2 Things Writers Can Learn From Mission: Impossible II
This breakdown includes spoilers for Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Mission: Impossible 2 is… a movie. It’s widely regarded as the worst of the franchise, and to most people, it’s not even close. There are some great ideas behind this film, but none of them are done well enough to justify the weak story and over-the-top action. Much of the film’s shortcomings come down to the directing style, as its bizarre score, unrealistic action and excessive use of slow-mo drag it down drastically. But instead of focusing on that, I want to analyze this film from a writing perspective. While M:I II is certainly criticized for its style and tone, being wildly different from anything else in the franchise, it also fails to deliver any substance. In particular, the fact that this film was framed around action setpieces prevented it from having the creative freedom required to construct a character-driven story. The closest we get in this regard is the love triangle between Ethan, Nyah and Sean Ambrose, which is hideously underdeveloped. Nyah doesn’t seem to know what’s going on, Ethan is infatuated with her and Sean Abrose is creepy half of the time and murderous the rest. So let’s look at exactly where Mission: Impossible II went wrong and delve into two major components of the story that could have been handled much, much better.
1. How Not to do Action
Firstly, how not to do action. This is much more an action movie than it is a spy movie, and while that genre-swap alone is contrary to what the franchise is supposed to be, I’ll give it a pass as this was only the second film. But even then, the first true ‘action’ scene isn’t until an hour and fifteen minutes into this 2-hour movie. It’s a shootout in a research facility as Ethan Hunt is trying to destroy the last remnants of Chimera while Sean Ambrose is trying to recover them. The action is filled with over-the-top cheesy moments, which isn’t my style, but I can understand people who like that sort of thing. What I definitely don’t like, however, is how the scene establishes stakes and handles its three main characters.
Let me start by praising something I do like. The idea that Luther can see Nyah’s dot approaching Ethan’s provides some excellent tension as Ethan breaks into the facility and destroys Chimera. In doing so, they lose comms for a few minutes. A communication failure is a great way to incorporate dramatic irony into your story. It’s akin to Hitchcock’s Bomb Theory as a ticking bomb is about to go off and Ethan has no idea. Unfortunately, the rest of the sequence is bland and little more than a fashion show of slow-mo stunts. It all builds to a standoff with Ambrose confronting Ethan and demanding he hand over the final serum. This moment is set up well, but it begs the question, why doesn’t Ethan shoot the serum now? Getting rid of Chimera once and for all is his endgame, why doesn’t he do it? Clearly, a bullet would destroy it as, twice in this scene, Ambrose shouts at his henchmen for nearly shooting the injection gun. Instead of destroying it, however, Ethan lets Nyah be coerced into approaching and picking up the gun. After she injects herself, he expresses a desire to kill her and destroy Chimera. Ultimately, he chooses to spare her, which is a decent character moment, but it makes me question the previous scene where he didn’t destroy the serum.
In any action scene, you need to clearly define your protagonist’s and antagonist’s goals. Even if it’s just simply a fight to survive, you need to clarify what your characters are trying to do. The film will have you think that Ambrose is there to steal Chimera and Ethan is there to destroy it, but it doesn’t explain why Ambrose chose the same night to steal Chimera as Ethan chose to destroy it. We also see Ambrose explaining what he predicts Ethan will do. If he knew that Ethan was breaking in and when he was doing it, why did he wait until Ethan had already destroyed most of the serum before attacking? And, of course, if Ethan was there to destroy the virus, why didn’t he shoot the final injection gun when he had a chance? Also, this isn’t even to mention Nyah’s strange decision to inject herself with Chimera. Yes, it prevents Ambrose from killing her, but wasn’t he the one who was supposedly in love with her? Ambrose suddenly willing to blackmail Nyah at gunpoint is such a drastic motivation change that it undermines the entire point of the attempted love triangle. Ethan, Ambrose and Nyah all lack sufficiently established motivations to make this scene work. Without clear character goals established, the audience is left wondering why the characters are doing what they’re doing.
