Better than Bond

It has taken five films and two decades to confirm it, but with the success of Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, which topped the box office with $56 million in its opening weekend, American entertainment insiders are finally comfortable declaring Ethan Hunt our James Bond. That is, an enduring icon of international espionage that will keep audiences returning sequel after sequel.

It’s an interesting comparison, particularly as Rogue Nation, perhaps more than any other M:I film, points up differences between the two spies that go far beyond accents. In many fundamental ways, each man embodies the ideals of his culture of origin.

Though Daniel Craig’s reign has taken some of the metro out of the perennially metrosexual Bond, with his proclivities toward stylish dress, drink, and card-sharping the character has always had something of the louche European about him. He may sound British, but his savoir-faire with the femmes fatales (some of whose names I still can’t pronounce without blushing) has always seemed decidedly French.

By contrast, who can say whether Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) takes his martinis shaken or stirred—he’d never dream of drinking on the job. He may drive some of the world’s most expensive sports cars now and then, but not as an indulgence, as Bond does, but because they’re handy and part of his cover for the mission. The practical workman Hunt would just as well commandeer a Ford Focus if it served his purpose.

However, it’s in his dealings with women that Hunt’s puritan roots are most revealed. With the exception of one scene in the second film, the worst of the bunch, Ethan is a loyal monogamist who only gets seriously romantic with the woman who becomes his wife. In Rogue Nation, he receives nothing steamier than a heartfelt hug from leading lady Rebecca Ferguson (though we have by then seen plenty of her in high-slit gowns and bikinis that, along with action violence and a smattering of mild profanity, accounts for the PG-13 rating).

The franchise’s principals (including producer Cruise) leave no doubt in this latest firecracker of a film that they understand the innate American appeal of their protagonist, making wink-and-nod references to past points of national pride. Between his role here and his time as Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock, I’m beginning to think Alec Baldwin is a real-life political double agent. He claims to be liberal offscreen, but as CIA head Alan Hunley he growls that the U.S.’s top IMF agent is “the living manifestation of destiny” with such conviction, he makes you wish we could add another star to the flag.

Bond gets into plenty of scrapes, sure, but always with a feeling that life is a breeze for him. He was born to be handsome, sophisticated, and rich, and wherever his success comes from, it certainly isn’t from too much effort or earnestness. Hunt, on the other hand—perfectly embodied by the most legendarily disciplined movie star of our times—is all bruising, shaking, unrelenting effort. Nothing but sheer determination and pounding industriousness accounts for what his enemies dismiss as luck.

He wouldn’t be America’s spy any other way.