Benji Dunn

Benji Dunn
M:I – F M:I – RN M:I – GP M:I III
Name:	Benjamin Dunn
Status:	Alive/Active
Role:	Ally, Protagonist
Age:	46 (2017)
Date of birth:	August 29, 1971
Birthplace:	United Kingdom
Residence(s):	United States
Education:	University of Oxford
Alias(es):	Solomon Lane (disguise) Wolf Blitzer (disguise)
Affiliation:	Impossible Mission Force
Profession:	Intelligence operative Computer specialist
Rank:	Agent
Expertise:	Hacking skills Marksmanship
Played by:	Simon Pegg Face Mask: Sean Harris Wolf Blitzer
First appearance:	Mission: Impossible III
Last appearance:	Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Benjamin "Benji" Dunn (born August 29, 1971) is a main protagonist in the Mission: Impossible film series who debuts in Mission: Impossible III as a supporting protagonist before returning in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout as a major protagonist. He is a technician turned field agent of the Impossible Mission Force and one of Ethan Hunt's main teammates.

Biography

Helping Ethan for the first time

As a technician, Benji helps Ethan Hunt during the events of his wife, Julia Meade-Hunt's kidnapping. Ethan eventually rescues Julia with the aid of Benji.

Disavowed

Five years later, Benji is promoted to a field agent and helps break Ethan out of a Russian prison. He helps Ethan on his next two missions to infiltrate the Kremlin and then to retrieve nuclear launch codes from Kurt Hendricks. During the attempt to bring a broadcasting station back online, he realizes that William Brandt is taking too long and goes after him, leaving Jane Carter to finish the job as she is too injured to go after Brandt. Benji arrives in time to kill Marius Wistrom as he fight Brandt, allowing Brandt to restore power to the station and Ethan to disable the nuclear missile. Benji later happily acceptes another mission from Ethan.

Confronting The Syndicate

After the IMF is shut down by CIA Director Alan Hunley, Benji finds himself stuck behind a desk once more, attending weekly polygraphs to ensure that he is not secretly helping Ethan evade the CIA. After winning tickets to a performance of Turandot in Vienna, Benji makes his way there only to realize that the tickets are a plot by Ethan to enlist his help in his search for Solomon Lane, the elusive leader of the Syndicate. After helping Ethan in Vienna, Benji insists on staying, despite Ethan asks him to leave for the sake of his safety, and the pair follows undercover MI6 agent Ilsa Faust to Casablanca, Morocco. This act aides Benji to Hunley's hit list and he becomes wanted by the CIA. After the heist on the power plant, Benji is rendered unconscious by Ilsa so that she could steal the disc that Lane is after (fortunately, Benji had made a second copy of this information). Ethan and Benji chases after Ilsa, resulting in their car crashing and flipping repeatedly.

After the crash, they joines forces with Brandt and Luther Stickell, who had been chasing them down in an attempt to find them before the CIA did. The four of them tracks down Ilsa to London, cornering her in a train station where they found out that her copy of the disc had been wiped, resulting in Lane to take drastic measures. Lane then kidnaps Benji and holds him for ransom. His demands: the disc for Benji's life. Lane strappes a bomb to Benji's chest and places him in a busy restaurant on the Thames, the explosives on both a timer and pressure trigger to force Ethan's hand. Fortunately, Ethan manages to barter with Lane for Benji's life and Lane releases Benji.

Benji then helps Ethan and the others capture Lane.

Confronting The Apostles

To be added

Personality

Benji is a highly intelligent agent and has a sense of humor. He also tends to talk nonstop when he is nervous.

Benji Dunn, the IMF technician turned field agent is shown to be kind and fiercely loyal to those he trusts will do the right thing, even if this means directly disobeying his government. This has been seen in all 4 films he’s appeared in thus far. Similarly to Ethan, despite being betrayed and abandoned by his government multiple times, he has not expressed any desire to leave or seek retribution. As a character his skills and composure have been shown to continuously improve. Showing he is highly interested in his job, motivated and has worked hard to become the highly skilled and respectable agent he is now.

