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With Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One hitting theaters, much of the buzz surrounding the premiere has unsurprisingly swarmed around the iconic (and somehow real) stunts that its star, Tom Cruise, is known for intensifying in each iteration of the franchise. However, once you’ve seen the film (and once you’re through checking out the decidedly necessary viewing of its behind-the-scenes footage), you’ll likely find yourself wanting more from Cruise’s co-stars, particularly one Hayley Atwell, who steals the show in her own typical fashion.
As Collider‘s Ross Bonaime put it, it’s “Hayley Atwell’s Grace that leaves the biggest impression” in Mission: Impossible‘s seventh installment. It’s not the first time Atwell has stood out among a sea of formidable peers, and with Netflix recently dropping Season 6 of Black Mirror, now’s the perfect time to go back to one of its earlier seasons that features Atwell at her absolute best.
Where Have You Seen Hayley Atwell Before?
Hayley Atwell has become a favorite of multiple niche fandoms. Doctor Who followers are devout to any who’ve made an appearance, she spent the 2000s making a name for herself in the realm of period pieces like Brideshead Revisited, The Duchess, and The Pillars of the Earth, and her numerous turns as Peggy Carter throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe have undeniably made her a household name, likely above all else. Atwell’s time as Peggy began in the MCU’s Phase One with Captain America: The First Avenger, and from there she’d return in sequences that reached back in time in films like Ant-Man, Avengers: Endgame, and even her own series, Agent Carter.
Even after Peggy passed away off-screen in Captain America: Civil War, fans met with Atwell once again in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where she portrayed an alternate universe’s Peggy that took up the mantle once meant for Steve Rogers, becoming Captain Carter and succumbing to a rather gruesome fate at the hands of Elizabeth Olsen‘s Scarlet Witch.
Outside this array of action-centric, super-powered pieces, it’s a bit unexpected that one of Atwell’s most grounded and understated performances came in the second season of a series that’s known for its outlandish, mind-bending plots. Part of Black Mirror‘s tact is knowing when to ease up on the gas pedal, gauging when to gently lay you into its harsh truths and when to swiftly drop you like a cinder block. Although “Be Right Back” sets itself in a theoretical future, the genuine, lived-in performances from Atwell and Domhnall Gleeson make it entirely easy to place ourselves in their experience. Gleeson plays the earnest, boyish young partner with a level of sincerity that leaves no room to doubt Atwell’s full adoration.
This ‘Black Mirror’ Season 2 Episode Will Make You Cry
Black Mirror, the sci-fi anthology series known for its signature twists and often horrifying take on the potential fate of humanity, kicked off its second season by stepping away from its usual, stomach-churning dread to give us its most heart-wrenching, intimate episode. Written by Charlie Brooker and directed by Owen Harris, “Be Right Back” premiered in 2013, and it remains just as watchable today as it did then, if you can muster the emotional fortitude required. Thanks, in no small part, to Atwell at the helm, “Be Right Back” is Black Mirror‘s most devastating entry. In “Be Right Back,” Martha (Atwell) and Ash (Gleeson) are in the early years of young love, in the throes of a simple life fueled by true love and admiration for each other’s full selves, the good and the annoying. When Ash tragically passes away, in such a sudden and fleeting fashion, Martha is left instantly alone to wade in devastation.
There’s a moment in the montage of lonely days that follow Ash’s death that strikes directly to the heart. Before diving into the technological bandage of an artificial Ash, Martha goes about her days performing mundane tasks, because what else can you do? She repaints door jambs and rummages through old boxes. When she’s brushing her teeth in front of the bathroom mirror, she locks eyes with herself, and an utterly defeated whimper pushes its way out. Black Mirror gets its name from the dark, reflective surface that our phones, tablets, and TV screens become when powered off, offering a jarring glance at ourselves as we absorb ourselves into our devices. Yet still, the mirror that hurts the most is the one that simply shows you as you are: brushing your teeth in the mirror, alone with your thoughts, your grief, and your regret.
This is Black Mirror, though, so the plot must offer some form of a dystopic, tech-driven hurdle. Following the advice of a similarly grieving acquaintance, Martha signs up for an experimental new service meant to aid someone in her position. By combing through photos, writings, audio files, and anything Ash had ever offered up to the cloud and his devices, the service is able to recreate Ash’s voice, candor, and eventually, the physical form, and Martha hesitantly goes along. It’s one of Black Mirror‘s simplest plots, and in that simplicity, it is the most effective. Technological advancements don’t change the impossibility of repackaging grief. The minuscule idiosyncrasies that the artificial version of Ash cannot help bother us as much as they do Martha, so much so that, when she releases a primal scream of rage, disbelief, and plain sorrow at the latter end of the episode, it’s so real that its imprint has lingered for a decade.
The story of “Be Right Back” is universal: loss of love and the denial-fueled, unrelenting battle with grief that ensues. But the premise of this episode has found a whole new level of relevance today. In 2023, it’s starting to feel not so far-fetched. Advancements in artificial intelligence have sped up exponentially, and the era of the deep-fake has come. We may not yet have life-like animatronic replicas of our loved ones, but AI language models are already speaking in an eerily convincing manner, and the ability to recreate someone’s voice and visual likeness by feeding an AI program only a few pieces of material already exists. With confidence, expect an AI-powered service geared toward alleviating grief to show its face soon enough.
