossible things, are still human and that they can lack confidence in their selves but when they work together, they work flawlessly as a team which leaves them in the perfect place for the next film.

Narrative structure is important as it allows the audience to understand the story and to give reason behind the story that you are trying to convey to them. It allows the audience to understand the characters and the reactions that they have to different situations, being able to link up the events throughout to make sense no matter what narrative structure you follow. It also allows the audience to understand the details that are in the film, allowing them to take the information to understand the story and meaning behind the film in better detail.

DEPTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTERS

Character development is when a character becomes realistic and believable to the audience, having depth in the character's personality, motives and history. 'The definition of character development refers to the process of creating a believable character in fiction by giving the character depth and personality.' (Your Dictionary, 2018) states that the characters are just as complicated as humans and can affect the audience's emotions. This allows the characters to fit into the story that they have been placed into and can provoke emotions as the audience becomes connected to the characters, this having the best effect when the characters are relatable to the audience or completely obscure compared to the others.

ETHAN HUNT

Ethan Hunt is a trained field agent of the IMF, being one of the best trained and equipped agent in the IMF. Ethan is proactive, tending to initiate events rather than respond to them, likes to act independently, extremely observant, with an almost-photographic memory and his ability to make profound deductions with limited clues is impressive. He is capable of planning and undertaking very intricate schemes, particularly covert intrusions. ‘He is also incredibly intelligent and almost recklessly daring in his missions. He is highly cunning and extremely astute and calculating, especially when it comes to knowing his enemies. He is highly idealistic and devises philosophical traps during debates.’- Mission Impossible Wikia. (2018).

Although Ethan is the main character he doesn’t develop much throughout the film unlike some of the other characters, the main development for Ethan being that he learns that he can’t do everything on his own. As much as Ethan likes working independently, he learns throughout the film that all the missions he goes on with the team that he wouldn’t have been able to do by his self as it required people to be in multiple places at once. Ethan would also possibly be dead if it wasn’t for Brandt who had caught him when he jumped towards the window in the Burj Khalifa. The final scene in Seattle with the team sat around the table shows how much Ethan has grown as he places phones onto the table, offering his friends to join him in the next mission. When Brandt doesn’t accept, Ethan stops him and explains what actually happened to his wife, showing that he cares for his team and that he wants Brandt there on the next mission. This shows the audience that although do impossible things, Ethan has learnt that he can’t do everything on his own and has taken a liking to this team, stating his self that ‘The only thing that functioned properly, was this team.’

BENJAMIN “BENJI” DUNN

Benji since the last film has been promoted to a field agent and is tasked with helping Hunt break out of a prison in Moscow. He joins Hunt, Carter and Brandt to help stop the nuclear launch and to retrieve the codes for Hendricks. (Mission Impossible Wikia, 2018) Benji is shown to have incredible skills as a technician throughout the film and brings comedic relief to the audience throughout without over running the action sequences. Benji isn’t shown to be the bravest or the most capable of the team, being easily taken down by an enemy but still trying to help the team where he can. Benji is incredibly intelligent when it comes to specialty in computers and helps provide the team with backup when needed. He is also known to babble when nervous and is still new to being a field agent, allowing the audience to understand that he will be experiencing a few slip ups throughout the film.

When Benji is attempting to bring a broadcasting station back online, he realises that Brandt was taking too long, killing Wistrom who was fighting Brandt, showing the audience that he has become braver throughout the film. This allowed Brandt to restore the power so Ethan could disable the nuclear missile, allowing the mission to be accomplished. (Mission Impossible Wikia, 2018) Benji is shown to become more confident throughout the film, getting used to the risk and job of being a field agent and manages to keep calm throughout some of the most difficult scenarios, showing the audience how much he has developed since the beginning of the film.

JANE CARTER

‘Jane Carter is an IMF agent and a member of Ethan Hunt's team. After the death of her partner and lover, Trevor Hanaway, Carter teams up with Hunt in an attempt to stop a Swedish-born Russian terrorist, Kurt Hendricks, from facilitating a global nuclear war. In the process, she struggles with the desire to kill a French assassin, Sabine Moreau, who has a connection to Hendricks and was directly responsible for Hanaway's death.’- Mission Impossible Wikia. (2018). Jane Carter is a skilled and excellent agent. After Hanaway's death, she is shown to become motivated and vengeful to kill Moreau for Hanaway. She is a skilled marksman and hand-to-hand combatant, showing these attributes in Budapest and Dubai.