Of all the agents shown on screen, Benji is shown to be the most outwardly afraid or stressed over the dangerous to horrific situations he finds himself in. He’s not stoic and fearless but if anything that shows how compassionate and human he is. He is willing to put himself under extreme stress and danger because he knows his skills can be useful in saving the lives of others. His fear expresses itself in numerous ways - expressions, visible unease, tone of voice or when nervous (or excited) he talks fast and unnecessarily. Perhaps as an attempt to calm himself or release nervous energy. He uses humour and playful banter with his colleagues/ friends but also as a way of distracting himself from dangerous or tragic situations he faces. At the ending of Ghost Protocol he revealed that he experiences nightmares from the events of the mission. His often visible fear does not however hinder his abilities as an agent or affect his composure to an extent that he can’t work.

Benji is highly intelligent but sometimes he finds himself so focused on a task at hand that he becomes less aware of other things happening e.g looking into the camera in the Kremlin (Ghost Protocol) and not realising he isn’t directing Ethan properly (Fallout).

He is shown to have a strong relationship with his colleagues, in particular Ethan Hunt who he always trusts without hesitation. Ethan in turn trusts Benji wholeheartedly too despite being betrayed so many times in the past. Benji looks up to Ethan as a mentor and a friend. In Rouge Nation it is implied that Benji was partially inspired to train as a field agent due to Ethan. Similarly to Ethan, Benji does not want to kill anyone on a mission unless absolutely necessary e.g Wistrom in Ghost Protocol.

Perhaps both his visible fear and occasional mistakes are a consequence of having the least amount of experience as a field agent compared to other agents/ adversaries shown on screen. Benji has been a field agent for 9 years so far compared to Ethan who has over 24 years experience as an agent (as of 2020). Regardless, Benji’s capabilities far exceed that of an average person and continue to improve.

His hobbies include enjoying opera and playing video games such as Halo 5 (as seen in Rouge Nation).

It would be wrong to take one look at him and write him off as a bumbling and naïve agent. While he can be funny when he wants to be, he is an extremely skilled and dedicated agent who has suffered an extensive amount of physical and mental stress/ trauma while still coming out on top in the end.

Abilities

• Expert Hacker: Due to this he is a skilled hacker and understands how to manipulate a range of devices. This has been seen at various points such as the prison doors and the Burj Khalifa’s elevator shaft in Ghost Protocol and the plane doors in Rouge Nation.
• Skilled Scientist: Benji possess a range of skills but most notably his understanding of technology and engineering. His scientific and technical knowledge was demonstrated when he worked out how to stop nuclear bombs specifically designed with multiple ways for them to be unstoppable.
• Combatant: He has some hand-to-hand combat skills, greater than the average person, as seen in the opera in Vienna and the cabin in Fallout. His skills are not to the extent that some other agents or adversaries show. However what he lacks in physical fighting skills he makes up for in his other abilities. Where Ethan for example is a better fighter, Benji is better with understanding and manipulating technology.
• Disguise Proficiency: He also expressed acting skills when under the disguise of journalist Wolf Blitzer and terrorist Solomon Lane. (Fallout)
• Skilled Deceiver: He was able to pass a polygraph (lie detector) test for multiple weeks either by controlling his physical response while lying or re-wording his answers to be the unrevealing truth. (Rouge Nation)
• Skilled Marksman: His shooting skills are precise, as seen when he killed Wistrom in Ghost Protocol from a medium distance. It must be noted that Wistrom was wrestling Brandt from behind yet Benji didn’t miss or shoot Brandt. His confidence to try that shot shows he knows he is skilled as a gunman.
• Skilled Spy: Stealth and infiltration skills help him with breaking in and out of secure facilities and situations e.g the Kremlin, the opera house and stealing the information in Morocco (Rouge Nation). Also shown when breaking Solomon Lane out of the submerged van then escaping the police. (Fallout)
• Diver: He is shown to be diving using a rebreather followed by steering a boat with speed and precision. (Fallout)

Gallery

Benji in Moscow (Ghost Protocol)

Benji in Vienna (Rogue Nation)

Hunley & Benji in Washington, D.C. (Rogue Nation)

Benji & Ethan in Casablanca (Rogue Nation)

Benji in Belarus (Rogue Nation)

Benji, Ilsa, Ethan & Luther in Kashmir (Fallout)

Benji & Luther in Paris (Fallout)

Benji & Walker in London (Fallout)

Behind the Scenes

Benji Dunn is portrayed by British actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, singer and director Simon Pegg in Mission: Impossible III, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8.

Appearances

•  Mission: Impossible III (First appearance)
•  Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
• Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
•  Mission: Impossible – Fallout
• Mission: Impossible 7
• Mission: Impossible 8