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[[File:mission-impossiblemovie.jpg|frame|Need some help here, Ethan?]]
[[The Film of the Series|A series of films based on the]] classic ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'' series. The movies were made as continuations of the original, meaning they were not repeats of the same characters but mostly new characters working for the same agency.▼
[[Tom Cruise]] headlines each film as ace IMF agent Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames plays Luther Stickell, Ethan's go-to guy for [[Mission Control]] and computer hacking. Each film outlines an [[Impossible Mission Collapse]] of varying kinds and it usually involves the heroes trying to fix the mess that has developed (often with regular violence, something the original show purposefully avoided).
▲[[The Film of the Series|A series of films based on the]] classic ''[[Mission Impossible (TV)|Mission Impossible]]'' series. The movies were made as continuations of the original, meaning they were not repeats of the same characters but mostly new characters working for the same agency.
Because of the higher action quotient,
▲[[Tom Cruise]] headlines each film as ace IMF agent Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames plays Luther Stickell, Ethan's go-to guy for [[Mission Control]] and computer hacking. Each film outlines an [[Impossible Mission Collapse]] of varying kinds and it usually involves the heroes trying to fix the mess that has developed (often with regular violence, something the original show purposefully avoided).
'''''Mission Impossible''''' (1996) - Jim Phelps ([[Jon Voight]]) is called upon for a new assignment dealing with very sensitive information regarding IMF agents and their cover IDs. He brings in his standard crew, including point man Ethan Hunt, and they plan out how to recover the info. Unfortunately, their mission was compromised horribly and Ethan finds himself the lone survivor and the top suspect as a traitor. The discovery of two other survivors doesn't alleviate his paranoia, so he goes into the list of blacklisted former IMF agents to put together another team to get to the bottom of their original mission and the conspiracy behind it. Directed by Brian DePalma, the movie became well known for the interweaving and [[Gambit Pileup|complicated plotting.]] (And the signature image pictured above) This is the least violent Mission Impossible film, by far. And given that you can clearly see an eye gouging for a few frames and that it's indeed directed by ''[[Carrie|th]][[Scarface|at]]'' [[Brian DePalma]], that's saying something.▼
▲Because of the higher action quotient, dominate focus on Cruise rather than the entire team and some liberties taken with previously existing characters, there has been a sizable backlash regarding fans of the original series. Still, the films have been embraced by general audiences and elements unique to them alone have become embedded in modern popular culture. They all have different themes and tones, too; they don't simply use a [[Reset Button]] and each film isn't mere [[Sequel Escalation]].
'''''Mission Impossible II''''' (2000) - Ethan is snagged out of a vacation to track down a rogue IMF agent (Dougray Scott) who has stolen a very dangerous virus and has malicious plans for it. He is sent to recruit a [[Classy Cat Burglar]] and ends up falling for her. That is made all the more complicated when he learns that she is an ex-girlfriend of the rogue agent and the agency wants her to infiltrate his group. Ethan has to put aside his personal feelings as he tries to stay one step ahead of his rival. Directed by [[John Woo]] and it is plain to see, as this film is far more stylized and action-packed, with less cloak and dagger than the first film or the franchise as a whole. It was more financially successful than the first film and had some favorable reviews, but was several steps further removed from the premise<ref>For that reason a lot of people don't feel it has aged as well</ref>.
▲'''''Mission Impossible''''' (1996) - Jim Phelps is called upon for a new assignment dealing with very sensitive information regarding IMF agents and their cover IDs. He brings in his standard crew, including point man Ethan Hunt, and they plan out how to recover the info. Unfortunately, their mission was compromised horribly and Ethan finds himself the lone survivor and the top suspect as a traitor. The discovery of two other survivors doesn't alleviate his paranoia, so he goes into the list of blacklisted former IMF agents to put together another team to get to the bottom of their original mission and the conspiracy behind it. Directed by Brian DePalma, the movie became well known for the interweaving and [[Gambit Pileup|complicated plotting.]] (And the signature image pictured above) This is the least violent Mission Impossible film, by far. And given that you can clearly see an eye gouging for a few frames and that it's indeed directed by ''[[Carrie|th]][[Scarface|at]]'' Brian DePalma, that's saying something.
