Mission: Impossible (2011)

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is a 2011 American action spy film directed by Brad Bird and written by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec. It is the fourth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series, following Mission: Impossible III, and also Bird’s first live-action film. It stars Tom Cruise, who reprises his role of Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt, alongside Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Anil Kapoor and Léa Seydoux. In the film, Hunt and his team race against time to find a nuclear extremist codenamed ‘Cobalt’ who gains access to Russian nuclear launch codes when a mission by Hunt’s team goes wrong, resulting in the bombing of the Kremlin.

Plot.

IMF agent Trevor Hanaway is killed in Budapest by assassin Sabine Moreau, who takes his file containing Russian nuclear launch codes so she can sell them to a man known only as “Cobalt”. IMF agent Ethan Hunt has become incarcerated in a Moscow prison. With the help of Jane Carter, Hanaway’s handler, and newly promoted field agent Benji Dunn, he makes his escape, bringing with him a fellow prisoner named Bogdan. IMF tasks Hunt to infiltrate the Kremlin to gain more information on Cobalt. During the mission, an insider broadcasts the IMF team about a supposed detonation, thereby alerting the Kremlin Police. Hunt’s team aborts the mission just as a bomb destroys much of the Kremlin. Carter and Dunn escape, but Hunt is captured by SVR agent Anatoly Sidorov and charged with destroying the Kremlin. Hunt escapes and meets with the IMF Secretary who is in Moscow with his aide and intelligence analyst, William Brandt.

The Secretary, who has been severely reprimanded by Russian authorities, tells Hunt that the President had initiated “Ghost Protocol”, disavowing IMF, but secretly orders Hunt to continue to pursue Cobalt. Sidorov’s forces catch up to Hunt, and the Secretary is killed. Hunt escapes along with Brandt and together they rendezvous with Carter and Dunn in a secret IMF bunker located in one of the carriages of a just-departed freight train. The team consolidate their intelligence. Brandt and Hunt identify Cobalt as Kurt Hendricks, a Swedish-born Russian nuclear strategist, who seeks to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia. Hendricks used the Kremlin bombing to cover up his theft of a Russian launch-control device, and now is planning a trade with Moreau at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to gain the required launch codes. Hendricks plans to use Leonid Lisenker, a cryptographer who has been kidnapped by Hendricks’ right-hand man, a mercenary named Wistrom, to authenticate the codes.

The IMF contingent decide to intercept the launch codes by faking both meetings: Hunt and Brandt pose as Wistrom and Lisenker to receive the launch codes from Moreau, whilst, one floor away, Carter poses as Moreau, passing counterfeit codes to Wistrom and Lisenker. After some preparations, including Hunt needing to climb up the outside of the Burj Khalifa to access a server which needs hacking, the IMF team are able to pull off their plan. However, because Lisenker can actually authenticate the codes, Hunt is forced to pass him real ones, relying on radioactive isotopes in the paper to track Wistrom afterwards. However, Wistrom gets away: he murders Lisenker pre-emptively and escapes in a sandstorm while Hunt is apprehended by agent Sidorov; and Carter, both to avenge Hanaway’s death and in self-defense, slays Moreau, eliminating their only lead.

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Production.

Despite Mission: Impossible III earning less than its predecessors at the box office, its critical reception was much better than its predecessors and Paramount Pictures was keen on developing a fourth in the series. In August 2009, Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec were hired to write the film’s screenplay. Because of other commitments, J. J. Abrams said that it was unlikely for him to return as director but made note that he will produce the film alongside Tom Cruise. By March 2010, director Brad Bird was in talks of directing the film with Cruise returning to star as Ethan Hunt. The film was originally announced with a working name of Mission: Impossible 4 and code-named “Aries” during early production. By August 2010, title considerations did not include the Mission: Impossible 4 name, and thought was given to omitting the specific term “Mission:

Filming.

The film was partially shot with IMAX cameras, which made up approximately 30 minutes of the film’s run time. Bird insisted that certain scenes of the film be shot in IMAX, as opposed to 3D, as he felt that the IMAX format offered the viewer more immersion due to its brighter, higher quality image, which is projected on a larger screen, without the need for specialised glasses. Bird also believed that the IMAX format would bring back “a level of showmanship” to the presentation of Hollywood films, which he believes the industry has lost due to its emphasis on screening films in multiplexes as opposed to grand theaters, and vetoing “first runs” in favor of wider initial releases.

Marketing.

In July 2011, a teaser trailer for Ghost Protocol was released illustrating new shots from the film, one of which being Tom Cruise scaling the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Moreover, prior to its release, the studio presented IMAX footage of the film to an invitation-only crowd of opinion makers and journalists at central London’s BFI IMAX theater. One of the many scenes that were included was a chase scene in a Dubai desert sandstorm. During November 2011, the Paramount released a Facebook game of the film in order to promote it. The new game allowed players to choose the roles of IMF agents and assemble teams to embark on a multiplayer journey. Players were also able to garner tickets to the film’s U.S. premiere and a hometown screening of the film for 30 friends.

Theatrical, Home media.

Following the world premiere in Dubai on December 7, 2011, the film was released in IMAX and other large-format theaters in the U.S. on December 16, 2011, with general release on December 21, 2011. This is the first film to use the current Paramount Pictures logo, with the a brand new fanfare composed by Michael Giacchino, who also composed the film, as part of the studio’s 100th anniversary. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download on April 17, 2012.

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Box office.

Ghost Protocol grossed $209.4 million in North America and $485.3 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $694.7 million. It is the second-highest-grossing film worldwide in the Mission: Impossible series, and the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2011. It is also the second-highest-grossing film worldwide starring Cruise, surpassing War of the Worlds from the top spot. It was the franchise’s highest-grossing film and Cruise’s biggest film at the time of release, before being surpassed by Mission: Impossible – Fallout seven years later.

Outside North America, it debuted to a $69.5 million in 42 markets representing approximately 70% of the marketplace. In the United Arab Emirates, it set an opening-weekend record of $2.4 million (since surpassed by Marvel’s The Avengers).

Cast:

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an agent of the Impossible Missions
Jeremy Renner as William Brandt
Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn
Paula Patton as Jane Carter
Michael Nyqvist as Kurt Hendricks
Vladimir Mashkov as Anatoly Sidorov
Léa Seydoux as Sabine Moreau
Josh Holloway as Trevor Hanaway
Anil Kapoor as Brij Nath
Samuli Edelmann as Marius Wistrom
Ivan Shvedoff as Leonid Lisenker
Miraj Grbić as Bogdan
Ilia Volok as The Fog
Andreas Wisniewski as The Fog’s
Tom Wilkinson as the IMF Secretary
Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell
Michelle Monaghan as Julia Meade-Hunt, Ethan’s wife.

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