REBECCA
EVERY SCRIPT NEEDS A SECONDER
By PETER THOMAS BUSCH
In the movies as in life, the story needs a seconder to affirm the lead character’s reason for being there.
In the Mission Impossible film franchise (2015) (2018) (2023) Ilsa, played by Rebecca Ferguson, is initially a covert operative who has infiltrated the same Syndicate that the IMF has been haunted by. The IMF Team Leader, Ethan, quickly realizes Ilsa’s leanings when she helps him escape from a sure death torture session with the Bone Doctor.
Ilsa helps the Impossible Mission Force complete the narrative. And Tom Cruise rewards the character by giving Rebecca a recurring role in a continuous story involving the Syndicate that unfolds over two blockbuster spy thrillers.
Ilsa becomes more of an independent agent as the Syndicate is shut down by the IMF and British Intelligence, only for a more sinister, more mysterious threat in a third film involving weaponized artificial intelligence.
In Dune (2021) Rebecca’s character, Jessica, is at times center stage as she must play a maternal role to her young son, Paul Atreides, who is learning to become the ‘promised one’ he was born to be.
In Dune: Part 2 (2024) though, Timothee Chalamet’s character Paul Atreides has become a young man on a more assertive quest to develop sufficient leadership skills that will inspire a following on the sand planet, especially after his father was assassinated in Dune (2021).
Rebecca develops more of a three dimensional character for Jessica, but Jessica becomes pushed into the background as she becomes a Bene Gesserit while her son becomes a leader of the Fremen.
After being cast in significant supporting roles in 5 consecutive blockbuster thrillers, Rebecca has incrementally gained enough cache for her screen character to save what remains of an apocalyptic world in the episodic streaming story of survivors living in underground cities.
In Silos (SERIES 2023-2025) Juliette incrementally appears in episodes until she has a greater share of the screentime in a separate narrative from the main narrative. As season two begins, the camera follows Juliette in what appears to have become the main narrative, but after a few episodes of the 21 episode series, Juliette’s narrative gives way again, in a kind of two season wraparound that brings the ensemble cast back together in front of one camera.
Rebecca has not yet entirely allowed herself to be typecast as an agent for blockbuster producers.
In Life (2017) Miranda incrementally earns authority among a scientific expedition by surviving an organic life form extracted from soil taken from Mars. Initially, the scientists affectionately name the life form, Calvin. But Calvin begins to rapidly mutate by consuming the scientists aboard the International Space Station.
Rebecca moves through a sequence of emotions as difficulty arises for her characters during the script. The audience’s expectations rise and fall correspondingly through a series of emotive triggers, during which self-sacrifice is always a possibility for the preservation of the greater values such as personal integrity and social inclusion.
As Ilsa in Mission Impossible, Rebecca’s character learns quickly that playing a secondary lead may be more valuable to completing the mission than controlling the covert op. By protecting members of the IMF team, Ilsa obtains the desired result even though Ethan is in charge and takes the lead.
In Dune, everything in existence has so far been focussed on nurturing Paul to lead. Even Jessica becoming a priestess contributes to the desired result by appeasing the people resisting Paul’s leadership.
In a not so common twist to the casting directive, Rebecca provides a supporting character to the script who becomes someone just short of a one person overwatch for the leading protagonist.
This unique casting plays well in spy thrillers and science fiction adventures involving ensemble casts. The stylized supporting character signifies that individualism has a role in preserving the community.
In Silos, the world on the surface of the planet has been lost because of an unwillingness to sacrifice personal and community gains for a greater common good. But Juliette exemplifies the better way forward for humanity by sacrificing an easy life and peace of mind in one silo to investigate the planet surface and, what she discovers once on the surface, a secondary silo that is haunted by a mass extinction event.
The character integrity and well being of the community are advanced by the sacrifice.
The individual and the community are of equal importance, with each entity having to make sacrifices to preserve each other, just as marque names and leading actors find greater meaning in the script from interactions with supporting actors.