'''''Mission Impossible
'''''Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol''''' (2011) - A mission to infiltrate the Kremlin goes awry when a massive bomb goes off, Ethan's team being framed for the act and the resulting political backlash ends up shutting down the entire IMF under operation [[Title Drop|'Ghost Protocol']]. Basically the only ones left, they must operate without their normal resources and backup while clearing their names and stopping the real culprit's darker goal. Directed by [[Brad Bird]] in his live-action directorial debut, [[
'''''Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation''''' (2015) - Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Ethan Hunt is on the run from the CIA, following the IMF's disbandment as he tries to prove the existence of the Syndicate, an international criminal consortium.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission:_Impossible_%E2%80%93_Rogue_Nation Wikipedia page]</ref>
▲'''''Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol''''' (2011) - A mission to infiltrate the Kremlin goes awry when a massive bomb goes off, Ethan's team being framed for the act and the resulting political backlash ends up shutting down the entire IMF under operation [[Title Drop|'Ghost Protocol']]. Basically the only ones left, they must operate without their normal resources and backup while clearing their names and stopping the real culprit's darker goal. Directed by [[Brad Bird]] in his live-action directorial debut, [[JJ Abrams]] stayed on as a producer, Tom Cruise and [[Simon Pegg]] return joined by Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton with Josh Holloway and an unbilled Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles. The film has received ''very'' positive critical reviews for the deft action sequences and a strong return to the team-focused nature of the series. This film is less about Ethan Hunt than the previous three (hence the lack of [[Numbered Sequel|sequel number]]). It also [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap|did a lot to redeem both the Mission Impossible movies and Tom Cruise]] in the eyes of the public.
This series is also the [[Trope Namer]] for the famous [["Mission Impossible" Cable Drop]].
-----▼
▲-----
{{tropelist}}
* [[California Doubling]]: Averted in that for the most part they film on location: Prague in the first film, Utah and Australia in the second, China in the third and Dubai in the fourth. Although except for the Kremlin scenes, Moscow in the fourth film was filmed in Prague.
* [[Dead Star Walking]]: Almost every installment features instances of this - {{spoiler|Emilio Estevez and Kristin Scott Thomas}} in the original film, {{spoiler|Keri Russell}} in the third film, and {{spoiler|Josh Holloway and Tom Wilkinson}} in ''Ghost Protocol''.
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* [[Fan Service]]: It's remarkable how many IMF operations involve their female operatives wearing revealing cocktail dresses (especially noticeable in the third and fourth films). On the other side of the coin, Tom Cruise's physique usually gets some sort of exhibition, whether it's going sleeveless, or tight shirts, or both.
** Jeremy Renner joins in ''Ghost Protocol'', wearing very fitting suits, and doing a whole series of stretches and bends to accentuate his physique.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Flashes of images from the rest of the film are spliced into the opening credits sequence of the first film, and again in the fourth film, like a TV show would do [[Shout-Out|(and indeed as the TV show the films are based on ''did'' do)]].
* [[Guile Hero]]: The team, like actual spies, tries to accomplish their missions with as little fuss as possible, preferring to infiltrate and deceive. While typically this goes drastically wrong, this is most notable ''Ghost Protocol'': during it Team Hunt expends ''less than ten rounds'' of ammo.
* [[Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow]]: Ethan switches off each movie between having long and short hair.
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* [[Impossible Mission]]: Were you expecting anything less?
* [[Large Ham]]: Tom Cruise does his fair share.
{{quote|
''"[[
* [[Latex Perfection]]: The series provides probably the most famous examples ever. By the third film, the audience gets to see how latex faces are made, [[Technology Porn|in excruciating detail]].
** Subverted in the fourth film. The machine making the masks (of Sabine and Wistrom) breaks down most of the way through, forcing Carter to go into her meeting with Wistrom as herself. While their enemies use those masks a few times, none of the team members do (though Ethan does use some make-up effects to impersonate a Russian General, but it is still recognizably Ethan).
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* [[Mission Control]]: Stickell, although he gets some action (some more about suspense than actual bullets flying) in each of the films.
** In ''Ghost Protocol'', all four team members either discuss or are depicted on-screen as being in the Mission Control position.
* [["Mission Impossible" Cable Drop]]: The originator and [[Trope Namer]], as seen in the page image. It has since become a [[Running Gag]] [[Once an Episode|in each film]].
* [[The Mole]]:
** In the first film, {{spoiler|the team leader Jim Phelps. Claire and Krueger as well}}.
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** Just like the series, every movie has a mission briefing that ends with the device giving them their orders self-destructing. Jokingly played with in the fourth, where one device fails to detonate and Ethan has to [[Percussive Maintenance|slam it to get it to work.]]
