Mission Impossible Why Luther Has Survived Every Movie (So Far)

Mission: Impossible – Why Luther Has Survived Every Movie (So Far)

Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickell has survived every Mission: Impossible movie when others fell, but Luther’s survival was only possible because of Rhames.

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Mission Impossible Why Luther Has Survived Every Movie (So Far)

Mission: Impossible’s Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) is the only supporting character who has appeared in and survived every movie in the franchise, but that wasn’t always the plan. It now seems impossible to imagine the Impossible Mission Force without the team’s ever-present computer specialist solving their biggest tech problems. However, Ving Rhames had to fight to get Luther the role and appreciation he deserves. In a franchise mostly known for the spectacle of Tom Cruise’s extreme stunts, Luther has been at the heart of every story, and the movies would not be the same if the original plan for Luther had gone forward.

Luther started as a disavowed agent in the first Mission: Impossible movie whom Ethan Hunt recruited for a daring heist to reveal the true mole in the IMF. Though reluctant, the expert hacker joined Hunt for a chance to do the hack of a lifetime. Since then, Luther has become Hunt’s most trusted friend and confidante, joining him for every important mission thus far, from breaking into the tallest building in the world to the incredible underwater heist in Rogue Nation. Luther played a crucial role in all of those missions, but he almost didn’t get the chance.

In the original script for the first movie, Luther was killed off at the beginning of the story. The film’s opening action had Ethan Hunt’s entire team cut down in front of him, including the faked death of IMF leader and Mission: Impossible TV show holdover Jim Phelps. IMF agents were falling left and right, and Luther was supposed to be caught in the crosshairs. The original script had Luther survive only fifteen minutes, the farthest cry imaginable from the six movies he’s ended up with so far. Even the original TV actors hated Mission: Impossible’s wiping out of all the old agents, and Ving Rhames felt the same about Luther’s demise.

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When Rhames started working on the movie with the original script, he asked director Brian De Palma why the movie’s only Black character was set to die fifteen minutes into the film. Rhames felt Mission: Impossible was wasting Luther by killing him off so early when the majority of action movies only had one Black character at most. De Palma agreed with Rhames, and he changed the script so Luther survived. Thanks to Rhames, Mission: Impossible evolved from the racist Hollywood cliché of relegating every character of color to reductive and ill-fated roles. Luther’s role was expanded and continued to expand through several more movies. Other agents, like Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt, have been on the chopping block, but Luther has walked away with his life.

The Mission: Impossible franchise owes much to Rhames for keeping Luther in the movies, and the stories would be very different without his constant and reliable presence. Hopefully, Luther’s appearances will continue perpetually as long as Rhames wants to keep reprising his role. Rhames is already confirmed to be returning for Mission: Impossible 7. If Luther needs to be written off in the future, he may get a happy off-screen ending instead of meeting his demise like many other agents. With no clear end point to the movies, it’s unknown how many Mission: Impossible installments will be forthcoming in the future, but Luther is likely to be a central part of all of them.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mission-impossible-luther-survive-ving-rhames-plan-changed/

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