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Benthan Week 2025 Themes

The votes are in (an impressive 118 of them)! You chose your favorites and they are, unsurprisingly in this Year of Our New Mission Impossible, Final Reckoning oriented 😉 See the 2025 daily themes and alternate/secondary themes below 🥳

Monday, August 11 Day 1: Write that forehead touch scene we never got the context for Alternate theme: Post-Final Reckoning reunion (whole team or just Benthan)

Tuesday, August 12 Day 2: 5 times Ethan says “Talk to me, Benji” + 1 time Benji says “Talk to me, Ethan” Alternate theme: Final Reckoning decompression chamber, replacing Grace with Benji

Wednesday, August 13 Day 3: Ethan has trouble telling what is real after communicating with the Entity Alternate theme: Others find out that Ethan and Benji are dating/married

Thursday, August 14 Day 4: Ethan moves into Benji’s apartment to help with his or Benji’s recovery and never leaves which actually suits Benji just fine (accidentally on purpose living together) Alternate theme: Benji is there for Ethan when grief for Luther hits him at an unexpected time

Friday, August 15 Day 5: Final Reckoning Ethan finds out what happened to Benji and then later Benji learns what Ethan went through with Gabriel Alternate theme: One of them is high/drunk

Saturday, August 16 Day 6: Benji using his honeypot skills on a mission (Ethan doesn’t like this) Alternate theme: What was the incident with Ethan that caused Benji to pursue medical training? And how did Ethan feel after he learned this? How did he feel after FR when he learned that Benji had to essentially treat himself?

Sunday, August 17 Day 7: After his excursion into Arctic waters, Ethan is always cold. Benji notices. Alternate theme: Ethan accidentally runs into Benji while undercover (in a mask) and they end up flirting the night away

We’ve all got about two months to get creating (or wait until the night before to start, in time-honored fan creator fashion) 🤩 In the meantime, feel free to drop a message if you’ve got a question not answered by the FAQ ✍️

Have fun, everyone!!

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Judging by the background of that scene, it seems like it took place on the plane when Ethan was picked up in the Arctic. It's the first time Ethan and Benji have met since Luther's death, and it makes sense that Benji's crying because it was the moment he found out. As Ethan and Benji have known and loved Luther for so long, they're bound to share their grief.

Even though it was cut, Benji would 100% have to find out on the plane. For the next part of their plan, Ethan had to explain to the team that Gabriel has Luther's only poison pill. There isn't a way to explain how Gabriel got it without revealing what he did to Luther.

I see it as just because we (the audience) don't get that scene doesn't mean it wouldn't have happened. In the same way that we don't see characters eat every meal or shower, but we don't assume they're starving and stinking (unless there's evidence otherwise).

yes yes we’re all annoyed the that the benthan forehead touch scene was cut, but! it’s still canon! like think about it. there’s so much of their lives that we actually don’t see on screen and them having a scene like this in the first place implies that this is something that happens. ethan’s a forehead touch guy. we know this. just because we didn’t get to see it in the three hour movie doesn’t necessarily mean it didn’t happen!

thanks for coming to my ted talk.

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The thing about Ethan is - it’s assumed he must enjoy the crazy stunts because he knows how to climb and dive and do all these things and we see him doing a dangerous solo climb in MI2 and loving it…

First of all, in MI2 Ethan is alone in the world. He’s lost all his friends. He has Luther but they’re not very close at this stage (and this is the film he pulls Luther closer) and there’s no one special in his life. He’s still guilt ridden and in that climb - he’s alone. No one will be affected if he falls.

However - as the films goes on and these things keep happening - and they keep happening and affecting his friends. He has to do these things to save his friends. He has to run and climb and jump and dive and crash to save people.

So if he has to do it, he has to be the best. So he learns to climb higher, dive deeper, drive faster. All too aware that if fails at any of these, his friends will be in danger.

And it’s worth noting than Benji does the same thing. Benji is a tech guy. There’s no reason for him to learn to drive boats or crash cars or dive - but he does because him doing that means he can back up Ethan, maybe take some of the strain and responsibility off Ethan.