Although Jane feels like she has to commit an act of revenge throughout the film, she does follow Hunt’s orders and helps the team to take down Hendricks to regain the nuclear codes and shows that the didn't mean to kill Moreau. Jane isn’t shown to develop much throughout the film but her motivations of joining the team is made clear to the audience from the beginning, allowing the audience to understand that she will be an important player in the team where the men aren’t able to comply in a mission. Jane is shown to be just as capable as the men and by the end of the film, shows that she has become close friends with her team and will work with them again in the future.

WILLIAM “WILL” BRANDT

William Brandt is the Chief Analyst at IMF, being introduced to the audience is when the president initiates “Ghost Protocol”, this also being the first scene where Ethan meets Brandt. When the SecDev is shot in the head along with the driver, the car goes awry and the two agents end up in the water, forcing Brandt to escape with the team and to join their mission. Throughout the film, Brandt is shown to be pessimistic, mostly in the scene when Hunt used a flare to draw the Russian security forces attention towards it to shoot at it rather than at them. He is also shown to be cynical during the Burj Khalifa scene, telling Hunt that there’s ‘not enough time’ to get to the control room, being a by the book agent and sticks to his orders and doesn’t like having to change the plan to give the enemy the correct launch codes. Apart from this, Brandt is shown to have a dry sense of humour, cracking jokes and sarcastic comments throughout the film. (Mission Impossible Wikia, 2018).

Ethan questions Brandt when in the Burj Khalifa when he shows skills of a field agent, easily taking down the men that attack them once compromised. As Ethan is the only one who saw Brandt’s skills, he pulls a gun on him that Brandt easily disarms during a team argument, Ethan leaving the team to go and get help and leaves Brandt to explain why he is involved and why he stopped being a field agent and became an Analyst, asking him the question, ‘How does an agent with skills like that become an analyst?’ When Brandt explains that he was an agent out to protect Ethan and his wife where he followed Hunt as he went on a run, leaving her with two of his men but when he returned he found his men unconscious and Hunt’s wife missing, her body being found later on. It shows the audience the amount of weight that Brandt carries that he wasn’t able to protect and that he isn’t able to bring it up with Ethan which makes it worse for him, explaining to the audience why he withdraws from being a field agent and became an analyst, allowing them to understand his personality. This allows the audience to relate to him as he becomes grounded and realistic to the audience, the only character out of the team burdened by something they weren’t able to change which makes him relatable and humanized to the audience.

The final scene in Seattle where Ethan offers his team to join him in the next mission, Benji and Jane accepting the mission without thought but Brandt is shown to still be reluctant, standing and not picking up the phone. Ethan stops him and reveals to him that his wife wasn’t actually killed, Ethan having had to fake her death to protect her. This allows Brandt to have relief and closure and he accepts the mission, showing how far the characters have developed since the beginning of the film and Brandt will become more important in future films of this franchise. Brandt shows the audience just how breakable these characters can be and it reminds the audience that the characters, although do impossible things, are still human and that they can lack confidence in their selves but when they work together, they work flawlessly as a team, Brandt being accepted as part of the team.

Character development is important because if characters don't feel believable or realistic they won't fit into the World or story you have created, making it hard for the audience to connect with the characters that you have presented to them. If the characters seem disconnected and their personality jumps over the place they won’t be believable and will become obvious to the audience that there is little depth behind the character. Depth to individual characters is important to understand and represent to the audience as the characters can feel disconnected or misplaced, linking back to why character development is important. For different characters, you need to think about their positives, flaws, habits, motives, speech and past. Having dimension in characters allows the audience to be more drawn to getting to know the characters and listening to them to try and understand them. Depth can be implemented by the list mentioned beforehand as the audience will all have their own, unique qualities, and seeing a character who is unique is interesting to the audience.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CHARACTERS

Benji and Ethan have a dynamic from having worked with each other in Mission Impossible 3, both of them having a unique and interesting dynamic that draws the audience in. During the hall projection scene, the audience gets to see this dynamic and how well the two work with each other. The two cover each other’s skills and personalities, where one may lack the other, having the correct skills to get them out of a sticky situation. This friendship is well fleshed out to the audience from Mission Impossible 3 but allows the audience to see how much these two have grown and how well the two work together; being the brains and the brawn of the team.

