Mission: Impossible (1996) - Plot - IMDb
An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization.
Based on the hit television series. Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) was sent to Prague for a mission to prevent the theft of classified material. His wife Claire (Emmanuelle Béart) and his trusted partner Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) were members of Phelps' team. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong and the mission failed, leaving Ethan Hunt the seemingly lone survivor. After he reported the failed mission, Kittridge (Henry Czerny), the head of the agency, suspects Ethan of being the culprit for the failed mission. Now, Ethan uses unorthodox methods (which includes the aid of an arms dealer going by the name "Max" (Vanessa Redgrave)) to try to find who set him up and to clear his name.—John Wiggins
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his I.M.F. team go undercover to bring down the N.O.C. list, a list of every Agent and spy in the I.M.F. Hunt's team is ambushed, and only him and Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Béart) survived. But the C.I.A. believes that Hunt was aware of the attack, yet he was not. The mission, should Hunt choose to accept it is to team up with two disavowed I.M.F. Agents, Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), to track down and take back the N.O.C. list before the identity of every Agent is comprised. Its Impossible.
This movie, based on the television series, finds Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) and his team charged with stopping a traitor from stealing and selling classified material. Everything was going well until the man they are following and all of the team are inexplicably killed except for Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). Ethan then calls Director Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and goes to meet him when he discovers that the whole mission was to ferret a mole that they have been suspicious of for some time. Kittridge shows evidence that hints that Ethan's the one for whom they have been looking, but Ethan knows that he is not, so he escapes. Ethan then arranges to meet the buyer, whom he warns against using the material he has, and when they meet, he offers to get what he paid for in exchange for telling who the mole is. Ethan, along with Phelps' wife Claire (Emmanuelle Béart) recruits two disavowed Agents, Franz Krieger (Jean Reno) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), to help him, which won't be easy, it'll be nearly impossible.—rcs0411@yahoo.com
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is a Secret Agent framed for the deaths of his espionage team. Fleeing from government assassins, breaking into the C.I.A.'s most impenetrable vault, clinging to the roof of a speeding bullet train, Hunt races like a burning fuse to stay one step ahead of his pursuers and draw one step closer to discovering the shocking truth.—Robert Lynch <docrlynch@yahoo.com>
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is an agent of an Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team led by Jim Phelps (Jon Voight). The team assembles for a mission in Prague to stop rogue agent Alexander Golitsyn (Marcel Iures) from stealing the second half of the CIA's NOC (non-official cover) list, which reveals the identities of all their undercover agents in Europe. For security reasons, the NOC list is divided into 2 parts. The portion that Alexander already has, has the code names. The second half has the true identities of the agents and a copy of it is stored in the US embassy in Prague.
The team includes Phelps, Ethan, Phelps' wife Claire, Hannah (Ingeborga Dapkunaite), Sarah Davies (Kristin Scott Thomas) and security systems specialist Jack Harmon (Emilio Estevez). The mission is to shadow Alxendar to the buyer and apprehend them both. Phelps mentions that he was stationed at the Drake Hotel in Chicago on his previous assignment.
The team successfully gathers evidence on Golitsyn stealing the 2nd half of the NOC list. However, the team is killed one by one, along with Golitsyn, leaving Phelps' point man Ethan Hunt the only survivor. Ethan saw Phelps being killed from the camera in his glasses, and Claire being killed when her getaway car exploded. He goes to save Sarah, who sees Golitsyn being killed, and the NOC list stolen from him, before being killed herself.
Fleeing the scene, Hunt meets with Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), the CIA-based director of the IMF, at a cafe. Hunt learns from Kittridge that a mole, code-named Job, has infiltrated the IMF, and the operation was meant to ferret Job out by allowing him to acquire the NOC list and attempt to sell it to Max as part of "Job 314", an illegal arms dealer known for corrupting IMF agents.
