Mission: Impossible 5 is one of Hulu’s top trending movies, but it’s being promoted with an image taken from a scene that’s not in the film. The adventures of Ethan Hunt are presumed to be coming to an end with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, though Tom Cruise could always reverse course and return for one last thrilling foray as the death-defying secret agent. With the (maybe) last Mission: Impossible set to release on May 23, streaming subscribers are checking out past films in the series, pushing the fifth entry, Rogue Nation, onto Hulu’s top-trending movies list.
Hulu may wish to take a second look at its Rogue Nation landing page, however, as the image displayed there is not actually from the movie. The sH๏τ of Cruise in handcuffs is from a deleted scene, one that saw Ethan Hunt seemingly being dressed down by Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley, until one of those signature Mission: Impossible unmaskings happens, revealing that Hunley was actually Simon Pegg’s Benji, finally getting to don a mask in the field.
What This Means For Mission: Impossible And Hulu
Rogue Nation Fanatics Might Be Confused By The Image
The image of a handcuffed Cruise is indeed not from the finished Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which is too bad, because the deleted scene it does come from would have added some extra humor to the film, while giving Cruise and Baldwin a unique acting moment. Christopher McQuarrie himself described the scene in a 2015 Slashfilm roundtable, selling it as a great moment for Pegg’s character Benji:
In the ten-minute chunk of the movie that we cut out, [Benji got to wear a mask]. And he shows up very unexpectedly. It was really richly rewarding. He showed up as Alec Baldwin [playing CIA chief Alan Hunley, who wants to disband the IMF]. And it was this really fun moment, and he pulls off an Alec Baldwin mask as Benji, and you’re like, ‘F–k!’ And that’s how they escaped from Alec Baldwin.
McQuarrie called the deleted scene “a big laugh” and said Cruise enjoyed being cut down to size by Baldwin
The scene would’ve led into a car chase in the middle of Rogue Nation, but it was decided that it threw off the pacing and the 10-minute chunk was cut. Sadly, audiences never got to witness the spectacle of Baldwin as Benji pretending to be Hunley, spewing lines at Cruise, who can only sit there quietly accepting the abuse.
Our Take On Hulu Using A Deleted Scene As A Promo Image
It’s A Harmless Oversight
Most folks hitting up Hulu to watch Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation won’t even notice the promo image on the movie’s page, as it’s just a basic-looking sH๏τ of Ethan Hunt, one that could have come from any one of the series’ films. Indeed, whoever put the page together did so under the apparent ᴀssumption that the promo image would barely register with users, and did not bother to double-check and make sure the chosen sH๏τ is actually something from the movie.
Unlike most of the things that happen in a Mission: Impossible film, this image flub is far from an earth-shattering event. It is unfortunate that the scene it’s from was not included in Mission: Impossible 5, as it would’ve given Baldwin a big acting moment, even if he’s technically not playing his Hunley character. It was also a big character moment for Benji, who always itched to wear a mask.
At the end of the day, McQuarrie and company went for pacing and left this fun, but somewhat irrelevant, bit of frivolity on the cutting room floor. A small trace of it can still be glimpsed on Hulu, however, thanks to an oversight by a web designer.
Source: Hulu
