Mission impossible synopsis

After intercepting nerve gas being sold to terrorists, Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is convinced he can prove the existence of the Syndicate, an international
criminal consortium that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) does not believe exists. Hunt is
captured by the Syndicate, but escapes a torture chamber led by Syndicate member Janik "Bone
Doctor" Vinter (Jens Hultn) with the help of MI6 agent and Syndicate operative Ilsa Faust (Rebecca
Ferguson).
CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) and IMF Field Operations Director William Brandt (Jeremy
Renner) testify before a Senate committee. The IMF, currently without a secretary in charge, is
controversial because of its destructive methods. Hunley, who dislikes Hunt, succeeds in having the
IMF disbanded and absorbed into the CIA; Brandt, knowing that Hunley will try to capture him, warns
Hunt to stay undercover. Cut off from the IMF, Hunt follows his only lead: A blond man in glasses,
later identified as former MI6 agent Solomon Lane (Sean Harris).
Six months later, Hunt remains a fugitive. Unable to find the Syndicate without help, he recruits
former colleague Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) to attend the opera Turandot in Vienna to search for
Lane, who he suspects is the Syndicate's leader. Despite stopping three snipers including Faust,
Hunt is blamed for the death of the Austrian Chancellor (Rupert Wickham), having been killed after a
bomb planted on his car explodes.
Brandt recruits former agent Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) to find Hunt before the CIA's Special
Activities Division kills him. Using a likeness of Faust left by Hunt, Brandt and Stickell track Hunt,
Dunn, and Faust to Morocco, where the latter group infiltrates a secure server beneath a power
station by changing access control data stored in a underwater turbine tank. After having stolen what
they believe to be a ledger containing the names of all Syndicate agents, Faust betrays the others
and flees with the data on aUSB flash drive; Ethan, his group, Brandt and Stickell, and Syndicate
members chase Faust. Faust escapes, but Dunn revealed that he has already made a copy of the
data.
Faust returns to London and attempts to use the file to end her mission to infiltrate the Syndicate, but
her MI6 handler, Attlee (Simon McBurney), compels her to continue. She and Lane learn that Attlee
wiped the drive, which contained an encrypted, British-government red box that requires the Prime
Minister's biometrics to unlock. The former IMF agents confront Faust, but when Lane's men abduct
Dunn, they are told they must deliver a decrypted copy of the drive to Lane by the night. Despite the

others' objections, Hunt realizes Lane will always have a plan to acquire the files; believing the way
to stop him is to confront him, Hunt agrees to the ultimatum.
As part of Hunt's plan, Brandt reveals their location to Hunley. At a London charity auction, Hunley,
Brandt, and Attlee take the Prime Minister to a secure room to protect him from Hunt. Attlee reveals
himself as a disguised Hunt and has the Prime Minister confirm the existence of the Syndicate, a
classified proposed project to perform missions without oversight. When the real Attlee arrives Hunt
forces him to admit that he began the Syndicate without permission, and has been covering up its
existence since Lane hijacked the project and went rogue.
Stickell discovers the file actually contains access to billions in currency. Hunt destroys the file and
tells Lane he memorized the data, to force Lane to release Dunn and Faust in exchange for what he
knows. Dunn escapes to Stickell and Brandt while Ethan and Faust are separated as Vinter and his
men chase them through the streets of London. Faust kills Vinter in a knife fight, while Ethan lures
Lane into a bulletproof cell where he is gassed, just as he had gassed Hunt to capture him initially,
and taken into custody.
Hunley and Brandt return to the committee. Hunley requests the reinstatement of the IMF, claiming
that he wanted to disband it to allow Hunt to go undercover. The Senators, though skeptical,
eventually agree. Brandt then congratulates Hunley, who was appointed as the new IMF Secretary.