*** Also [[Foreshadowing]] since from that point on, pretty much anything than can go wrong with the mission, does.
** Every movie has somebody (usually Ethan) doing a [["Mission Impossible" Cable Drop]]. While the first movie has a reason for the sprawled position (making sure not to touch the weight sensitive floor) the other films don't have any such justification except as an internal homage. Played with in ''Ghost Protocol'': Brandt is seen in the signature pose, but no cables are involved; instead he is actually being pushed up by a large magnet below him and a magnetic suit he's wearing.
* [[Outrun the Fireball]]: In the first film, {{spoiler|Ethan out''jumped'' a fireball (specifically, he used the explosive force to throw him back to a train).}}
** Subverted in the third film, as Ethan tries to outrun a fireball only to be blown ''sideways'' into a car.
** In ''Ghost Protocol'' once Ethan catches on that the bomb was about to go off he started running, only to be caught in the outer edge anyway and knocked out. The explosion was unique in that it wasn't a fireball, just concussive.
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* [[Revolving Door Casting]]: Each film pretty much jettisons the previous one's entire surviving supporting cast ([[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|sometimes without even mentioning them]]) with the exception of Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames who have appeared in every film in the franchise.
** Extends to behind the camera when you throw in the fact that all four films have different directors using completely different styles.
** The transition from ''III'' to ''Ghost Protocol'' is a little less jarring, as there is less turn-over in characters (Benji stays), and plot and staff ([[
* [[Rule of Cool]]: The films regularly chuck logic and physics out the window.
* [[The Spook]]: Kitridge in the first film has a nice monologue about how all the IMF agents are trained to be ghosts, such that even if they cut them off from agency support they can still operate with little concern. All of their most dangerous enemies are the same way.
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=== ''Mission: Impossible'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Acoustic License]]: Features a climax where hero and villain are hanging off a speeding helicopter. Following just behind a TGV Bullet Train traveling hundreds of kilometers per hour. In a tunnel. Given this it's probably just as well Ethan Hunt uses visual aids while shouting so that {{spoiler|Phelps}} can properly recognize things are about to get a little 'splody.
* [[Actor Allusion]]: Ethan seems familiar with the [[Risky Business|Drake Hotel in Chicago]].
* [[Adaptational Villainy]]: {{spoiler|Jim Phelps, the main protagonist of the original TV series, is the mole.}}
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* [[Broken Pedestal]]: {{spoiler|Ethan greatly admires and respects Jim (and is implied to have romantic feelings for Claire) and is devastated at the realization of their treachery.}}
* [[Butt Monkey]]: The CIA vault employee, who gets tagged with a liquid that makes him sick to his stomach long enough for Ethan's rogue team to make a copy of the NOC list and leave. Despite his spotless record, Kittridge has him relocated to a different job and ''how''.
{{quote|
* [[The Cameo]]: Emilio Estevez's role is unbilled, though it's quite a bit more than a cameo.
* [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]: The "Red Light, Green Light" exploding gum. Yes, it is [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Chekhov's Gum]].
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The Bible in the Prague hideout, which leads to another use with the mention of the Drake Hotel in Chicago.
* [[Death
* [[Description Porn]]: Ethan describing the CIA's defenses in the first movie.
* [[Double Caper]]: Basically the entire film: Jim Phelps' IMF team think they're shadowing a traitor in Prague who plans to sell the NOC list to an arms dealer. Only {{spoiler|it's actually a molehunt headed by Kittridge and a second team to expose a traitor on Jim's own team, the traitor is actually an IMF agent himself, and that "NOC list" is actually a tracking program to hone in on whoever tries to load it, with the real list safe at CIA HQ.}} Since Ethan is the lone survivor, Kittridge thinks he has his man. So now Ethan has to go rogue with a team of disavowed agents and get the {{spoiler|real and complete}} NOC list so he can expose [[The Man Behind the Man]] and true mole ("Job") and clear his name.
* [[Evil Elevator]]: Poor {{spoiler|Jack}}...
* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]: Ethan at the end of the Prague mission.
{{quote|
'''Kittridge''': Who's dead?
'''Ethan''': My team, my team is DEAD! }}
* [[Eye Scream]]: {{spoiler|Jack's}} death is a literal example: he gets a giant spike shoved through his eye (in a [[Gory Discretion Shot|blink-and-you-miss-it]] moment)
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** The novelization gives us another good example: When he's been hooded and is sitting in the room with Max, he is able to determine the number of doors, material the walls are made from, the direction of airflow, height of the room, and number of people in the room with him before they remove the hood.
