Mission: Impossible IV – Ghost Protocol

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Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (also known as Mission: Impossible IV) is a 2011 American action film. It is the fourth film in the Mission: Impossible series. It stars Tom Cruise, who reprises his role of IMF Agent Ethan Hunt, and is director Brad Bird's first live-action film. Ghost Protocol was written by André Nemec and Josh Appelbaum, and produced by Cruise, J. J. Abrams (the third film's director) and Bryan Burk. It saw the return of the first film's editor, Paul Hirsch, and is also the first Mission: Impossible film to be partially filmed using IMAX cameras. The film was released in North America by Paramount Pictures on December 16, 2011.

Upon release, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol became a critical and commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing Mission: Impossiblefilm, and the highest-grossing film starring Tom Cruise.

In Budapest to intercept a courier working for a person code-named "Cobalt", IMF agent Trevor Hanaway is killed by assassin Sabine Moreau. Hanaway's team leader, Jane Carter, and newly promoted field agent Benji Dunn extract Ethan Hunt and Ethan's source Bogdan from a Moscowprison. Ethan is recruited to lead Jane and Benji to infiltrate secret Moscow Kremlin archives and locate files identifying Cobalt. During the mission, someone broadcasts across the IMF frequency, alerting the Russians to Ethan's team. Although Benji and Jane escape, a bomb destroys the Kremlin, and Russian agent Sidorov arrests Ethan, suspecting him as part of the attack.

The IMF extracts Ethan from Moscow. The Russians have called the attack an undeclared act of war, and the US president activates "Ghost Protocol", a black operation contingency that disavows the IMF. Ethan and his team are to take the blame for the attack, but will be allowed to escape from government custody in order to track down Cobalt. Before Ethan can escape, the IMF's secretary is killed by Russian security forces led by Sidorov, leaving Hunt and intelligence analyst William Brandt to find their own way out. Brandt identifies Cobalt as Kurt Hendricks, a Swedish-born Russian nuclear strategist who plans to start a nuclear war. Hendricks bombed the Kremlin in order to acquire a Russian nuclear launch-control device; however, he now needs the activation codes from the Budapest courier in order to launch a nuclear missile at the US.

The exchange between Moreau and Hendricks' right-hand man, Wistrom, is due to take place at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. There, Ethan's team members separately convince Moreau and Wistrom that they have made the exchange with one another. However, Moreau identifies Brandt as an agent. While Ethan chases Wistrom—only to realize that Wistrom is actually Hendricks in disguise, escaping with the codes—Jane detains Moreau. Moreau attempts to kill the inexperienced Benji, and Jane kicks her out a window to her death. Brandt accuses Jane of compromising the mission for revenge against Moreau, but Ethan accuses Brandt of keeping secrets from them, as he has displayed fighting skills atypical of an analyst. While Ethan seeks more information from Bogdan, Brandt admits that he was assigned as security detail to Ethan and his wife Julia while they were on vacation in Croatia. While Brandt was on patrol, Julia was killed by a Serbian hit squad, prompting Ethan to pursue and kill them before he was caught by the Russians and sent to prison.

Bogdan and his arms-dealer cousin inform Ethan that Hendricks will be in Mumbai. Hendricks facilitated the sale of a defunct Soviet military satellite to Indian telecommunications entrepreneur Brij Nath. The satellite could be used to transmit the order to fire a missile. While Brandt and Benji infiltrate the server room to deactivate the satellite, Carter gets Nath to reveal the satellite override code. But Hendricks has anticipated Ethan's plan and infects Nath's servers with a virus before sending a signal from a television broadcasting tower to a Russian Delta III-class nuclear submarine in the Pacific to fire at San Francisco. Ethan pursues Hendricks and the launch device while the other team-members attempt to bring the broadcast station back online. Ethan and Hendricks fight over the launch-control device before Hendricks jumps to his death with it to ensure the launch. Benji kills Wistrom, allowing Brandt to restore power to the station and enabling Ethan to deactivate the missile, while the fatally wounded Hendricks witnesses the failure of his plan. Ethan is then confronted by Sidorov, who sees he has stopped the missile, proving the IMF is innocent in the Kremlin bombing.

The team reconvenes weeks later in Seattle. Ethan introduces the team to longtime colleague Luther Stickell and then issues new assignments. Benji and Jane accept, but Brandt refuses. Ethan reveals that Julia's death was staged, as he knew he could not protect her, and used her death as a pretext to infiltrate the prison and get close to Bogdan, an IMF source on Hendricks. Relieved of guilt, Brandt accepts his mission while Ethan watches Julia from afar. They share a smile before he embarks on his next mission.