(By TFR it looks like he can fly planes too…)

(And I bet there was an argument at some point about who exactly was going to dive down to the Sevastopol once they found it, as Benji points out that not only can he dive too, but this is tech stuff and he’s the tech guy…)

So basically - there’s a certain part of Ethan that does enjoy climbing, diving etc - when alone, when no one else’s life is on the line, when the only risk is to himself, when he’s in control.

But on a mission - he’s terrified the entire time that he’s going to get his friends killed unless he takes this insane risks - so he has to learn to be the best, strongest and faster not for his thrill, but to save them

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Even if Ethan was told by the IMF/ CIA/ American Government that he had to stay in the IMF, that wouldn't matter. He never follows orders and is shown to be perfectly capable of avoiding and escaping capture. He could spend the rest of his life hiding with ease, but that's not who he is. This franchise is all about choices; "if you choose to accept", "we are the masters of our fate", and "the sum of our infinite choices".

if you are upset that TFR didn't end with Ethan getting out of the IMF, maybe it's worth asking yourself why you think an "escape" is the only good ending, why to get out is the only worthy goal.

maybe that rings true for you and is what you want out of your story, what you expect out of your movie, but that's is simply not the kind of story mi is.

so what if Ethan is trapped? so what if he can't leave? what's important is what he chooses to do with that life. and Ethan chooses, again and again, to fight for the world, fight for a better future. the Choice might have been presented as an order, but Ethan never took the Choice and the Oath to follow orders. no, he takes them for the chance to make them his own, and to fight for the future and every soul on Earth. he might be compelled to push himself above and beyond for it, but shouldn't we all?

maybe we can't control the life we were given, but we can take matters into our own hands to make it better, if we have the ability to. why wouldn't you do what you can to make the world a better place? why wouldn't you make the active choice to fight your way through the darkness? would escaping from taking that responsibility really make you happy? we have to try. we've got to try. for those that we hold close. for those that we'll never meet.

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Every mission briefing since the beginning has ended with "Good luck, Mr. Hunt," or "Good luck, Agent Hunt." So I love that the very last line of the franchise, spoken by Luther, was "Good luck, Ethan." It comes not from a superior, not from a shadowy faceless voice giving orders, but from a friend. It serves as a reminder, to us and to Ethan, that he's more than just an agent. He's a person. And while he may have the skills to save the world that no one else has, he also has the ability to make the world a better place by the choices he makes every day, which is something we all have. That was the essence of Luther's final message. That was the point of the entire film.

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i want to entertain this more in some way but my image of field agent benji on vacation aka not actively on a mission is like. just sitting on the couch playing first person shooters and working on a pet coding project. doordashing chinese takeout. also has basically no friends outside work but mostly because he’s lazy and it’s a lot of effort and trouble what with the whole Secret Agent Job thing so he texts luther a lot instead. actually i would love to imagine he has online gamer friends who know nothing about him except that he’s a brit in america who kinda sucks at [insert game here] and goes offline for weeks at a time but he’s fun to have in the party when he is around so like it’s cool. he’s like luther play titanfall with me. luther is like i am way too cool for that. benji’s like okay that’s fair .

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Sooooo Benji got shot in the abdomen leaning towards the left side. That is a messy messy place to get shot. So many places it can go and so many things it can hit. We see that he gets a tension pneumo (or so he thinks) a while after he gets shot. Which can mean a couple things could have happened.

One: The bullet tore through the diaphragm meaning that nifty little barrier helping him breath and separating his heart and lungs from his other abdominal organs now has a hole in it and the air that is being let in is causing the pressure.

Or

Two: The force of the bullet plus the blast cracked a couple ribs which eventually punctured his lung causing air to leak in and put pressure causing the collapse.

All this to say I want more whump Benji fics post-TFR. The potential is endless. Benji now no longer a proud owner of a spleen needing to be medically discharged from IMF and no longer being able to work by Ethan’s side. Benji developing sepsis after the bullet tore a hole in his diaphragm and having an unexpected longer hospitalization.

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Benji is being so very brave here. He's in agony, is afraid of death, and knows he's been shot in an area that is often fatal. Yet, he hides his pain and fears to send Ethan, his best friend and a big source of comfort, away.