* [[I Have Your Wife|I Have Your Mother And Uncle On A Trumped Up Charge]]: Kittridge tries this in order to get Ethan to turn himself in, but Ethan is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to see through it and even slightly mocks Kittridge on the ruse (which is part of Ethan's own ruse to keep Kittridge on the line long enough to trace Hunt to London.)
{{quote|
* [[Inspector Javert]]: Kittridge. Unusual for this trope, he provides vital support to Hunt once he realizes the truth.
* [[Large Ham]]: Kittridge has [[The Matrix|Agent Smith]]-style enunciation.
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* [[MacGuffin]]: The NOC list is well defined, but it could be almost any kind of "Government Secrets" and the story would be exactly the same.
* [[Megane]][[Meganekko|(kko)]]: Nearly every character in the movie dons glasses at some point.
* [[Not
* [[Oh Crap]]: {{spoiler|Phelps when he realized Ethan put on the video glasses, proving to Kittridge that he was still alive.}}
** Krieger and Ethan share one when Krieger drops his knife down the shaft, thus revealing that they were in the vault.
* [[Pop Star Composer]]: The theme was rearranged by [[
* [[Self-Serving Memory]]: A subversion in that the [[Consummate Liar]] isn't the person with the flashbacks, but rather the person he's speaking to. {{spoiler|When Jim calls out Kittridge as the mole, Ethan already knows Jim is}}, but Ethan verbally plays along while we see flashbacks to the Prague mission {{spoiler|where Ethan puts Jim in position to kill every team member and stage his own death.}} When he muses that the mole must've needed help to blow up Hannah in the car, {{spoiler|he first thinks of Claire as the culprit (and he'd be right), but he doesn't want to believe it, so he imagines the scenario again with Jim blowing it up with a detonator at a specific time}}.
* [[Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome]]: {{spoiler|Jim Phelps.}} The cast of the original show along with its fans were most certainly not pleased.
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* [[Why We're Bummed Communism Fell]] - {{spoiler|When Phelps lies that Kittridge is the mole, he claims he betrayed them because he had become useless after the fall.}}
* [[You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost]]: Happens to Ethan twice. {{spoiler|And both of them were behind it all.}}
* [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]]: The team successfully catches the mark possessing the NOC list and leaving to meet his buyer. {{spoiler|Then the team (sans Ethan) and the mark are killed one by one and the list is in the hands of the assailant.}} Only [[It Got Worse|the mark wasn't a mark, the list wasn't the list, and the mission wasn't a mission.]]
=== ''Mission: Impossible II'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Brief Accent Imitation]]: The third movie reprises the little throat patches that are able to alter their voice into the voice of whoever they are imitating through [[Latex Perfection]], and shows how both are made; the voice strips require voice samples of the target making various commonly used syllables.
* [[The Cameo]]: [[Anthony Hopkins]] turns up unbilled.
* [[Carrying the Antidote]]: Turned inside-out. A scientist creates the ultimate flu vaccine - also producing the ultimate superflu in the process. Of course things are the right way around once the villain gets his hands on the suitcase. The villain also had an interesting way of selling the vaccine, as surprisingly, he did ''not'' ask for a ransom.
* [[Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb]]: The Utah rock-climbing scene.
* [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check]]: An inversion. Ambrose plans on releasing a stolen and deadly virus on the entire planet, but only so he can subsequently sell the cure and make billions legitimately.
* [[Disguised Hostage Gambit]]: {{spoiler|In ''Mission Impossible II'', there is a rare example of the hero pulling this on the villain, with the aid of a couple of [[Latex Perfection]] masks.}}
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* [[Evil Counterpart]]: The [[Big Bad]] in this film is literally this; he would oft be disguised as Ethan in previous missions when working for IMF due to their similar facial structure, and would explain why he'd also have the masks and voice strips of Hunt once he went rogue. [[Word of God]] labels this as one of the reasons he turned traitor in the first place, as he was sick of so many of his missions involving impersonating another agent, rather than being trusted himself.
* [[Hammerspace]]: Where else could Ethan keep {{spoiler|the latex mask he somehow had of the Big Bad's Dragon}} in the climax of the second film?
