What’s Aged the Worst?
The masks
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:36Read transcript
- Nominees: Ethan typing internet access into a computer, the Netscape browser the IMF uses to watch news clips, floppy disks, the attention-drawing surveillance eyewear worn by Hannah and Sarah in the Prague scene, the masks, and the whole Claire plotline.
- The masks are disputed: one side finds them unbelievable with no rules, while the other says these movies need something preposterous, and the masks, inherited from the TV show, are that thing, even as later films add voice strips; the objection is that with good mask use half the movie need not happen, since Ethan could just walk in as Don Lowe (as transcribed) and take the knock list, prompting the joke about Andy Greenwald in a mask.
- The senator mask Ethan wears is the worst offender: he has ostensibly been impersonating a sitting U.S. senator for an untold time, doing interviews; the hosts argue whether the senator exists, with the theory that he is a real adversary of the IMF taken on fishing trips to County Kildare while the IMF uses his face, versus an entirely invented man elected to high office and only ever played by Tom Cruise.
- In 1996 the political landscape was different: a teenager would have accepted old Senator Walter without question, since nobody knew their senators or how to contact them, and a political category is jokingly suggested after the Quint campaign bit from the Jaws episode.
- Pressed for a final answer, the masks are chosen over the computer tech, which should be graded on a curve, though the forward-looking movie suffers when a floppy disk appears, the Langley screen just reads download complete, and Luther hacking Max's computer on the train amounts to typing plain instructions; the masks are confirmed with a fist bump.