Ethan has already lost Luther to a bomb just like the one Benji is sitting against. Benji knows Ethan will put himself in peril to get that poison pill. Neither wants to die, and neither wants the other to die, yet they know they'll do it to save everyone if it comes to it.

My heart aches for them.

I'm sure someone has mentioned this already, but I love this moment so much for different reasons:

Even though Grace is holding onto Ethan, his eyes are on Benji.

He doesn't stop staring at him the entire scene - Ethan doesn't take his eyes off Benji, Benji doesn't take his eyes off Ethan. They can't look away from each other!

If that's not love and a "hold onto the very last look" moment, I don't know what is!

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What did we do to deserve two precious human beings?

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I don't know why I liked this frame so much but I decided to redraw it

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dunno maybe I'm biased but I think you might have the most beautiful pfp on this whole webbed site! hope you have a nice day <3

Aw, thank you!

You have a nice day, too 🥹

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I have a few different whump-related Benji thoughts, relating to the events of The Final Reckoning (spoilers ahead)

Okay, so the layout of the Doomsday Vault seemed to be: drivable tunnel -> area where the bomb was -> server room. This means that the only way to get Benji out was through the area damaged by the blast. After the explosion, this could have been blocked by debris, some lights were destroyed and the air was also thick with dust, making visibility for everyone difficult. Inhaling the dust could have made Benji's condition worse, hence why Paris covered his face when the blast occurred. Oh, and the Doomsday Vault is shielded from digital signals and deep underground... so they can't just call an ambulance for Benji. Anyway, my point is, that I'm sure it was a side-mission in itself getting Benji (unconscious, dying) to a hospital quickly and safely. I hope it gets explored in fic at some point.

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As a whump enthusiast, I do find myself focusing on Benji's scene in the Doomsday Vault. However, he also seemed to bear the brunt of the fighting on St Matthew Island and I feel like we need to talk about that more. It made sense that the captain would be the most skilled fighter out of those Russians, and he just had to go after Benji, (a captain vs a team leader, nice). Benji got knocked around, a gash on his face and a whole heavy bookcase fell on him, which knocked him unconscious. This was while he was surrounded by the raging fire (smoke inhalation). He went through a lot! Benji needed Degas to lift the bookcase off him and had to be helped up/ physically supported by Paris. You can also see him panting and clutching his chest. The bookcase would have caused bruising, winded him and potentially even cracked a rib or a few. <- The poor guy probably thought he had enough chest trauma for one mission, only to get a bullet in his lung a day later. 😔

When Benji and Ethan reunited in the Arctic, they would absolutely worry about each other's condition. Even though Ethan had objectively gone through worse (died), he'd notice the gash on Benji's face and check on him. If they hugged, Ethan would notice Benji wince and tense up, from the ache of his fight.

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The end scene in Trafalgar Square must have taken place a few weeks after they beat The Entity/ Gabriel but I'm certain that wasn't the next time Ethan and Benji saw each other. I have a few reasons why.

Firstly, once he was picked up by Kittridge and Briggs, Ethan would need to know what's happened with the team. After all, he left them beside a live nuke, similar to the one that killed Luther. As they can't communicate with those in the vault, Ethan would demand to be taken there. By the time Ethan arrives, Benji would have been in critical condition due to shock, blood loss and difficulty breathing. I do not doubt that Ethan would rush to be by Benji's side until they got to a hospital and Benji stabilised. Even after then, he'd want to stay close.

After Luther's death, Benji is now Ethan's only long-time close friend. He's known the new team 2 months. He's known Benji for 20 years. Benji's familiar presence in his life is a comfort he won't want to be without, especially after the trauma of that mission.

It was easy for Gabriel to trap Luther with the bomb, as Luther had become weak and unwell. He wouldn't have had the strength or speed to try and stop Gabriel (or any other attacker). Perhaps Ethan wishes in hindsight he'd done more to make Luther better protected and better hidden. He can't change the past, but he sees Benji in his vulnerable condition and knows by watching over him, he's safer. After all, i'm sure a lot of bad people want Benji dead, and Ethan knows that.

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I FEEL ILL

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Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning (Part 1)

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Benji Dunn: my favourite ipad kid

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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION (2015)