The NOC list in Prague was fake, the real list being held in CIA headquarters in Virginia. With Hunt the sole survivor, the CIA believes he is the mole. Kitteridge says that Ethan's family farm was mortgaged, and the family was wiped out financially, after his father's illness, but now suddenly the farm had $120,000 in its bank accounts. Realizing that Kittridge suspects he is the mole, Ethan escapes, using a plastic explosive disguised as chewing gum.
After returning to the Prague safe house, Ethan realizes "Job 314" actually refers to Bible verse Job 3:14, with "Job" being the mole's code name. Ethan sends a series of coded messages to all possible email IDs that could belong to Max. Ethan finds Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Beart), Jim Phelps's wife, also survived. Claire explains that before his death, Phelps warned her that they were compromised, which enabled her escape.
Ethan begins correspondence with "Max" (Vanessa Redgrave), explaining that the NOC list was a fake and that it is equipped with a tracking device. Max calls Ethan for a meeting and she realizes that Ethan is not Job. Despite Max's initial skepticism, they escape a raid by Kittridge's team when Max decides to test the NOC list and triggers the tracking device. Ethan convinces Max that he can obtain the actual NOC list for $10 million (the full list and not just the Eastern Europe part of it), and an introduction to the real "Job".
Max agrees to the deal and offers Ethan a cash advance of $150,000, which Ethan uses to assemble a team of blacklisted or disavowed intelligence agents, including computer expert Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and pilot Franz Krieger (Jean Reno). The new team infiltrates the CIA in Langley and successfully steals a copy of the full NOC. Krieger takes the magneto-optical disk containing the list, but Ethan tricks him into giving it up before giving it to Stickell for safekeeping. Kittridge has arrested Hunt's mother and uncle. After learning about the arrests, Ethan contacts Kittridge from a payphone, intentionally allowing the IMF to trace the call.
Phelps resurfaces unexpectedly, recounts surviving the shooting, and tells Ethan that Kittridge is the mole. However, Ethan has already realized that Phelps is the mole after discovering that the Bible he used in Prague was taken from Chicago's Drake Hotel, where Phelps was stationed on a previous assignment. This Bible was used to communicate with Max.
Ethan pretends to believe Phelps and arranges to exchange the list with Max aboard the TGV train to Paris, secretly inviting Kittridge to the meeting.
The next day, Max and Ethan arrange to meet aboard the TGV on route to Paris, with Claire and Luther aboard to provide backup. Kittridge is also aboard, having recently arrived in London and received tickets for the TGV and a video watch from Hunt. In the train, Ethan delivers the supposed NOC list to Max, who directs him to the luggage compartment to find his money, and Job.
Max then attempts to transmit the NOC list to a server, an operation hindered by Luther, who activates a jamming device to prevent the upload. Claire, observing Kittridge's presence aboard the train, vacates her seat and meets with Phelps in the luggage car, confirming her part in the conspiracy. A silent "Phelps" slowly peels away his mask, revealing himself as Ethan. Suddenly, the real Phelps appears, armed and demanding the NOC list money. Ethan surrenders it before pulling out a pair of glasses. He slides them over his eyes, activating the camera inside and transmitting Phelps's image to Kittridge, proving beyond doubt that Phelps is the mole.
Phelps, now revealed as the traitor, shoots Claire & subdues Ethan before escaping to the roof of the train, where Krieger, also a traitor, waits to extract him with a helicopter. Ethan recovers and follows Phelps, impeding his efforts to escape and tethering Krieger's helicopter to the train as it heads into the Channel Tunnel. The fight continues, with the helicopter now following the train inside the tunnel.
The two fights atop the wind-swept train before Phelps disconnects the helicopter from the train and attempts to escape. Ethan follows, leaping onto the helicopter's landing skids and attaching explosive gum to the windshield. The ensuing explosion kills Phelps and Krieger, with Ethan narrowly escaping.
Kittridge, now in possession of the NOC list and Max's true identity, reinstates Luther as an IMF agent and drops his investigation against Ethan, who resigns from the IMF. As Ethan flies' home, a flight attendant approaches him and through a coded phrase asks if he's ready for another mission.