This stunt is as much of a ridiculous idea for Ethan as it is for the workers.
- Most instances of "I'm working on it!"/"I'll figure it out", especially when it's not what the other person needed to hear.
- During the plutonium exchange, while Benji is using a Geiger counter to check it's really plutonium in the briefcase, one of the henchmen starts to slowly walk away from it.
- A small moment but after they set up the Norwegian scientist, Luther hands money to an excited Benji.
- During the skydiving scene, Walker loses his oxygen tank, forcing Ethan to replace it with his own. After Ethan's rough landing in Paris, Walker gently floats in and packs his parachute, then turns to Ethan:Walker: (oddly chipper) Looks like you lost your oxygen!
Ethan: [Death Glare] - Ethan and Walker manage to knock "John Lark" unconscious and get themselves into a toilet stall at the Grand Palais in Paris as they wait for the mask to complete. Then a group of French drunkards enter the bathroom, and one of them sees their feet under the stall and mistakes them for... having a gay orgy. They then proceed to bang on the toilet stall door and tease them, much to Ethan and Walker’s collective chagrins.
- Bonus points for Hunt's annoyed glare at Walker for smashing the face mask machine.
- One of the first things 'Lark' does when he wakes up is hit Walker in the face with the face mask machine. Payback hurts.
- It's especially funny if you're French and watch this, because the drunkards sing Édith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose" while leaving the bathroom, which is a well worn out Gay Paree cliché and a hilarious sign of Small Reference Pools in Hollywoodian movies by this point.
- According to the commentary with Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise, all of the drunkards' dialogue was improvised.
- In the middle of the fight with 'John Lark', Walker reloads his fists and unleashes a blistering set of punches into Lark, who no sells them and takes out Walker with two hits, holds him up, then lands one more blow to knock him down. Then Lark straightens his jacket. Ethan, on the other side of the room, holds up a hand as if to say "Wait, hang on, let's not fight." And then he tackles Lark.
- Walker sheepishly putting his hands up when he peeks around a corner after the bathroom brawl only to find Ilsa's gun pointed at his head. It's such a marked contrast with his usual "tough guy" persona that it's hard not to laugh.
- Ilsa shoots the guy Ethan was hoping to impersonate to save his life. All we see is the trio looking at his body.Walker: Can you still make a mask?
Ethan: I need a face to make a mask.
Ilsa: Sorry. I was aiming for his chest. [looks ruefully down at pistol] - And then when a bunch of random guys walk in, Ilsa covers for the appalling pool of blood left by the guy she shot by acting like Walker's had an epic nosebleed. Hunt gets in on it by acting like he's the one who punched him.Ilsa: [tilting Walker's head back] That's it, just take it easy. That's it, just keep your head back until the bleeding stops...
Hunt: [aggressively in French] <<D'you want some of this, too?>>- It's not just the pool of blood, the entire bathroom is trashed with wrecked sinks, walls and broken glass.
- This exchange:Ilsa: You don't understand what you are involved in.
Ethan: [incredulously] I don't understand what I'm involved in? I don't understand what I'm involved in?! [beat; curiously] What am I involved in? - When Ethan is posing as John Lark:Zola: Or do you draw the line at killing cops?
White Widow: This is John Lark you're talking to!
Hunt (as Lark): [eerily] I murdered women and children with smallpox. I have no line.
White Widow: [beat] Right! Sleep well, everyone! Busy day tomorrow! - This exchange between Ethan and Walker when they're about to break out Solomon Lane from his custody. What's even funnier is that Ethan seems to get annoyed the more questions Walker keeps asking him about Lane.Walker: Is it true Lane gassed a village of 2000 people?
Ethan: Yes.
Walker: Is it true he brought down an entire passenger plane just to kill one man?
Ethan: Yes.
Walker: Is it true that he...
Ethan: Look, Walker, whatever you've heard, if it makes your skin crawl, it's probably true.
Walker: Holy shit. You're the guy that caught him, aren't you? How long do you think he's gonna keep that to himself?
Ethan: We'll burn that bridge when we come to it.- In retrospect, Lark / Walker is essentially trying to make his boss look good in front of Ethan.
