OK so now it is time for my final part of my look at the Mission: Impossible films starring Tom Cruise and this one covers the latest film in the franchise, Ghost Protocol directed by Brad Bird, which is widely regarded to be the best of the four films? Is it??? Well I will get to that a bit later on, for now let's just have a look at the plot...
The film begins with an IMF agent, Trevor Hanaway (Josh Holloway) who is trying to track down a courier working for a person who is code-named "Cobalt" however Hanaway is killed by a female assassin Sabine Moreau (Lea Seydoux). In the meantime Hanaway's team leader, Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) who was a former IMF tech and has now been promoted to a field agent, extract Ethan Hunt (Cruise again again!) from a prison in Moscow along with his source, a Russian prisoner named Bogdan (Miraj Grbic). Ethan is then later recruited to lead a mission into the Kremlin along with Jane and Benji as he poses as a Russian general, aided by Benji they infiltrate the archives to gain secret files on Cobalt. However before they can the IMF frequency is suddenly broadcast which alerts the Russians to Ethan's team, but Ethan and Benji manage to escape just in time before part of the Kremlin is destroyed in a blast. Ethan who was caught in the debris of the blast awakens in hospital to be questioned by a Russian SVR agent Anatoly Sidorov (Vladmir Mashkov) who suspects him as one of the key culprits involved. Ethan however soon escapes the hospital and is extracted by the IMF and an IMF secretary (Tom Wilkinson) tells Ethan that the Russians consider the Kremlin attack as an act of war and the US government then activates "ghost protocol" which is a black operation contigency that will disavow the IMF. This will mean that Ethan and his team will be scapgoated for the attack but they will be allowed to escape from the Government custody to locate Cobalt. However the IMF secretary is killed during an attack on the car they are in but Ethan manages to escape along with an intelligence analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner).
Brandt then informs Ethan of Cobalt's real identity as he is a man named Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) a Russian nuclear strategist who intends to start a nuclear war. Hendricks bombed the Kremlin in order to obtain a Russian nuclear launch control device, but he now needs the activation codes from the Budapest courier to launch nuclear missiles at the US. Brandt also tells Ethan that the exchange will happen between the assassin Moreau and Hendricks, along with another man named Wistrom (Samuli Edelmann) in Dubai. Ethan and Jane both separatelty manage to convince Wistrom and Moreau that they have made a successful exchange. However during the exchange with Moreau, she spots that Brandt is an agent and they fight as Moreau tries to flee she fights with Jane who ends up killing Moreau by kicking her out of a window. After Brandt angrily tells Jane that she has compromised the mission by killing Moreau (as Hanway, who Moreau killed, was her boyfriend) but Ethan has his own concerns about Brandt realising that he has combat skills that are not akin to analyst. Ethan decides to go to Bogdan to gain more information, meanwhile Brandt explains to Benji and Jane that he was once a soldier who was assigned as security detail to protect Ethan and his wife, Julia and he reveals that she was killed by a Serbian hit squad and he failed in his duty to protect her, which is why he give up field work and this lead to Ethan killing them and his capture in Russia. Bogdan reveals to Ethan in the meantime that Hendricks will be in Mumbai and he will try to use a defunct Soviet military satelitte, which was sold to an Indian telecommunications enterpreneur, Brij Nath (Anil Kapoor). And from here Ethan travels with Jane, Benji and Brandt to Mumbai to try and stop Hendricks from carrying out his nefarious plan...
I think it is fair to say that Ghost Protocol is the best Mission: Impossible film of the series so far as it hits just about every note just right as here we get just about the perfect mix of drama, fun, excitement, suspense and danger. The series already made a return to form with M:I-3 but here the director Brad Bird (who directed the acclaimed animation films The Incredibles and Ratatouille) takes it one step further. The film also has a nice dynamic between the characters in the film, which we sort of got with M:I-3 but here it works much better as Ethan's team all work were together with the tough yet vulnerable Jane Carter, the inexperienced and amusing field agent Benji and Brandt, the reluctant but courageous former field agent turned analyst.
Performance wise the film things are also very good here with Ghost Protocol and Tom Cruise yet again does a fine job as Ethan Hunt and again plays him in a rather low key style without being cocky but keeps him as being alert and self assured. Cruise again has some good highlights in the film and the one that instantly springs to mind is the scene where Ethan climbs his way slowly up the outside of the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, which just so happens to be the tallest tower in the world! And this was a stunt that Cruise performed himself although in reality he was secured by multiple cables to the tower and did not merely use the special gloves to help him climb! But it easily makes for the film's most suspenseful sequence and I'm sure its one scene you would not want to see on the big screen if you have a fear of heights! And the scene itself prompts a couple of good lines from Cruise, such as where he starts to ascend outside the building and Brant repeatedly keeps giving the countdown of time before they are due to meet with Moreau and Wistrom, and Ethan says "The countdown is not helping!". And in the next scene where Ethan has disabled the secruity systems in the server room in the building, with his special gloves no longer working, he uses a wheel of safety rope to run his way down the outside of the building, but it doesn't stretch far enough and Brandt says to him "You're line is not long enough!" and Ethan looks at him and yells "No shit!!!". Another good scene is where Ethan escapes from the Russian prison at the start of the film along with his inmate Bogdan and Benji hacks into the prison's system and plays Dean Martin's "Ain't that a kick in the head" during the prison riot!
