Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
WHY DIDN’T I JUST TAKE THE ELEVATOR: Crack undercover agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is the human fly who is scaling a skyscraper in Dubai, as part of his assignment to recover the activation codes for Russia’s nuclear device. To find out if his team succeeds in their quest, see the movie.
Cruise and Company Go Undercover in Dangerous Assignment
Before he could intercept a courier carrying the activation codes for Russia’s nuclear devices, an American spy (Josh Hollaway) was slain in Budapest, Hungary by a blonde assassin (Lea Seydoux). She was working on behalf of Cobalt (Michael Nyst), a person of interest whose identity can only be determined by infiltrating top secret files that are located inside the Kremlin.
That dangerous assignment is accepted by the latest crack IMF team assembled by Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), with the usual understanding that the secretary will disavow any knowledge of its existence if they are killed or captured. So, when Cobalt blows up the Kremlin during the operation and America is accused of the bombing, the president of the United States has no choice but to issue a Ghost Protocol declaring them as rogue agents.
This means that Hunt and his crew have been blamed for the attack, and the only way they can clear their names is by tracking down the real culprit and retrieving the codes before he can trigger a weapon of mass destruction. That, in a nutshell, is the plot of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the fourth and arguably the best movie in the international espionage series.
Directed by Brad Bird (Ratatouille), the picture ups the ante in terms of state-of-the-art gadgetry and eye-popping feats on land, sea, and air. Besides the scenes of action that unfold against breathtaking backdrops of such exotic locales as Moscow, Dubai, and Mumbai, the production also has a plot compelling enough to hold your attention throughout the film.
Tom Cruise is in top form, displaying a sophisticated savoir faire instead of the easy boyish charm that’s served him so well in the past. His talented supporting cast includes Simon Pegg who offers comic relief as Benji Dunn, Hunt’s bumbling new sidekick. Joining them are Paula Patton as the sultry agent Jane Carter, and Jeremy Renner as William Brandt, an IMF bureaucrat pressed back into field duty by unusual circumstances.
Michelle Monaghan and Ving Rhames reprise their roles as Hunt’s wife, Julia, and his best friend, Luther, respectively, but only in short cameo appearances.
Excellent (****). Rated PG-13 for violence and intense action sequences. Running time: 132 minutes. Distributor: Paramount Pictures.