THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The quality of franchises are tested within each decade and it seems to me that Mission: Impossible gets better the older it gets. It is proven so when it’s fourth entry Ghost Protocol had the chance to be better than what the world was anticipating.
PLOT
The 2011 film follows IMF agent Ethan Hunt get extracted from a Moscow prison by handler Jane Carter and technician turned field agent Benji Dunn. The team is assigned to infiltrate the Kremlin to retrieve information on one code named Cobalt whose waiting to achieve Russian nuclear launch codes. This is possible thanks to assassin Sabine Moreau killing agent Trevor Hanaway (Josh Holloway) and taking it from him, in exchange for being paid in diamonds. During the mission, it would only go awry because as Ethan is unable to find any files, Cobalt broadcasts across the IMF frequency, which alerts the Russians. Just when Ethan and his team abort, a bomb attacks the Kremlin. Hunt survives the blast, but is accused by Russian agent Anatoly Sidorov (Vladimir Mashkov) for what happened. When the protagonist escapes, he meets up with the IMF Secretary (Tom Wilkinson) and Chief Analyst William Brandt, debriefing that he was indeed set up. Thanks to mastered drawing on Hunt’s palm, Brandt recognizes Cobalt to be nuclear strategist William Hendricks, whose seeking war between Russia and the United States, and will succeed if he gets the codes. Remembering that he passed by him, Hunt deduces that blowing up the Kremlin was core for him to take a launch control device he can use the codes with. The Secretary explains alerting Russia won’t work because they already blame the States for what happened. The incident has declared 'Ghost Protocol' on the IMF, in which the entire agency will be disavowed. However, the secretary orders Hunt to continue the mission with his team to stop Cobalt. Just as this order was given, they get ambushed by Sidorov's forces. The Secretary gets killed in the process, but Hunt & Brandt survive and are able to regroup with Benji & Carter. Once the leader reminds them they're on their own, they agree that the next step is to infiltrate a meeting between's Hendricks' associate Marius Wistrom (Samuli Edelmann) and Moreau in Dubai, in order to steal the codes from them. The meeting takes place inside the Burj Khalifa and they arranged to be one floor under Moreau's. Benji is able to control the elevators to ensure Wilstrom takes the wrong floor. Beforehand, Ethan climbs the building with eletronic adhesive gloves, to reach the server room and complete hacking it. The team's problems would only worsen when their mask machines malfunction, ruining their chance to disguise themselves as the enemies to steal the files. On top of that, Wistrom brings cryptographer Leonid Lisenker (Ivan Shvedoff) with him, blackmailing him to authenticate the codes. Refusing to abort, Ethan convinces everyone to move forward without masks. Jane pretends to be Moreau to negotiate with Wistrom & Leonid, whereas Ethan & Brandt pretend to be the pair to negotiate with the assassin. When Jane gets the diamonds Moreau, Benji takes the disguise of room service to pass it to Ethan in order to still pay the assassin. Brandt is able to print the codes with an enhanced contact lens, which get printed in time for Wistrom to retrieve. It almost goes well until Wistrom chooses to let Leonid go by killing him. As that happens, Moraeu quickly deduces she's getting set up when spotting the lens in Brandt's eye. As she tries to escapes, she gets into a fight with Jane but it ends violently when the agent kicks assassin out the window, an unintentional act of revenge for Hanaway. Ethan does try to chase down Wistrom, but the latter escapes and reveals himself to be Cobalt in disguise. When the team regroups, Brandt calls out Carter for compromsjng the mission when not restraining herself against Moreau, but Ethan points out he is too skilled to be an analyst. Before the leader chooses to hear him out, he reaches out to his former cellmate Bogdan (Miraj Grbic) who he broke out of prison during his own extraction. Thanks to information from Bogdan's cousin dubbed The Fog (Ilia Volok), he gets tipped that Cobalt will be in Dubai. There, he will buy a Soviet military satellite from Indian media tycoon Brij Nath (Anil Kapoor). When the team gets there, Carter is able to seduce and overpower the latter to get the override code from him. As that happens, Brandt jumps into a fan ventilation system to enter the server room and deactivate the satellite. However, Cobalt anticipated Hunt would do this and turns off Nath's servers before he sends launch orders to a Russian submarine to fire a nuclear missile in San Francisco. Wistrom would also sabotage a broadcast station to prevent it being undone by Hunt's team. As the leader goes after Cobalt, the others are able to kill Wistrom to repair the station. Hunt is able to isolate Hendircks at a car factory, hoping to take back the launch device from him. But the enemy chooses to take his life by jumping to his death, hoping to keep it out of reach from him. Ethan refuses to give up, as he takes a car and drives straight down to catch up. Just as Jane reconnects the system, Ethan disables the missile moments before detonation. Sidorov would show up after being tipped by the Fog, only to realize Ethan was giving him clues to intentionally track him down and prove IMF's innocence. Impressed of him saving the world, the fellow agent offers him a ride to the hospital. After recovery, Ethan and the team reunite to be prepared for another mission. Jane and Benji quickly accept, but Brandt expresses hesitance. He shares with his leader something he told the others beforehand, the reason of going from field agent to analyst: Years prior, he recalls failing to protect his wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) from a hit. Surprisingly, Ethan would confess that her death was faked for her protection. Now with a clear conscience, Brandt accepts the next mission as an agent. The film would end with Ethan and Julia spotting each other from afar, before continuing to move on with their lives.THOUGHTS