* [[Hoist
* [[Kiss of Distraction]]: Nayah distracts Ambrose with a kiss while stealing the envelope containing the memory card from his pocket. She tries something similar when she returns the envelope (sidling up against him), but this time it doesn't work--(a) he realizes it instantly, and (b) even if not, she puts it in the wrong pocket, which would have tipped him off eventually.
* [[Large Ham]]: Ambrose loves to have his head tremble and his eyes bug out whenever he's angry.
* [[Motorcycle Jousting]]
* [[Never Bring a Knife
* [[Title Drop]]: When Ethan says convincing Nyah to go along with the plan to plant her with the [[Big Bad]] may be "difficult", his boss retorts that their assignment is not Mission: Difficult, it's Mission: Impossible, so "difficult" should be "a walk in the park".
* [[Typhoid Mary]]: {{spoiler|The villain's plans for Nyah; he even mentions Mary by name. Nyah, until the team arrives, plans to [[Heroic Sacrifice|kill herself]] to save everyone.}}
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=== ''Mission: Impossible 3'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene]]: Right after the rooftop-swing stunt.
* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: Ethan escapes the IMF headquarters via an air vent. The vent Ethan crawls out of is in a room with pamphlets for the Virginia Department Of Transportation, his cover job, implying that he uses that room frequently and either knows of -- or set up -- that opportunity, should he ever need it.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Brassel.
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* [[Evil Counterpart]]: The bad guys here seem to have all the resources and tech IMF has.
* [[Explosive Leash]]: The first words spoken are: "We put an explosive charge in your head."
* [[Hoist
* [[In Medias Res]]: Combined with [[How We Got Here]], the opening sequence of the third movie is one of the best scenes of the series. Note the subversion of the [[Action Prologue]]. No stunts, no explosions, and two or less gunshots, but the tension is ''higher'' than comparable scenes in most other movies.
* [[Instant Sedation]]: Hunt's girlfriend is kidnapped by a stranger who casually places a [[wikipedia:Transdermal patch|transdermal patch]] the width of a ''pencil eraser'' onto the back of her hand between her thumb and forefinger. She barely has enough time to ask what the stupid thing is before she drops like a sack of potatoes.
* [[Jittercam]]: The camera jitters around quite a bit in action scenes and at few other tense moments, but stays still otherwise.
* [[MacGuffin]]: The "Rabbit's Foot" is a classical MacGuffin, [[Lampshaded]] by the fact that nobody will ever tell Ethan what it actually is or does, although [[Simon Pegg]]'s character's cryptic speculation is almost better than a briefing. The only clue is a biohazard label.
{{quote|
* [[One Bullet Left]]: In the rescue mission that opens the third film, Ethan and Farris have nearly escaped with only one Mook in front. Farris asks Ethan how much ammo he has left, to which he responds with "[[Pre-Mortem One-Liner|Enough.]]" He then fires a single round that knocks the Mook out the window, to which Ethan then discards his weapon.
{{quote|
* [[This Is Gonna Suck]]: A non-physical version when the team has to blow up the Lambo at the Vatican. Zhen doesn't like destroying such a nice car.
* [[Throw It In]]: One of the best shots of the third film came accidentally; when {{spoiler|Julia shoots Musgrave and he crumples to the ground dead}}, the briefcase containing the Rabbit's Foot was simply going to fall and open. However, the canister rolled perfectly towards the camera as it panned down and stopped with the biohazard label facing forward in dramatic fashion.
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=== ''Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol'' provides examples of: ===
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The device Ethan and Benji use to disguise their presence in the hallway can only accommodate a single person's viewpoint. Once a second person enters the room, the device constantly switches back and forth between the two viewpoints.
* [[Action Girl]]: Jane Carter
* [[Actor Allusion]]: Teddy Newton, one of [[Brad Bird]]'s friends and an artist at Pixar, makes a cameo as a voice over the phone that gives Ethan Mission instructions. He also voiced a literal phone in ''[[Toy Story 3]]''.
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* [[The Atoner]]: {{spoiler|Brandt, to some degree. He has some personal demons regarding what he thought to be a mistake he made in the field}}.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: A possible interpretation of Cobalt:
{{quote|
* [[Batman Cold Open]]: We see the IMF team finishing up a job (which goes wrong), ''and'' Ethan being busted out of prison, before the title sequence.
* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]: The film opens with Hunt having spent an indeterminate amount of time in a Russian prison, implied to be several months. He still has ''gorgeous'', presumably high-maintenance hair.
