A variant of Mission Impossible theme
song plays during opening which has ...

---
Sidenote: I've been remiss in listing the
actors in each Mission Impossible so
this time, I'm listing all that appeared in
episode 5 & listing other episodes they
appeared in:

Tom Cruise - IMF agent Ethan Hunt, all episodes
Jeremy Renner - IMF agent William Brandt, episodes 4 & 5
Simon Pegg - IMF agent Benji Dunn, episodes 3, 4, 5, & 6
Rebecca Ferguson - MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, episodes 5 & 6
Ving Rhames - IMF agent Luther Stickell, all episodes
Sean Harris - Arch enemy/villain Solomon Lane, episodes 5 & 6
Alec Baldwin - Director of CIA Alan Hunley, episodes 5 & 6
Simon McBurney - Syndicate founder Atlee, episode 5
Jingchu Zhang - CIA analyst Lauren, episode 5
Jens Hultén - Bone doctor/villain Janik Vinter, episode 5
Hermione Corfield - Record Shop Girl, episode 5
Tom Hollender - Prime Minister of United Kingdom.
---

.... Ethan Hunt jumping onto a moving air-
plane, in Belarus, barely getting in after
takeoff, attaching himself to what looks
to be an array of bombs & opening the
bombs' parachute to depart the airplane.

Mysteriously, next scene Ethan is in a rec-
ord store looking for a record, something
rare. The record store girl seems to recog-
nize Ethan. She hands him a record which
actually is instructing him as he plays the
record in a room behind a glass-windowed ...

.... door, the record telling him what I thought
were bombs actually was actually VX nerve
gas capable of devastating a major city. He's
informed the entity behind the effort to use
the nerve gas is the Syndicate, a shadow ...

.... organization committed to inciting revolu-
tion by enabling acts of terror in nations that
are friendly to western interests. The record
says "we are the Syndicate & now we know
who you are."

The record says "Your mission, should you
choose to accept it, is to face your fate. Pur-
sue us, you will be caught. Resist us, you
will be killed. And your precious Secretary
will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Good luck Mr. Hunt. This message will ...

.... self-destruct in 5 seconds." Gas is released
into the room. A man points a gun at the back
of the Record Shop girl's head as Ethan tries
to escape the room but the door won't open.
The man (who we later find out is Syndicate
head Soloman Lane) kills the girl (who ...

.... elsewhere I find out is an IMF agent). Ethan
succumbs to the gas, implying he has been
killed.

Jump to a senate hearing where Director of
CIA Alan Hunley (played by Alec Baldwin) is
testifying against IMF, proposing it be dis-
solved, with IMF agent William Brandt (played
by Jeremy Renner) defending IMF.

Ethan is shown shirtless waking up, attached
to a pole. A woman enters with a plate having
liquid vials & syringes on it. She takes off her
shoes & rolls up her sleeves. Some men enter
the room. One of the men hits Ethan in the
chest.

Ethan recognizes the man as Janik Vinter
& says "they call you the Bone Doctor." Vin-
ter opens a case full of metal objects that
look like surgery & pain-delivery devices.
The woman says "our instructions were
to break him down, not kill him."

Vinter continues hitting Ethan in the chest.
The woman tosses Ethan some keys that
appear to be helping him to escape. Ethan
knocks Vinter unconscious and the woman
fights the other men in the room. Ethan
gets free & joins the fight.

The woman helps Ethan escape but goes
back as she apparently is playing an under-
cover role of working for the Syndicate.
Some guys show up as Ethan runs & they
fire machine guns but mysteriously none
of the bullets hit Ethan (as often happens ...

.... in movies/television, they show machine
guns being fired with none of the bullets
hitting as if by magic). Via phone, William
tells Ethan IMF has been shut down & they
now work for the CIA.

Ethan is in London. It's shown he has been
shot so some (one?) of the bullets did hit.
6 months later in Havana, Cuba, CIA guys
are breaking in somewhere trying to find
Ethan. Some guy is shown in Paris. Not
sure who he is.

Dunn is somewhere working for the CIA,
with Director of CIA Alan Hunley standing
over him asking about Ethan. Dunn an-
swers questions while hooked up to a lie
detector & he passes (somehow able to
lie without being detected).

Someone (Ethan probably) sent up tickets
to an opera in Vienna, where Dunn shows
up. Dunn talks to Ethan thru glasses Dunn
was handed after he got off of a train. Dunn
attends an opera in Vienna. Ethan has Dunn
searching for a guy.

Sidenote: Not an opera fan am I, so I'm not
enjoying whatever's going on in the opera.

