Idea for a new movie series: “Mission Impossible”
The first movie starts with a spy team from The Higher Ups and it has this nearly impossible objective. Whether it’s a suicide mission or just really difficult, whatever. The Team goes on the mission but stumbles upon this other, adjacent plot and that’s the main conflict of the movie. The original mission fails, but The Team still emerges victorious.
The second movie starts with part of the same team as the first movie with a few new characters filling in for the characters who have been phased out. The Higher Ups send this new and updated group to retry the impossible mission. Yet again, they get sidetracked by something else they discover, abandon the original mission, and the plot goes somewhere else. The half of the team that was in the first movie acknowledges this jokingly, for the most part.
By the third movie, only two members from the first team are left. More of the others have phased out, more new people in. They get assigned to the impossible mission AGAIN, and the two joke about ‘third time’s the charm’ and ‘imagine if we get derailed again’ only to get derailed again. The two veterans are starting to side-eye this whole thing.
By the fourth movie, only one person from the original team is still active. When the new team gets sent back to the impossible mission, they don’t even blink when everything goes sideways again. Oh, that time already? Well, let’s get on with it.
I think 4 movies would be the minimum of derails, but I honestly think the longer it went on, the better the payoff, you know? Like… drag it out for 10 movies. Develop the pattern. Old characters phase out, new ones are introduced, they get sent on the impossible mission, discover something barely related and get stuck trying to fix that instead of whatever the original mission was. It’s not a surprise for the audience by movie 4, and the seasoned characters can get a fourth-wall-break in there too. Maybe the original mission never gets addressed.
If it does, though, you gotta bring back some of the old characters from the first movie. Finally get to the bottom of the impossible mission. Is the impossible mission just a cover for what The Higher Ups really wanted the teams to do over the years, insinuating that there’s a greater power that would otherwise prevent the team from averting disaster? Is the impossible mission something really important, does it have means of turning away the team or creating other problems for the team to discover to stay hidden? Is one of the beloved originals a traitor? Has there been a traitor in every movie and they all band together to defeat all the heroes?
You see what I mean? The longer the impossible mission trope gets dragged out, the more of a shock it will be when you finally break the pattern. Imagine a movie being released every two years for like… 10-20 years, and then out of nowhere the studio drops a trailer for a giant reunion movie, Avengers: Infinity War style. All the old characters are back, aged and seasoned but still treasured and they FINALLY get to the bottom of this stupid impossible mission that none of them have been able to solve.
Someone richer than me needs to get on this.
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Criminal Minds AU? Just wanted to know if you'll ever actually do it
Criminal Minds AU
Welcome back to another Criminal Minds episode called “Amplification”
TW: deadly desease
Race hissed as he brushed past a rose bush and cut his hand. He shook it a bit as Jack walked on past him. This was no easy case and the young agent refused to slow it down with a minor cut. People were dying. A new strain of Anthrax was being passed around by someone deliberately trying to terrorize the public. And they might just be standing outside that person’s house.
When Jack’s phone rang, he stopped to answer it, not realizing his partner continued walking. “Spottie, we’re here now,” he assured, listening intently to the man on the other end of the phone. The sprinkler turning on behind him made him jump a bit and grab for his gun. He sighed as he made himself continue to listen. “What d’you mean the lab is clean?” he asked. “You’re sure?” He turned back to the house. “Hey, Race, Spot says— Race?” he squinted. “Racer?” Now he was beginning to get concerned. So he rushed inside only to have a sliding door to his left slammed shut. “What the hell are you doing, kid?! Open the damn door!”
But Race was shaking his head. “No! You have to get out of here! Don’t break the glass! Get out!” the genius boy yelled at him.
That’s when Jack saw it. A broken vile of white powder on the ground. “Shit, boy…” he breathed. “Race—“
“Get out of here, Jack,” Race insisted. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
All Jack could do was leave him there and rush out of the house, calling for the rest of his team.
—
“How’s Tony doing?” Denton asked, walking hastily up to Jack.
“He won’t tell me. The air is blasting and there’s white powder all over the floor,” Jack responded, walking back to the house with his boss. “I shoulda been right there with him—“
“I won’t waste time second guessing,” Denton ordered. “What do we know?”
Clenching his jaw a bit, Jack nodded. “Nicols is dead. Blunt first trauma to the head. Race thinks he’s been dead for two or three days. He can’t be our perp. But he took the vaccine. So he’s gonna be okay, right?”