I felt like I became a fan after watching the first three and enjoying them all in their own way. When I saw the trailer for this one, I knew I was in for another good time and boy was I ever. Director Brad Bird basically set up a soft reboot for the franchise to embark a new era from here on. And from there, the theatric experience was nothing more than extraordinary as I remember it. With Michael Giacchino returning to compose a thrilling score, you're already feeling that this will be an adventure to remember. This was definitely the case because with the combo of Paul Hirsch's editing and Robert Elswit's cinematography, each chase and each fight is shot so well you're convincing yourself that you're there. Although this franchise stays close to being practical, the visual effects are most welcome within this entry, having us believe the most unreal moments happened in our very eyes. The destruction of the Kremlin, the hallway projection and the sandstorm were incredibly visualized I couldn’t believe it was pulled off so well. With respect to the first three, this was a vast improvement in comparison because of it's hardcore depiction of telling us to never give up. No matter how low of your limits and/or resources can be, nothing should stop stop you in giving your all to do what you identify is right. Thanks to another impressive ensemble, the message is loud and clear. You know it's hard to imagine these films without Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, which is why it is great to see his arc continue. The actor exceeds his commitment with the biggest stunt in his career at this point, climbing Burj Khalifa that is the tallest building in the world. No other actor would be brave enough to do it and we're glad he pulled it off as safe as possible. Since the actor doing the stunts continues to reflect the character's dedication to the cause, it definitely show Ethan to get more determined the older he gets. He knows his body his body has limits and he keeps pushing them until he can't anymore. What to respect a lot of him this time around is that he's willing to give up his happiness for the greater good. The man accepted his wife was never gonna be safe as long as they chose to be together, thus having to let her go for both of their sakes. He tried to take the risk before, but it would only get greater the longer they were together. Knowing Julia is safe is enough to drive him to keep working hard in his line of work, which he proved throughout by continuing to be a great leader to those around him. It was odd for Ving Rhames to miss out on the action as Luther, but at least he congratulated him in the end. Apart from that, Benji fit into the mold better than anticipated. Simon Pegg shows him as one who may be clumsy, but is able to overcome it with each of his skills he improves overtime. He figures out how to be resilient in his environment while also being firm with what has to be done. That was proven so when shooting down Wistrom. And the best part, he matches his teammates’ energy by not really getting exhausted of the work that came his way. As for the new characters, Jeremy Renner made Brandt stand out for being one who knew how to hold back due to his own set of regret. But as things progress until he knows he has nothing to be guilty about, even he accepts that you got to give your all when the going is rough. On the other hand, Paula Patton showed Jane as one who was struggling to sustain her emotions. With the implication she was dating Hanaway, it was hard for her to have a clear conscience. Ironically, she got it clear in a time she wasn’t supposed to. When you put aside that issue, she’s still a good agent by resourceful to her teammates and putting her strength to good use. It’s a shame that not even she made a return as the franchise progressed because in the end, she’s still worth a helping hand. Last but not least, I don't want to exaggerate on Cobalt but I do think Michael Nyqvist made something very interesting out of him. While Léa Seydoux was straightforward in making Sabine Moreau an arrogant bitch who lacked emotion from beginning to end, Nyqvist spiced things up by making him quietly psychotic. He is someone who is thirsty for war and was smart enough to avoid as much loops as possible to succeed. He felt like WWIII had to happen for whatever reason and was basically matching Ethan’s Will when it came to determination by literally dying for a cause. Lucky for us, he died knowing he failed. There is no doubt on how awesome this movie is, but it’s improvements don’t completely ignore its own set of issues. Going from the top, isn’t it a little confusing for Hanaway to have a contact lens to identify targets, yet he wasn’t able to identify Sabine? Had he been able to identify her without looking at his phone, he probably would’ve had a fighting chance. I got nothing against Bennings, but how did Benji get assigned for this mission? I know he qualifies for fieldwork and he proves himself a worthy teammate, but wouldn’t this be too big of a mission to be part of? For someone as inexperienced as him, he should’ve been built up for other missions before going big for something like this. And how exactly was Cobalt able to broadcast on every signal? I feel like it should only be possible for him use at least one secure channel. I love the Burj Khalifa climb scene like everyone else does, but shouldn’t at least one person be worried from inside one of the rooms someone is climbing the building without wires/harnesses? That’s more surprising than the room not having a security system be alarmed when the glass gets broken. And how come they didn’t know Wilstrom was gonna bring someone to verify the codes? If the IMF was following him, they should’ve known he’s contacted Leonid a few times. And if he somehow didn’t before the Kremlin’s attack, that doesn’t sound possible. There is no doubt Ethan is basically the smartest agent due to his experience, but how did he make such a minor mistake by keeping his goggles on him after changing to prepare for the exchange? Yes he puts it to good use when getting caught up in the sandstorm, but he of all people should know he didn’t need them for a meeting. It’s definitely a different way to embrace technology when Brandt relies on a magnet to pass through the turbine, but I feel like they should’ve played it safe and relied on a cable. Even if it echoes the past times Ethan has done it, it sounds safer than relying on a risky jump. Other than that, this remains an absolute blast. In short, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is an incredible action film due to upgrading everything that’s made the past films memorable. If you’ve seen the past three, don’t take too long in checking this out
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