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* [[Call Back]]: [[Casting Gag|Andreas Wisniewski]], who played one of Max's henchmen in the first film, shows up in ''Ghost Protocol'' as a henchman of The Fog. He even hands Ethan a bag mask similar to the one used in the first film for the meet with Max.
* [[Captain Obvious]]: Brandt, big time.
{{quote|
NO SHIT! }}
** In fairness, he is {{spoiler|still maintaining his "harmless analyst" cover at this point.}} His [[Captain Obvious]] tendencies evaporate with [[The Reveal]].
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|The goggles Ethan uses when he climbs to the server room in the Burj Khalifa (and which he puts in his suit jacket during the meeting with Wistrom) are used a few scenes later when he chases Wistrom during the sandstorm. He also makes a big deal about rescuing a friend of his in the Norwegian prison, who comes back to help him later on.}}
* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Brandt is a senior analyst for IMF, and his first major moment is identifying a face Ethan drew up without having to consult the database. As the team loses that database connection, his knowledge of people of interest became more valuable.
* [[Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb]]: The adhesive gloves scene.
* [[Combat Stilettos]]: You know Sabine is about to get her ass thrashed when Jane kicks off her heels in a rare aversion of this trope.
* [[Could Say It, But...]]: When the IMF secretary is taking Ethan into custody, he says "Now I've been ordered to take you to Washington where they will hang the Kremilin bombing on you and your team. Unless you were to escape after assaulting Brandt and me."
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* [[Everybody Owns a Ford|Everybody Owns A BMW]]: Many of the vehicles the characters use are BMWs. Unusually for this trope, many of them end up getting smashed rather badly. Fortunately, the [[Cool Car|i8 concept car]] used in India is not one of them.
* [[Fire-Forged Friends]]: Ethan's team are not very familiar with each other, Ethan and Benji know each other but Benji is pretty new at field work and Brandt is apparently very green. By the end Ethan compliments the entire group that for all of their troubles (malfunctioning equipment, lack of IMF resources and running the entire thing practically blind) they all performed at their best and you could feel the camaraderie between them.
* [[Foreshadowing]]:
** The phone booth console near the beginning of ''Ghost Protocol'' doesn't self-destruct until Ethan applies some [[Percussive Maintenance]], presaging the technical problems plaguing the IMF team throughout the movie.
** In Dubai, {{spoiler|Winstrom orders someone over the phone to release a scientist's wife and kids. Except that Hendricks' organization is basically just him and Hendricks. Hendricks is his boss, so he can't order him to do anything. As it turns out, "Winstrom" is Hendricks in disguise.}}
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* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Anatoly Sidorov, Russian intelligence agent.
* [[Hidden Depths]]: Brandt, who only reveals his training when the meeting with Sabine goes south.
* [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die]]: Brandt feels responsible for {{spoiler|Ethan's wife's [[Never Found the Body|death]]}} because it happened on his watch.
* [[Indy Ploy]]: Lampshaded, when Brandt tries to understand just how exactly they escaped death 5 minutes ago. Also serves as deft [[Character Development]] for [[Red Oni, Blue Oni|him and Hunt]], contrasting his intellectualism with Hunt's [[Don't Think, Feel|instinctiveness]].
* [[In Medias Res]]: ''Ghost Protocol'' has this in two folds. The tail end of a mission is seen where an agent was killed and the package he was carrying stolen away, then it shows Ethan being broken out of a Norwegian prison, all before the opening credits. The complete opening mission is later shown in full including the contents of the package, and the exact reason Ethan was in a prison wasn't fully explained until the end.
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* [[It Got Worse]]: Repeatedly, from the very start of the film.
* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: Jane Carter performs an impromtu... field interrogation by knifepoint in a flashback, although the results are not shown on screen.
* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Though the stakes are [[The End of the World
* [[Lzherusskie]]: Averted. Anatoly Sidorov is played by Russian actor Vladimir Mashkov.
* [[Make the Bear Angry Again]]: The villain blows up [[Monumental Damage|the goddamn Kremlin]] to provoke Russia in a nuclear war with the US.
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** When Ethan busts out of the Russian prison, one of the guards says "yob t'voyu mat", which, literally translated, means "f*cked your mother" but is here used as a sort of generic "f*ck it" expression. A subversion - it is actually illegal (though practically never enforced) to say in Russia, but is included in the film, with the subtitles render it as "%@#!"
