So my two favorite Mission Impossible films are
Rogue Nation (#5) and Fallout (#6) -- and they're really kind of a two-part story that also ties some stuff up from the third film.
I wanted a comfort film last night, so I rewatched Rogue Nation. Except this time, I had actually been doing some reading outside of the film, that then inadvertently I brought back into it.
I had been watching some "Top Ten" lists on YouTube and one was famous opera arias. They featured Nessun Dorma from Puccini's "Turnadot," and it sounded familiar to me, and I had read through the entire story of the opera and the song's role in it. (Basically, Princess Turnadot is very cold and will only wed the prince who can answer her three riddles correctly; anyone who fails in the challenge is put to death. Princes try; princes fail; princes die. The opera is about one would-be suitor who falls in love with her and takes the challenges despite watching another prince lose his head right in front of him, but he does answer the questions correctly. Turnadot is appalled at this turn of events, because now she's locked into this marriage she never wanted. However, the prince says if she can guess
his name before dawn, then he will allow her to execute him anyway. She threatens her entire city with death if they do not discover his name before dawn... but no one does. So it looks like he is victorious. But then in a gift of love he offers her his name, placing himself at her mercy. At this, realizes she loves him / he's worthy of her & isn't going to coerce her into anything, so she works through her ambivalence and tells her father that she has discovered the prince's name, and his name is "love". So the story ends well, with them together. At least, that's the gist as far as I perceived it.)
Of course, this is the famous opera house scene in this film, which I loved when I originally saw it and didn't realize it was the same aria that features so prominently in it, where the prince is singing while everyone is trying to figure out his name. Now when I was watching it, I was like, okay. Basically Hunt runs across an enigmatic woman (working with Syndicate) who liberates him unexpectedly. It's never clear through most of the film where she falls, though, especially to Hunt and his friends (although we see some scenes with her elsewhere and have a better understanding of her). It also seems very clear they are attracted to each other, they are like kindred spirits and equally capable. This puts Hunt at risk, because he is trusting her (when she might not be trustworthy) and meanwhile searching for the answers to the unfolding mystery of the syndicate. In a way, he's beholden to her and it leads him to risk himself, just like Turnadot; and Ilsa is a "cool" enigmatic personality, who could spell his doom, just like Turnadot. Hunt is more of an open book to her first, and she comes more clean much later in the film.
It's interesting too that the three riddles of the Princess have the following answers: Hope, Blood, and Turnadot. (Sorry, but not much of a spoiler.) Of the basic triangle in the film, Hunt = Hope, Solomon Lane (the main villain/terrorist) = Blood, and Isla = Turnadot.
The movie storyline is not a literal mirror of the opera, but it was meant to reflect up on it --because now since I was paying attention, basically any scene with Hunt + Ilsa where they are talking about themselves (the quasi-romantic scenes) is swiping musical motifs from the aria woven into the score. So that is pretty blatant regarding intent, Turnadot is reflecting on their relationship regularly.
As a side thing, Ilsa's last name is Faust, so that's pretty obvious -- she made a Faustian bargain with MI6 first (one that she wants to escape from but can't, because she realizes that "they don't care whether we live or die") and then with the Syndicate. A lot of the film finds her immersed deeper and deeper in territory where her death is imminent and it's not clear whether she will escape. (Actually, it's interesting to me that Isla is German and Faust is German, but Ilsa Faust is a British operative. *shrug*) Anyway, I appreciate films where they actually attempt to layer in this stuff and give thoughtful names to their characters as well as providing analogies/connections with other art.