The woman who helped Ethan escape from
the Syndicate is at the opera. She's loading
a rifle. Ethan is at the opera & is following
a man who is also loading a rifle. Ethan &
the man are fighting over the rifle & of
course they're fighting on a narrow ...

.... platform dangerously high. Ethan is
thrown off the platform but appears to
survive the fall. The platform he fell onto
is raised back up to the level of the plat-
form the man who Ethan is fighting is
on. The fight continues, Ethan as a ...

.... disadvantage as the man has a long
knife. He's a very tall man. Now it shows
a guard loading a rifle. This time, Ethan
tosses the man off the platform. Ethan
picks up the man's weapon & appears
to be preparing to shoot at the guard.

Ethan also sees the woman pointing a
weapon at someone. The woman fires
but wounds someone (not sure who or
why), Dunn shows up attacking the guard.
The woman shoots the guard.

Sidenote: Confusing? Yes.

The opera is interrupted. Guards arrive
throughout the opera house. Ethan is
talking to the woman and says "I have
a way out. Interested?"

Ethan has a very long rope & apparently,
they're going to use it to jump from the
top of the opera house. They do so and
land safely.

The wounded man escaping in a car and
a bomb goes off, the car exploding. Dunn
picks up Ethan & the woman near the ex-
ploded car. The woman says she's Ilsa
Faust. Ethan guesses that she's British
Intelligence.

She explains she was sent (by the Syndi-
cate, unmentioned) to kill the Chancellor
of Austria to regain the trust of the Syndi-
cate but instead, she wounded him to try
to satisfy the Syndicate but not killing the
Chancellor (who, turns out) was killed by ...

.... a bomb as the Syndicate had 2 others
involved, one other to kill the Chancellor
and another to kill Ilsa.

She jumps out of the car (I certainly would
never do such a thing) & somehow sur-
vives that (once again, trying to play her
Syndicate role).

Sidenote: I'm only 45 minutes into the
movie & an entire movie's worth of action
has already occurred. Deep breath.

Casablanca, Morocco. Appears Ilsa left
a clue (in her lipstick) that that's where
she would be. Ethan & Dunn go there &
find Ilsa.

William & Luther meet & William tells him
the CIA is trying to kill Ethan & Luther has
to find him to save Ethan's life. Dunn's life
also at risk.

Ilsa, Dunn, & Ethan are going to try to get
the Syndicate details (including all their
operatives) which is stored in an impossi-
ble to steal location 'neath impossible to
get past theft prevention measures. Need-
less to say, they're going to try to get to it.

Ethan had to go underwater & hold his
breath for 3 minutes. Unfortunately, he
was still underwater at 3 minutes so it
appears he has drowned. Ilsa shows up
& tries to rescue Ethan past the 3 minute
mark.

They get out & Ethan recovers. For some
reason, Ilsa shocks Dunn & steals the Syn-
dicate details & runs away. Ilsa meets with
members of the Syndicate & they get on
motorcycles. Ilsa knocks down all the other
motorcycles & departs on her own.

Ethan & Dunn are chasing Ilsa in a car, fol-
lowed by the Syndicate motorcycle gang.

Sidenote: 1:15 into the movie, guns being
fired at Ethan & Dunn as they stop follow-
ing Ilsa and go elsewhere being followed
by some of the Syndicate motorcycle gang.

They're about to be shot by one of the mo-
torcycle gang after backing up & flipping
over several times, but are saved by Wil-
liam & Luther hitting the guy with a Sports
Utility Vehicle.

Now, Ethan on a motorcycle is chasing
the motorcycle gang that's chasing Ilsa.
Ethan catches up to Ilsa but as he rounds
a corner, Ilsa stands in the middle of the
road & Ethan has to crash his motorcycle.
Ilsa rides away.

Jumps to another scene. 51 minutes left
in the movie. They're in a hilly desertlike
terrain, William, Luther, & Dunn get out
of their SUV. Ethan is sitting somewhere
(a restaurant?) as William, Luther, & Dunn
approach.

Ethan says "Please tell me you made a
copy of that disk." Dunn says "Of course
I made a copy."

Jumps to scene in London with Ilsa walk-
ing near Big Ben. Ilsa hands the informa-
tion to someone (MI6 agent?) & says he
doubts the info is legit. He tells Ilsa, who
wanted to go back to MI6, that she must
go back to the Syndicate.

Ethan, William, Dunn, & Luther discover
they can't open the disk. They figure it's
triple secured (a red box, British govern-
ment uses them to transport state se-
crets) requiring triple security including
fingerprints, retinal scan, & a voice ...