2. How Not to End a Story
Secondly, how not to end a story. The final half hour of this film is one big action sequence that begins with a covert break-in, leads to an, admittedly, devastatingly epic mask reveal, and continues into a motorcycle chase that transitions to a brawl on a beach that is no less than five minutes long. Yes, the ending of this film is five-minutes of streetfighting between Ethan and Ambrose with no character moments, no emotional stakes and no clever strategy that Ethan uses to win. In the previous film, at least Ethan won by calling back to something set up previously. If, for example, Ethan had been practicing this move where he kicks the gun into the air, spins and catches it a couple of times earlier in the film, then this ending would be at least ten percent satisfying. But even then, the ending of Mission: Impossible II doesn’t have any of what I believe to be the important elements in the ending of an action movie.
For starters, this sequence is just a blend of action sequences. It’s a rush of Ethan trying to escape so he can bring Nyah Bellerophon. He doesn’t even have any objective other than to escape with Bellerophon. Nyah is barely in this sequence, which is strange because she was such an integral character in the first half of the movie. Now, she’s nothing more than a damsel in distress that, for some reason, is wandering the seaside after seemingly escaping from Ambrose’s henchmen. Did she escape? Was she let go? The official explanation is that Ambrose wanted her to start an outbreak in Sydney so that he could supply the cure, but why would Nyah willingly go infect people? And if she’s so contagious, why is she allowed close to Ethan’s team in the helicopter at the end? I’d like to think that being infected with the most deadly virus known to man would be enough to at least warrant some surgical masks. As for Ambrose, he gets outwitted by Ethan so easily. Maybe it’s his anger toward Ethan clouding his judgement, but for someone trained to impersonate Ethan and know his every move, he doesn’t suspect for a second that he might have been tricked into killing his own henchman. Given that he so perfectly predicted Ethan’s actions in the previous scene, seeing him here makes him look like an idiot for having no idea what Ethan was up to. He barely tried to defend Bellerophon and let his entire team of evil goons be killed trying to stop Ethan.
But, okay, action aside, I now want to talk about the ending itself. When you’re ending a story, it’s critical that your characters do something meaningful. In most cases, it’s good practice to have them make some sort of decision. This is mostly if your protagonist goes on a character arc. Earlier in the film, you have them make some sort of decision that reveals their flaw. Then, at the end of the film—specifically, during the climax—you have them faced with the same decision, but instead of making the wrong choice, they show their change by making the right one. Or wrong one, depending on what kind of character arc they have. But, even if your characters don’t make an important decision, it’s still good to have some sort of character-revealing moment. Maybe there’s a surprising revelation or a sudden action a character takes that’s unexpected and shows the dramatic stakes. One idea I have that would slightly improve M:I II’s ending would be for Nyah to grab a gun and shoot Ambrose from the helicopter. This move would show her character change as she learns to fend for herself, it would show her strength as she overcomes her sickness and manages to kill the main villain, and it would strengthen her loyalty to Ethan as she kills her former boyfriend to save him. Unfortunately, instead of this, Ethan saves himself. He doesn’t even do so through some clever plan like he did in the last movie or by using some rare skill that he’d been honing throughout the film. Instead, he wins over Ambrose because he’s just better. There’s no other reason for it. He’s just better. Quite frankly, it’s very disappointing, even if the stunt he pulls off is kinda cool.
So, Mission: Impossible II. It’s more of an action spectacle than a story with substance. If you want to enjoy it, you’ll have to leave your brain behind and try to ignore everything wrong with the script. I certainly think that it’s the weakest of the franchise, which is why I’m glad that nothing about it is ever referenced in any of the future films. This movie is a cautionary tale, and one that I think can teach writers about how not to write compelling action stories. If you focus too much on making your action flashy and entertaining, you might neglect the beating heart of every story: the characters and their internal struggles. Make sure that your characters’ objectives are clearly declared. Ensure that the stakes are personal and connected to the characters’ relationships. Give your characters meaningful moments beyond just crazy stunts and force your characters to make tough decisions that reveal more about who they are.
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