- Ethan derailing the breakout plan by T-boning Lane's van into the river and abruptly reversing onto a crowded street, all the while hitting the gas and brakes as violently as possible to jostle the mooks in the back of his truck, and then unceremoniously dumping said mooks onto the pavement to be arrested.
- Before turning deadly serious, the Oh, Crap! moment when the garage is opened and there's the policewoman standing right outside while she's innocently writing parking tickets or something. And despite all being experienced professionals, the team had opened the garage door before they put the tied-up Lane inside the car. And then add everyone with their mouths hanging open, except Walker who's giving a sheepish smile.
- Ethan, Luther, Benji, Walker and Lane are in an old Beamer car. As the maximum number of people it can fit is five, Benji ends up being at the middle seat at the back, squished between two big people. When Walker introduces himself, Benji just asks in annoyance if the car was his idea.
- As they are on the run from the police and Ilsa, Lane suddenly wakes up and is more mildly annoyed than alarmed by the whole thing while Ethan is desperately trying to escape with their lives. His reaction upon seeing Ethan and Ilsa seemingly on different sides this time around is just an amused "This should be interesting."
- Lane spends the entire chase quiet, not moving, and bleeding from a bullet graze to the side of the head. They finally get in the clear and his sole reaction? "That was Ilsa."Ethan: Shut up!
- Fridge Brilliance: After spending the last year being passed around like a cigarette, in straitjacket and manacles and hood, being pumped for information by governments all over the world, not much would faze Lane at this point. He probably thought it was a trick at first. No wonder he's suicidal.
- Ethan explains the plan for Benji to wear a mask to look like Lane. When Benji protests why he has to wear it, Luther just gives a wave to his beefy (black) body and Benji nods in "okay, I get it."
- While Ethan chases Lark through London, Benji is yelling directions at him via earpiece.Ethan: [running through a building] Which way, Benji?!
Benji: Turn left! [Ethan grabs a chair and uses it to smash through a window] Go go go go! [Ethan stands on the windowsill and pauses] What are you waiting for?!
Ethan: [turns around and angrily yells into his earpiece] I'm jumping out a window! [the camera shows an entire office full of people staring at Ethan like he's a crazy person, including one particularly horrified woman with her hand over her mouth]
Benji: Uh, sorry, good luck!- It turns out that Benji was giving Ethan wrong directions because he was holding the tablet the wrong way, and then didn't notice it was set to "2D", so he didn't know Ethan was about to jump off a window. Cue Luther shaking his head in disapproval.
- Adding to the hilarity is the one woman on the right who gives Ethan a silent nod of approval as he's about to jump.
- Before this, Ethan ends up running into St. Paul's Cathedral, where the attendants are staging a funeral. All Ethan can do is silently run through the crowd, all while they incredulously stare at him. Even funnier is when he actually stops and apologizes to the crowd (and the Apostles actually wait for him to finish!) before he continues running with a dozen mooks in hot pursuit.Hunt: [Looking around the crowd apologetically] I am terribly sorry.
- Earlier, Ethan is running up a circular staircase being chased by mooks.Benji: Why is he running in circles?
- What makes it funnier is that this scene sounds like a Call-Back to Benji helping Ethan to find Julia in Mission: Impossible III.
- Walker gets into a freight elevator at the Tate Modern. Ethan follows and grabs onto the underside of the elevator, establishes his grip, then looks up. Through the grating floor. At the frowning Walker, who's looking right at Ethan. Walker looks like a dad who just checked the gas and realized one of his kids took the car out without permission last night.
- Walker spends the first half of the film doubting that all of the tricks and Indy Ploy tactics the IMF uses actually work, only to be surprised when they do. The look he gives Ethan though reeks of "What were you expecting to happen?"
- A small moment, but in the scene where Walker escapes from Ethan, Walker's helicopter has the registration letters "G-DEUP" on it. It's short for "giddy up".
- After Benji figures out a way to stop the nuclear bombs, Ilsa asks if this means they need to be started in the first place, and he confirms. Her response is a stoic "OK!"
- As Ethan runs towards a helicopter that it's taking off:Ilsa: [stops dead, stunned] What the hell is he doing??