* [[Product Placement]]: ''Ghost Protocol'' has the team using iPads, iPhone 4s, MacBooks, driving BMWs, dealing with Dell servers (complete with otherwise pointless closeup), and drinking Dos Equis beer.
* [[Put
** {{spoiler|[[Bus Crash]]: Then it turns out she was killed, and Ethan killed those responsible.}}
** {{spoiler|[[Faking the Dead]]: ''Then'' it turns out she's alive and well, but in protection and Ethan can never see her again.}}
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* [[Sequel Hook]]: In contrast to the other installments (which usually cut off after the "Your mission, should you choose to accept it..." bookend scene), ''Ghost Protocol'' ends with Ethan walking in Seattle and listening to the first part of his mission briefing, which mentions an emerging terrorist group named [[The Syndicate]], based (in name at least) on the recurring organized crime gangs from the television series. Whether or not this plays into future installments remains to be seen.
* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Ethan is escaping a Russian prison filled with aggressive prisoners while a [[Dean Martin]] jazz song, 'Ain't That Kick in the Head,' is playing in the background.
* [[Spanner in
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: Numerous elements in the film parallel ''[[The Incredibles]]'' - nefarious diabolical plan, in-team arguing, paralleling action and a fondness for gadgets. It's done by the same director, [[Brad Bird]].
* [[Stealth Pun]]: After getting seven colors of ''shit'' kicked out of him in the final fight sequence of Ghost Protocol, {{spoiler|Ethan scrambles to the [[Big Red Button]] to save the day and yells "[[wikipedia:2003 Mission Accomplished speech|Mission Accomplished!]]" as he hits it. '''''It doesn't work.''''' He has to hammer it for about half a minute, while his team finishes their own jobs, before it works}}.
* [[Stock Shout-Outs]]: The sequence [[Pixar|A113]] shows up quite a few times.
* [[Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome]]: {{spoiler|Revealed to have happened to Ethan's wife before the start of Ghost Protocol. But by the end of the film it turned out to be a subversion as Ethan faked her death to protect her from his enemies, and she appears alive and well in a brief cameo in the final scene.}}
* [[Symbology Research Failure]]: Of sorts--{{spoiler|:the bombing of the Kremlin consists largely of the obliteration of the actual geography of Red Square, Spasskaya Tower, and maybe some buildings on the edge of the Moscow Kremlin, but ''not'' the Grand Kremlin Palace, Kremlin Senate, or State Kremlin Palace.}} A news broadcast in the immediate aftermath displays this.
* [[Symbol Swearing]]: When the Russian prison guard swears at Ethan during the prison break at the start.
* [[Thanatos Gambit]]: {{spoiler|Cobalt grabs the Russian football from Ethan's hands and makes a several-story jump. In his plans, he would fall to his death, but Ethan wouldn't be able to stop the Russian missile on time, and his plan would still go through}}.
* [[Title Drop]]:
{{quote|
* [[Took a Level
** Although in the case of Benji Dunn, he is still less competent than the rest of the group by far though he has passed his field test since the third film.
* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]] - Hendricks/Cobalt's excuse for trying to set off a nuclear war - he figures the survivors will rebuild a stronger civilization.
* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]] / [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: The villain of MI:GP, Cobalt, AKA Kurt Hendricks, is a "nuclear strategist" who lost his mind after twenty years on the job.
{{quote|
** In other words, Cobalt believes that a planetwide Hiroshima would initiate a permanent [[Nuclear Weapons Taboo]]. The question of his sanity is left open-ended (Brandt just thinks he is insane), but [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ccLG8JqY78 one] [[Deleted Scene]] makes him sound a lot less like a sociopath and a lot more like a man who's just broken from the stress of his job.
* [[What Happened to
* [[Wolverine Publicity]]: That's what Anil Kapoor has been doing at public appearances in India and abroad, for his role in this film. Those who eventually saw the film, and his role in it, will have something to tell.
* [[Women in Refrigerators]]: Ethan Hunt was {{spoiler|in a Russian prison after he killed the Serbian nationalists who killed his wife}}, and the analyst with him {{spoiler|left field duty because he felt he failed his mission. In a subversion, it turns out her death was faked to protect her from any such attempts in the future; the Serbians only kidnapped her and died when Ethan went to her rescue.}}
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Cinesite]]
[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
▲[[Category:Mission Impossible]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Film Series]]
[[Category:Films Based on TV Series]]
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