.... phrase spoken by the British Prime
Minister. They figure that Soloman Lane
(Syndicate head) is going to take the
Prime Minister to open the disk.

Jumps to Ilsa meeting the Syndicate top
dog Solomon Lane, with Vinter referring
to the disk Ilsa gave them, says "Nothing
here, it's empty."

Jumps to Ilsa walking in a train station
(in London?). 40 minutes left in the movie.
She meets Ethan. She sees that Dunn,
William, & Luther are also there. She
tells Ethan the disk was blank. She rea-
lizes that whomever she met with ...

.... on the park bench (some MI6 man)
erased the disk that she gave him &
he gave back to her, and says "they
don't care if you live or die." She says
all of them (the good guys & bad guys)
are the same.

She offers Ethan 3 choices, but seems
to want him to choose choice 3, going
away with her. She sets down a phone,
a high-pitched sound goes off, & Dunn
is taken by Vinter.

Soloman Lane calls Ethan and tells him
to bring the disk, unlocked, to him tonight.
Ethan realizes he has to get (kidnap?) the
British Prime Minister.

William calls the head of the CIA & tells
him he's in London & that he's trying to
save his friends. The CIA Director directs
his plane to London. (I suppose he wasn't
that far away & how William would know
where the CIA Director was, mysterious ...

.... though hey, we're dealing with spies &
they seem to be able to know a lot more
than we, the audience, know, at all times).

34 minutes left. The CIA Director meets
William in London. The British Prime
Minister arrives nearby. The CIA Direc-
tor asks William "Have you informed
the British government that Hunt has
targeted the Prime Minister?"

Atlee appears next to the CIA Director.

Atlee is informed the British Prime Min-
ister is in danger & later he asks to see
the Prime Minister who is at an auction
with many others. The CIA Director, Wil-
liam, & the Prime Minister meet.

Turns out Atlee is actually Ethan Hunt
in a facemask. Ethan shoots a dart into
the Prime Minister, removes his face-
mask, & with Wiliam's help, does an
eyescan & hand scan on the Prime
Minister followed by a voice scan.

The real Atlee shows up & is darted
with 2 others where the Prime Minis-
ter is.

Ethan shows up where told to by Sol-
oman Lane, & he & Soloman discuss
matters in a game that Ethan just barely
got Soloman to stop blowing up Dunn
(by 19/100ths of a second). Ilsa is there,
too. Still 18 minutes to go.

Dunn leaves & Soloman Lane tells Vinter
to kill Ilsa but leave Ethan alive. Other
Syndicate goons are there. Ilsa hands
Ethan her gun, & she & Ethan fire at Vin-
ter & the other goons, killing all but Vinter.

Ethan & Ilsa run for it, followed by 2
Syndicate goons. 2 other goons show
up but Ethan & Ilsa are still on the run.
2 more goons show up, & Ethan (with
a gun that seems to have a limitless
supply of bullets) kills them.

Another Syndicate goon is chasing
them (seems to be an endless sup-
ply of Syndicate goons). Ethan tac-
kles that goon & Janik Vinter shows
up, firing away. Ethan limps away.

Ilsa attacks Vinter with a knife &
knocks his gun away. Vinter also
has a knife. Ilsa & Vinter are in a
knife fight. Ilsa stabs Vinter in the
heart.

The Syndicate head Soloman Lane
shows up.

The music, by the way, non-Mission
Impossible music, which, as I've
mentioned elsewhere, I'm not a
fan of.

Soloman Lane shoots at Ethan, miss-
ing him as Ethan dives through a win-
dow. Ethan manages to find a hole in
the floor & escapes through it (assum-
ing he can land safely as he's avoiding
bullets at the time).

Soloman Lane jumps into the hole,
Ethan lying down there. Turns out that
was a trap, & Soloman Lane finds him-
self in a bullet-proof glass box.

William, Dunn, & Luther are on the
outside of the box along with Ethan.
Ilsa walks up besides Ethan. Probably
the same knockout gas they used on
Ethan is used on Lane.

Ethan pushes the glass box over, &
it's placed inside a truck. Ethan &
Ilsa hug. Ilsa says "you know where
to find me" as she leaves in a car.

Jumps to Senate hearing where the
CIA Director changes his tune on the
IMF, asking for it to be reinstated, cov-
ering his tracks claiming the whole
IMF being dissolved was part of a
scheme to deal with the Syndicate.

Cool beans, thumbs up 95, the best
Mission Impossible thus far, great
action scenes, with a hint of romance
between Ilsa & Ethan, kept my rapt
attention from beginning to end.

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