Ethan and Brandt have an interesting friendship throughout the film, having rough bumps as Ethan is impulsive whereas Brandt is by the book, causing them to have a few arguments throughout the film. Ethan questions Brandt when in the Burj Khalifa when he shows skills of a field agent, easily taking down the men that attack them once compromised. As Ethan is the only one who saw Brandt’s skills, he pulls a gun on him that Brandt easily disarms during a team argument, Ethan leaving the team to go and get help and leaves Brandt to explain why he is involved and why he stopped being a field agent and became an Analyst, asking him the question, ‘How does an agent with skills like that become an analyst?’ Their connection is strong throughout the film since Brandt is in belief that he was responsible for Julia’s death. The final scene in Seattle with the team sat around the table shows how much Ethan and Brandt have become friends as he places phones onto the table, offering his friends to join him in the next mission. When Brandt doesn’t accept, Ethan stops him and explains what actually happened to his wife, showing that he cares for his team and that he wants Brandt there on the next mission. Ethan would also possibly be dead if it wasn’t for Brandt who had caught him when he jumped towards the window in the Burj Khalifa, showing how connected these two characters are and how much they could develop in the future.

Brandt and Benji are also shown to develop an interesting friendship throughout the film, both of them having a dry sense of humour and taking pokes at each other throughout, the most memorable of their jokes being when Benji complains about Pluto not being a planet anymore, as that is his code name, and Brandt retorts with, ‘Well, I think Uranus is still available.’ The most memorable scene of the two characters is when they are discussing how Brandt will access the server, Benji casually stating ‘I’ll catch you’ which doesn’t boost Brandt’s confidence one bit. Although the two have known each other for a short amount of time, Brandt and Benji are shown to become very close friends to take pokes at each other like this. Their friendship is shown to the audience when Benji is attempting to bring a broadcasting station back online when he realises that Brandt is taking too long, killing Wistrom who was fighting Brandt, allowing Brandt to restore the power so Ethan could disable the nuclear missile. This shows that Benji knows what Brandt is capable of and with Jane being injured that he would go and save Brandt from the danger he sensed he was in, showing the audience just how close the two have become throughout the film.

Ethan and Jane both have a somewhat romantic relationship with each other that carries over from Mission Impossible 3, it being not as clear in this film but still present. It is revealed at the end of the film that Ethan's wife, Julia, is still alive and debunks the idea of these two characters having a relationship in the future but shows how close these two characters feel towards each other and that they both love each other although they may never be able to be in a relationship. It shows that they both care for each other and work well together, both of them being brave and capable field agents that don't let romance get in the way of their missions.

APPLICATION OF ANALYSIS

The importance of this analysis is to understand how a large franchise is able to present a story line and the characters to the audience and how they continue the development from the first film to the new ones in the franchise; being the fourth installment of the franchise. This can be applied to my production as I have researched into the character development and importance of character development, this being a good example of my understanding of that research by being able to deconstruct the characters and story line to understand how they are presented to the audience. By being a large franchise it explains that the characters and the story line are able to connect to the audience in different ways and is something that I want applicable in my own short film. I wanted the audience to understand my characters and be able to relate to some of their personality traits, wanting the audience to be able to deconstruct my own characters like I have for this film.

By being able to have characters develop so fluently but also being able to understand the characters without having to watch the first film also being an important element which they are able to pull off. I wanted to research into the development without the audience knowing their pasts as if they have watched this film only and how they are still able to understand the story and characters as that’s how I wish to start my own short film. I want my characters to have already developed off screen but is able to be picked up on by the audience through their personality and their conversations, my example of this being that the main character has had dreams like this before the film has even started, this being told to the audience to help them understand that the characters have developed off screen.

 

References

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