Henry Cavill's Mission: Impossible 6 Character Is The Anti-Superman

Warning: SPOILERS For Mission: Impossible - Fallout!

Henry Cavill assumes a role quite unlike Superman in Mission: Impossible - Fallout and it's a perfect response to his Man of Steel. Fans who mainly know the British actor for playing the symbol of truth, justice and the American way are in for a shock when they see Cavill in Fallout. Sporting his controversial mustache, Cavill plays August Walker, a CIA assassin sent to keep tabs on Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and recover plutonium cores stolen by a terrorist network called the Apostles that plans to use them to detonate nuclear weapons. Yet Walker is much more than he appears to be.

In Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Walker is actually the main villain. He is secretly a fanatical anarchist who communicates his beliefs in a manifesto: "There cannot be peace without, first, a great suffering. The greater the suffering, the greater the peace." The assassin is working several plans at once; while pretending to be allies (and friendly rivals) with Ethan, he's simultaneously framing Hunt by making the CIA believe Hunt has turned traitor and become "John Lark", a mysterious broker representing the Apostles. Meanwhile, Walker also helps Hunt free Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the imprisoned former leader of the Syndicate, who was captured by the IMF in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. Lastly, Walker has also been the "guardian angel" to Ethan's former wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan), and part of his scheme is to detonate a nuclear warhead in Kashmir that would not only send on third of the world's population into mass starvation, but the blast would kill the love of Ethan's life. So, August Walker is not at all like Clark Kent.

However, the evil intentions and nefarious acts by August Walker echo how politicians and civilians alike in the DCEU (including Batman) suspected Superman was a wolf in sheep's clothing in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. Before Justice League retconned Superman into a beloved hero the world desperately needed, the most powerful man in the world was a symbol of controversy. For Cavill, taking on the villainous role in Mission: Impossible 6 wasn't just a chance to make a globe-hopping action film opposite Tom Cruise, it also served as a satisfying response and counterpoint to his best-known role.

This Page: August Walker is the Anti-Superman
Page 2: What Mission: Impossible - Fallout Reveals About Superman

August Walker Is The Anti-Superman

August Walker is a fearsome guy. Though he's outwardly handsome, even upon his introduction as the agent handpicked by CIA Director Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) to oversee Ethan and the IMF's operation, he's presented in an antagonistic way. Immediately, he's at odds with Hunt, trying to one-up him and mocking his concerns of diving through a thunderstorm during their 25,000 foot HALO jump over Paris, putting his life and Ethan's in serious danger. His rivalry and animosity with Hunt continues throughout the film, even as Walker hangs back and lets Ethan take the lead. When Walker is tricked into revealing himself as the villain, he becomes the most relaxed he's been throughout the movie, as he no longer has to pretend. The CIA killer feels he has all the cards and has the upper hand on Ethan until the climactic helicopter chase and fight where our hero finally gets the best of him.

Cavill seems to relish playing someone who is at first containing his malevolence and then gets to cut loose and be truly evil. Walker secretly wields more power than he outwardly admits and he's hellbent on destruction. In this way, the actor is riffing on how he played Superman. In the films directed by Zack Snyder, the Man of Steel seemed to always struggle to do the right thing. He's always holding back his true capacity for destruction, something that fed the public's (and Batman's) mistrust of Superman. Of course, Superman was always a good person at his core, and the fact that he is physically attractive offsets some of the menace projected by a being of such earth-shattering power.

August Walker, meanwhile, is rough and brutish even when he's in his guise as a CIA agent (the mustache helps dilute Cavill's leading man looks). He's the worst of what Clark Kent could be, and there are no bright and heroic colors hidden underneath his suit. Mission: Impossible - Fallout even robs Cavill of his looks by the end; spilled aviation fuel scars him and melts away half of his face, making August look even more monstrous and berserk during his climactic fistfight with Ethan. Considering all the deaths Walker caused and planned to cause, his physical deformity finally synched up with the monster he always was within. This villainous persona was as far from Superman as Cavill could get. It's no wonder he fully embraced the role.

Next Page: What Mission: Impossible - Fallout Reveals About Superman

Mission: Impossible's Action Is The Opposite Of Superhero Movies

It helps Cavill's mission to break from his costumed counterpart that Mission: Impossible - Fallout's visceral action is the polar opposite of the DCEU. The Tom Cruise-led franchise proudly captures the film's death-defying stunts in-camera. The HALO dive, car and motorcycle chases, and helicopter battles are all executed without reliance on CGI, with Cruise performing his own insane stunts (and even suffering an injury). Cavill was eager to follow the star/producer's lead, as he told Screen Rant:

When I was brought onto it, onto the franchise, I saw it as more of an opportunity more than anything else... I literally said to him, guys, anything I'm to do, I'm in. Anything that I'm not legally bound not to do, I'm in. Just put me in, coach and train me up.

The result is a more 'realistic' world that goes to great lengths to put the characters in constant physical peril, and the audience feels it all the more because the actors are fully committed into making it all as real as possible. Fallout even winks at the Batman v Superman fight by staging an ultraviolent brawl inside a men's room; seeing Cavill and Cruise smash through toilets harkens back to the armor-clad Batman bashing a Kryptonite-weakened Superman with a latrine. But in terms of watching satisfying action sequences that feel authentic and truly dangerous (and where Cavill 'reloads' his arm guns), there's no comparison between the fantastical, green screen and CGI-enabled action in a superhero movie and the adrenaline-pumping, real-world thrills of Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

What Fallout Reveals About Cavill's Superman

Henry Cavill as Superman Clark Kent in Man Of Steel

Since Henry Cavill is totally aware of his image as Superman, one of the joys of Mission: Impossible - Fallout is in how he appears to toy with his superhero alter ego. There's one point in where Walker scoffs at Ethan's penchant to simply improvise when his plans go awry. The assassin declares, "Hope is not a strategy", which raised the eyebrows of Man of Steel fans considering that the famous 'S' on the Kryptonian's chest stands for just that: Hope. That line foreshadows what's to come with August Walker and the evil he's about to reap, but also serves as another clue that Cavill and Mission: Impossible's creative team are having a lot of fun with the actor's comic book image.

The climactic fight between Walker and Hunt on the mountaintop in Kashmir, which culminated in an all-time great "hook" moment, once more echoes Superman. As Ethan relentlessly pursues him, August barks in frustration through gritted-teeth, "Why won't you die?" Cavill's tone sounds just like when Superman fought the Justice League and gripped Batman by the throat, seething at the Dark Knight: "You won't let me live. You won't let me die." Of course, Walker knows full-well that Ethan hunt bleeds, so there's no need to ask.

At some point in the future, Henry Cavill will return as Superman, hopefully in Man of Steel 2. Mission: Impossible - Fallout's director Christopher McQuarrie is even open to the idea of directing "if the story is right." Either way, Cavill's time as Fallout's Big Bad was well-spent and should benefit his future as the Man of Steel, especially since Zack Snyder's grander Justice League plan, which was to feature a black-suited, evil Superman, was abandoned. Playing August Walker allowed Cavill to scratch his itch at unleashing his dark side, as well getting to be part of a franchise that centers on practical stunts.

Fans look forward to seeing Henry Cavill soar through the skies wearing his blue suit and red cape once more, but if Mission: Impossible - Fallout taught us anything, it's that when Cavill is good, he's good, but when he's bad, he's even better.