Another good sequence is where Ethan who is disguised as a Russian general along with Benji, infiltrates the Kremlin and they use hologramatic mirriors to fool a security guard in order to try and gain access to security archives there but they interrupted and they abort the mission. This then leads Ethan into walking out of the Kremlin wearing his outfits, he takes off his face mask, and turns his military uniform inside out to reveal it is just a big jacket and he takes out a tourist map of the Kremlin as he leaves only then to be caught in the atomic blast of the Kremlin which collapses behind him, leaving Ethan to run for his life! Cruise has another good scene also where Ethan confronts Brandt over his unusual combat skills and he says to him "and you are JUST an analyst right??!" before they fight one another and Brandt easily disables Ethan with his combat training, to prove a point.
In other performances Jeremy Renner is very good in his role as William Brandt, the IMF analyst who was once a soldier and helps out Ethan and his team. Renner has some good scenes in the film as well such as the scene in Dubai where Ethan makes the climb outside the building and Brandt keeps telling Ethan a minute by minute update of the countdown of time before they are due to have the exchange meeting. And as Ethan tells him off for it, Brandt sheepishly says "I was just saying!". Another good scene is where Brandt laments over not being able to save Ethan's wife, Julia, from apparently being killed by a Serbian hit squad. And he sadly reflects "That was my last day in the field. I couldn't face another life or death situation after that". Another good scene is where Renner has to make a jump into the underground electrical area of Nath's mansion and Benji has him wear a special type of electrical wired mesh shirt, which will allow him to glide along using electricity to charge it. And Brandt jumps below hovering just over a large fan and he yells to Ethan on his headset "Should I not have jumped?! Because I jumped!!". And after Brandt survives his time down below he get's back to Benji and says "Next time I get to seduce the rich guy!" (i.e. Naf!).
Simon Pegg is great in his role as Benji, the former IMF tech now turned field agent, who still does alot of tech though. Pegg provides much of the film's comic relief and he does a fine job at it and he has some fun moments such as the scene where Ethan and Benji walk disguised into the Kremlin and Benji starts to nervously babble about being new to the field work. Also there is the scene where Benji misses the whole drama of Ethan climbing outside the tower in Dubai and he very nearly dies in the process with Brandt saving Ethan's life just in time as he pulls him back in the window. And as they all sit exhausted after, Benji comes back in after having carried out a task he says "Wooh! That was not easy I have to tell you! Now, what did I miss?!". And when Benji is given the codename "Pluto" in one scene he complains saying "Why am I Pluto? Its not even a planet anymore!" and Brandt says "Well Urunas is still available" and Benji laughs and says "Ha, its funny cos you just said anus!".
As for the other cast members, Paula Patton is good in her role as Jane Carter, one of Ethan's team who is also out for a bit of revenge over the death of boyfiend, who was killed by the French assassin Moreau. Patton has some good scenes in the film as well such as Jane's fight scene with Moreau as the two of them get into a real catfight and Jane subdues her and gives Benji a gun and says to him "Watch her! Because if I do I will kill her!" but she later kicks her out the window anyway! (although that it was an act of self defence). Patton has a fun scene with Anil Kapoor as Jane dresses up sexily when she is in Mumbai and she makes false attempts to seduce the decadent entrepeneur Nath and she grabs him in his bedroom and holds him at gunpoint whilst she get's him to tell her information for their mission. Michael Nyqvist also does well enough with his role as the main villain Hendricks who makes for a pretty ruthless bad guy, and has one chilly moment where he shoots his aide at the exchange and beforehand the aide says "please release my family" and Hendricks makes a call and says "release his family" and says to the aide after he shoots him "you can see them in person!". Lea Seydoux also proves to be effective as the French assasssin, Sabine Moreau and her quiet and cool manner makes for a rather intense villain.
And lastly Anil Kapoor (who is best known for his role in the film Slumdog Millionaire) provides an amusing turn as the sleazy Indian enterpreneur who Jane ends up flirting with although in the end he doesn't get what he was after! And last of all Tom Wilkinson provides a brief cameo role as the IMF secretary whom Ethan meets with in a car who tells him of the Ghost Protocol black op and he also has the pleasure of delivering the immortal line to Ethan "Your mission should you choose to accept it..." just before they are ambushed.
Finally getting onto Brad Bird, the director, who has done a grand job with the film and it was his first-live action film as he previously had directed animated film features only. Bird effortlessly makes the transition to live action here and he gives the film great pacing and he handles the film's action sequences very confidently and gives the film just the right amount of action, drama and fun. Music score wise the film is again scored by Michael Giachhino who scored M:I-3 as well as some of Bird's previous films and he does a pretty decent job here as his score pretty much suits the tone needed for Mission: Impossible.
Sooooo getting onto the film's flaws....... well Ghost Protocol get's most things right here although the only niggle I would have comes down to Ethan's character again as he clearly is just the straight action man, and as such his character lacks a little bit of personality and charm that we had seen from him before and again its up to the supporting characters to provide more of the fun. Another thing you would also have to say about Tom Cruise is by the time he had made Ghost Protocol, you could finally start to see that he is getting a bit wrinkly and at last his "youthful" features are starting to fade. And it won't be too long before you think watching Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt will be like as Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh might suggest that he will be "too old for this shit!". You could also argue that the film's final action climax scene is a bit long-winded and over the top with Ethan fighting Hendricks in a car factory although the film's final epilogue is quite satisfying. Wow that was quick!
And well that's it for my look at Ghost Protocol and also the Mission: Impossible films for now as Mission: Impossible 5 is currently in the pipeline just now with Cruise again involved and Christopher McQuarrie (who wrote the screenplay for The Usual Suspects) will be at the director helm so hopefully that should be worth a watch.
But for now that's me and I will see you all later!
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