Benji: [hurries her along] ...I find it's best not to look.- Bonus points for Benji in that he stopped to stare at Ethan hanging onto a Airbus in takeoff while everyone yelled at him in Rogue Nation. Probably why he came to this conclusion.
- In the trailer, it's even better: it cuts to Ethan trying to climb into the flying chopper!
- While Ethan hijacks the helicopter, we cut to Lane watching from the cabin. The look on Lane's face says, "Why am I not surprised?"
- As Ethan hijacks the helicopter to pursue Walker:Benji: Ethan, where are you?
Ethan: I'm in a helicopter going after Walker.
Benji: Hold on! How did you get in the helicopter?
Ilsa: What? You can fly a helicopter?
Luther: Did you say "helicopter"? What the hell are you doing in a helicopter?
- Ethan tries to get a literal drop on Walker by flying above Walker's helicopter with the intent to drop the payload onto it. He even gets in a one-liner to himself — "Hold this for me, will ya?" — drops the payload...and completely misses Walker's chopper.
- It's a small moment, but the expressions on Walker's face when he finds out that Hunt is piloting the other helicopter are amusing. Hunt is all defiant and determined. Walker is incredulous and annoyed, then blinks in resignation as if to say, "Really? I guess we're doing this now. Fine, okay..." Then he busts out the machine gun.
- Ethan's struggling and teeth-clenched swearing as his chopper takes more and more damage is funny enough, but when he hears an alarm he looks up to see what's wrong, and every warning light on the instrument panel is lit up at once. That mustn't happen every day.
- Julia finds Luther trying to disarm a nuclear bomb nearby and offers to help, but she struggles to follow Luther's instructions because a) she has no experience in bomb disposal and b) Luther is confusing his right and left hands. Ilsa, who's listening in from Luther's earphone is a little amused even if the current situation couldn't be any more dire.Ilsa: Oh, I like her.
- Benji, on the other hand, starts freaking out over the fact that Julia of all people suddenly becomes part of the team.Benji: [after hearing that Luther allows Julia to help him disarm the nuke] Are you insane!?!
Luther: [exasperated] Mind your business, Benji.
Benji: [freaking out] This is my business! [calms down and turns to smile at the nearby confused nurse] - Julia has an epic Oh, Crap! face when she learns that there's a second nuclear bomb.Julia: [turns pale] Did you just say "another bomb"?
- Julia attempts to ease the tension by striking up a conversation with Luther:Julia: So... how's Ethan?
Luther: [gives a cheeky smile] Oh, you know, same old Ethan.
[Description Cut to Ethan desperately trying to evade gunfire from Walker's helicopter]
- Benji, on the other hand, starts freaking out over the fact that Julia of all people suddenly becomes part of the team.
- Searching for the bomb on his end, Benji comes across a room in the tents with crates reeking of radiation. This leads to two moments:
- Seeing that the crates are locked, Benji opts to shoot the locks open... only to remember that there's a high chance that he's shooting a nuclear bomb.
- By the time Ilsa herself has found the actual bomb, we see that Benji is already in the midst of smashing open all the locked crates with an oxygen tank.
- At the end of it all, we have this exchange:Benji: How close were we?
Ethan: The usual.
Ilsa: [incredulous] Usual?
Ethan: [chuckling] Please, don't make me laugh.
Meta:
- While filming a car stunt involving Cavill, Cruise and Pegg's characters, Cavill got sick of getting driven back to the stunt reset point in a tiny cramped car, and decided to run back instead. So, of course, Cruise and Pegg drove next to him, humming the Superman theme as he ran.
- #ShavedButNotForgotten
- Frederick Schmidt (Zola) was asked whether Simon would make him laugh:"Sean Harris, he's… it was one moment, actually, it's the last scene of the film [which is the case in the shooting script, but not so in the actual film], where we bundle him into a car, and every time we'd re-set the car, he would sing random songs. Madonna, Kylie Minogue, whatever popped into his head, just from the boot of the car —"
- Sean Harris hates sequels, and only signed up for Rogue Nation on the condition that his character would die at some point in the movie. Not only did he survive Rogue Nation, but now he's survived Fallout too.
