Warning: The following contains spoilers forMission: Impossible Fallout.
Read at your own risk.
InMission: Impossible Fallout, Henry Cavill plays CIA agent August Walker.
Credit: Chiabella James/Paramount; Clay Enos/Warner Bros.
Hes paired with IMF all-star Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) for a skydiving mission.
Cruise looks smaller next to Cavill, but so does everyone.
The visual treatment of Cavill reveals a deeper rift.
Walker represents brute force, and the brutality of force.
He always kills the bad guys, and is okay killing good guys.
Its a philosophical distinction from Hunt and his IMF kin, a chill crew of adventure heroes.
They prefer old-fashioned espionage, the deep-cover character work.
Walker looms, towers, hulks.
You cant imagine him pretending to be anyone but himself.
Hunt notices a thunderstorm beneath their plane: skydive canceled.
But Walker jumps anyway, and is immediately struck by lightning.
Cavill is unconscious, splendidly limp, limbs hanging weightless above his plummeting bulk.
If youve tracked Cavills career closely, its hard to miss the meaning.
InFallout, Superman doesnt fly; he falls.
All bad films, in my opinion.
Statuesque Biceppery is the main note Cavills hitting.
His muscles make Brad Pitt inTroylook like Roger Moore in a turtleneck.
Its less a performance than an exertion (though thats how DiCaprio won his Oscar).
Not much chance for emotional range, is what Im getting at.
See Cavill, wearing an apron.
Or Cavill, eating a sandwich.
Its the polar opposite of hisMan of Steelperformance, eternally unperturbed.
He seems to float.
A man who was invulnerable to all harm would be always relaxed and at ease, Morrison wrote.
Hed have no need for the kind of physically aggressive postures superheroes specialized in.
And Im convinced McQuarrie cast Cavill inFalloutbecause ofU.N.C.L.E.Like Solo, Walker is preternaturally untroubled.
Like Solo, Walkers rather heartless, not a man who seems to feel much of anything.
And in both movies, Cavill has a fight scene in a bathroom.
(One more and its a trend!)
Cavill was, famously, filmingFalloutaround the same time asJustice Leaguereshoots.
Walker has a secret identity, just like Clark Kent.
This plan is oddly identical to the big idea Thanos had inAvengers: Infinity War.
(Population control, so hot right now!)
And it seems notable to cast Cavill in the part.
His journey there drifts a lot off messianic imagery.
InFallout, this is all a big problem.
Larks world-changing philosophy is that of a mass-murdering maniac, killing women and children with smallpox.
The film praises ingenuity, teamwork, the possibility that everyone can be saved.
Walker is a loner who will kill anyone.
He thinks that makes him tough.
InFallouts estimation, he just lacks imagination.
Why the f do you have to make everything socomplicated?!?!
he screeches, a villain confused by this plot hes in.
Its a wonderful performance by Cavill, secretly complex.
Hes playing a relaxed evil, unfussy evil, corporate evil.
His physicality sells the action setpieces, makes you wonder why anyone would ever hide him behind digital superpowers.
Is this Cavills way forward, a heel turn from bland hero to deadpan villain?
You wonder if theres a looming James Bond reboot that could one-upMission: Impossiblefor stunt casting.
And yet, a few scenes are the best Cavills ever been.
The weight of the world might still be on his shoulders, but thats what super-strength is for.
Is there still a future for Henry Cavills Superman?Falloutsuggests one marvelous possibility.
We know he can play a bad guy now.
Imagine Cavills Superman staring down his own hilarious evil duplicate: Bizarro rebooted, with a mustache.
