Your mission, should you choose to accept it...

Can it be that Ethan Hunt, protagonist of the Mission Impossible series, is a freelancer? With all of the technical training and dire consequences involved in international spying, I just assumed he was on salary. Time and again the fate of the free world is in the hands of someone under no contractual obligation to even show up? It makes no sense. James Bond seems to have a similar dynamic with his higher-up, Q, who treats Bond with air of deference that is borderline innapropriate: "Double-0-Seven, you must hurry", "we're counting on you Double-0-Seven". Can you imagine Q ever getting stern with James Bond?

Do I need to remind you what Double-0 means? It means there are a HUNDRED other idiots in this organization who can do your job. So get up NOW, wash the cigarettes and stale hooker perfume out of that filthy table cloth you call a tuxedo and be here in twenty minutes! And don't tell me you gambled away your cab fare again 'cause I didn't beleive you the first time!

Seriously though, the phrase "should you choose to accept it" is nothing more than locker room psychology. Whereas Q appeals to Bond's massive ego, Ethan Hunt (should I just say Tom Cruise? Nobody knows the character name) is routinely confronted with a challenge to his manhood--as if Tom hasn't suffered enough in the tabloids. The guys who approach Hunt with new jobs are a far cry from dodering old Q. They are always these hard chargers, fresh out of spy school, looking to steal his gig! Comming from Billy Crudup, "should you choose to accept it" doesn't sound like protocol, it sounds like a dare.

But surely one of these super spys takes advantage of the fact that they're the only ones who can work a harness and jump out of the way of explosions without messing up their hair. Double-0-Five probably lives for sticking it in Q's face from time to time, "YES, I realize that The Mona Lisa is priceless but I asked off for the second week in June for a reason!".