Denton sighed. “We have an ambulance on the way, Kelly. I know you’re worried for Tony, but don’t let that cloud your judgment or ability to solve this case,” he insisted.
“That’s not an answer,” Jack insisted. “Will he be okay?”
Denton looked over at the young man. “I don’t know.”
Jack swallowed hard. He pulled out his phone and called his best friend, putting his phone on sound. “Jack… I really messed up this time,” Race answered.
Looking through the window and spotting the boy, Jack shook his head. “No. We’re gonna get you out and to the hospital, okay? I just need you to listen to me and trust me.”
“I’m staying right here, Jackie,” Race said without any hesitation. “I’m already exposed. The best thing I can do is try to figure out if there’s a cure. All the evidence is in here.”
“No, no, you’re going to the hospital, kid, because that’s what we do when we’re exposed to a major illness that can kill us overnight—“ Jack began as though he was speaking to a child.
Denton cut him off before he could finish. “Kelly, he’s right,” he argued. “If he’s already exposed, there isn’t much we can do for him. His best bet is to stay there and try to figure out who killed our doctor.”
Jack’s eyebrows raised in shock. “Are you actually serious right now?” he demanded. “That kid is small and he hasn’t eaten in a day, he’ll get sick too fast—“
“I can hear you, Jack…” Race sighed into the phone. “I messed up. But I’ll find a cure, okay?”
Jack held the phone close to his lips. “You better find a goddamn cure.”
Race smiled sadly before hanging up the phone and waving at Jack, trying to tell him in silence that he’d be alright. Jack did not appreciate that at all. But he bit his lip and waved back, not about to leave his partner behind.
—
Walking around the room wasn’t all that exciting, but it kept Race distracted. That’s what he needed. A distraction. He saw a dead body, some bleeding out of its head, two desks, one tidy and one a bit messier. Notebooks that had two sets of handwriting in them were scattered around the room. The dead animals locked in cages nearly broke Race’s heart.
Maybe if he ever got out of this room, he’d go vegan. Those animals didn’t deserve to die like that. But he looked over at the glass dividing him from the outside world and sniffled; it might just be how he leaves this world too.
He shook his head, trying to focus. Two sets of handwriting. A partner. A protege. The murderer and the victim had worked closely together. Race dug around, trying to find any trace of a name, something that would give this person away. He paused when he saw the books stacked beside the desk. He sniffled and shook his head. “Don’t be stupid, Higgins,” he whispered to himself. “She’ll be okay…” He shakily took out his phone and dialed a familiar number.
“Race?” David answered quickly.
Race sniffled, rubbing at his nose. “Hey, Davey,” he smiled sadly.
“Hey…” David looked down. “How you holdin’ up?”
Race opened his mouth like he was about to reassure the other man. In reality, he’d already begun to sweat. His curls were sticking down to his head and his eyes were growing a bit weary. He was sure they'd be red if he could look into a mirror. “Uhm…”
“You don’t have to lie to me, Anthony,” David assured. “Just tell me what you need, okay?”
The young agent sucked in a breath. “I need ta leave a message for my mom,” Race whimpered. “I… I can’t call her hospital because the staff will be alerted but— but if something happens to me, I wanna say goodbye ta her—“
“Tony, everything’s gonna be okay—“
“Can you please just let me do this?” Race whispered, hugging an arm around his middle.
It was too hard to answer for a long moment. David wished he could hang up and have the day start over again, but he couldn’t. So he nodded. “Okay… go ahead, kiddo.”
Race sniffled. “H-hey, mama…” he said, trying to plaster on a smile. She was always good at knowing when he was smiling or not, just by how he spoke. “It’s me… Tonio…” He steadied himself and nodded. “I just wanna tell you that I love you so much, yeah? And… how… how proud I am ta be raised by such a strong person,” he whimpered, trying to clear his throat to be okay. If he sounded okay. Maybe he would be. “I think about you everyday and I want you to know that… nothing that happened was ever your fault. I love you,” he whispered. “Bye…”
David sniffled. “Race—“
“I gotta go,” Race rushed out before quickly hanging up the phone.
The door opened and Race jumped, standing up straighter and wiping at the sweat on his forehead. “Jack,” he breathed. “Lookin’ like a million bucks,” he tried to joke.
