Mission: Impossible – Fallout The Rewatchables
Mission: Impossible – Fallout poster
Mission: Impossible – Fallout

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award

Maverick’s simplicity, close talking and Cavill’s villain plausibility.

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:39Read transcript
  • The take asks whether Top Gun Maverick diminishes Fallout: simpler stakes, romantic chemistry and emotional beats suggest fewer characters and more room for Cruise could improve this film. — Chris Ryan
  • Cutting Monaghan/Bassett or concentrating the women could produce a two-hour film. Kirby’s subplot could be removed or expanded with a dinner scene because she interests them; Bassett trusting a new subordinate over Ethan is mocked.
  • Another take calls Cruise the greatest close talker, reading intense proximity as a replacement for earlier charisma and wondering how uncomfortable fellow actors feel.
  • The take argues Cavill is too attractive to want mass destruction. The incel characterization is immediately challenged as unsupported by the ideology; it continues as a plausibility joke rather than a factual label. — Craig Horlbeck