Jack was dressed in a hazmat suit and helmet. “Yeah, I'm thinkin’ a’ changin’ careers. I’d be a badass astronaut,” he smiled, allowing another person to come in with him as Race laughed weakly. “Kid, this is Dr. Kim.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Higgins,” the doctor smiled. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Race insisted.
“I can give you something for any pain you might be feeling,” Dr. Kim offered.
Race backed away. “I feel fine, thank you.”
“Well, they can also help get you more comfortable—“
“I don’t want any narcotics, okay?” Race insisted brashly.
Jack stepped closer to him so Race backed into one of the desks. “Get back, Jack, you shouldn’t be in here!”
“Kid…” Jack breathed. “You’re fine. You’re gonna be fine.”
“Just ask me about the case, okay?” Race pleaded.
So Jack nodded. “They don’t think the partner was something Nicols worked with. Any ideas of who he might be?” he asked. Race almost answered, but was cut off by a severe coughing fit that made Jack flinch. He wanted to rush to the younger man, but the doctor put her arm out to stop him. “Race?” he called.
Race sunk down to the floor. “I don’t know,” he rasped. “I didn’t find nothin’… m-my head hurts.”
“I know, but I need you to think okay?”
Race wheezed a bit to catch his breath as he lazily looked up at Jack before crawling over to the other side of the room. “I s-saw something before… syllabi… and what looked like a thesis paper. No author on it, thought it was his. A study of Anthrax.”
Jack nodded. “Okay?”
“A student… this thesis ain’t his, he was helping a student,” Race decided, coughing again. “Jackie—“ his voice broke, so he cut himself off.
Jack pushed away from the doctor and kneeled at the boy’s side. The kid was shaking. “It’s alright. It’s okay, just breathe, you’re doin’ real good, buddy.”
Race shook his head. “He ain’t a science major,” he insisted. “Check social studies, s-somethin’ like that. He wants to save the world, not destroy it—“ He hunched over, coughing even harder. Blood dropped onto the floor.
Jack’s eyes widened. “Okay, come on, I’m getting you out of here,” he insisted.
“We’ll hose him down and get him to a hospital,” Kim insisted.
Jack rushed him into a small tent and began undressing him. Race shoved his hands away. “Go help Denton—“
“No, I’m staying with you,” Jack insisted.
“You really wanna see me get hosed down, completely naked?” Race grumbled.
Jack rolled his eyes. “Stop… I’m staying with you, okay?”
Race nodded and let himself be undressed. “Davey better take good care of you,” he whimpered. Jack scoffed.
“Stop talkin’ like that. Stand up, come on, you can do it…” Race did. But when the water hit his body, he gasped and felt his face head up when he realized how many people were there. “You’re fine, kid,” Jack insisted.
For a moment, Race believed him. Until he began convulsing again, coughing and spitting B up blood. Jack shook his head, catching the kid before he could fall. “I’m fine, Jack. I fleel fim…” Race blinked harshly. “I flin fn…” he shook his head, tightening a hand in Jack’s suit. “I flul… J…” His breathing picked up. He couldn’t make the words come out of his mouth.
Jack shook his head. “You’re okay, we’re taking you to a hospital,” he insisted, trying not to panic. “Get him into an ambulance!” he cried, gathering Race up in his arms as the boy began to fade, getting more and more confused by the second, his breaths becoming heavier and heavier. “You’re alright, I got you, pretty boy, just breathe…”
Race whimpered in his arms and by the time he got into that ambulance, he was unable to understand a single thing that came next.
—
Jack sat idly by his friend, eating a Jell-O cup and kicking his legs up on the bed. He breathed as steadily as Race did. It had only been a few hours. Thanks to Race’s big brain and Davey’s skills, they had found the cure and Jack would be here until Race recovered.
“Are there any more Jell-O cups?” a voice spoke from the bed.
Jack looked down at the boy and smiled. “Welcome back, Racer,” he whispered, handing Race the Jell-O he’d been eating. “How’re you feeling?”
Race slowly sat up and took a deep breath, coughing a little which made Jack’s eyebrow furrow the tiniest bit. “I’m fine,” he smiled. “Really, this time. How are you?”
Jack leaned forward. “Don’t scare me like that again, okay?” he asked. Race sniffled, nodding as a tear poked at his eye. Jack just sat on the bed and hugged the boy tightly. “You’re good, okay? I got you. Promise.”
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