Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One - Unmasking The Plot

Synopsis

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), a covert agent of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF), an espionage agency that operates secretly within the Intelligence Agencies of the US government, is contacted and sent on a mission to retrieve one-half of a cruciform key from a female associate of his, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), who formerly worked for the British Intelligence Agency, MI6.

Before Hunt was sent on this mission, a horrible accident involving a stealth Russian submarine and its crew had occurred in the ocean. The accident, which was staged by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) transmitted secretly by some members of the US National Intelligence Agency to undermine the submarine's undetectable capability, ignored its primary assignment. The aftermath of the accident resulted in the death of the entire crew onboard the submarine and the disappearance of the Artificial Intelligence, which became known as the "Entity" for its newly acquired self-awareness and autonomy.

Hunt successfully gets half of the cruciform key from Faust and also learns, by chance in disguise, everything about the Entity and the key when he attends a meeting held by several intelligence chiefs of the US government. He further discovers from Mr. Kittridge (Henry Czerny), director of the IMF, that many governments across the world, including the US, are secretly planning to control and harness the Entity to dominate future events. Learning about these plans, Hunt sets out to destroy the Entity to prevent it from being used by anyone.

Hunt loses his half of the cruciform key to Grace (Hayley Atwell), a professional thief while being chased by some agents of US Intelligence. Before losing the key, Hunt and his team, comprising Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), had planned to sell it to a buyer who has the other half in Abu Dhabi, so that they could learn more about the key and later recover it. After losing the key, Hunt notifies the Italian police of Grace's past crimes, which gets her arrested upon her arrival in Italy. Hunt, under the guise of a lawyer, gets to see Grace and finds out why she stole the key.

While in Italy, Grace and Hunt are pursued by the US Intelligence agents from Abu Dhabi and Gabriel, an agent of the Entity, who also has some unpleasant history with Hunt. Luckily, Grace and Hunt both escape from their pursuers. However, they all get to meet later at a party in Venice hosted by Alanna, a black-market arms dealer who possesses the other half of the key and is also an associate of Hunt. The party turns out to be an eventful one, as Grace discovers that she was hired to steal the key by Alanna, information that also surprises Hunt and Faust. After Alanna reveals that she plans to sell the key with Grace to Gabriel, a fight breaks out among them, leading to Grace running away with the key.

Gabriel goes after Grace and tries to get the key back from her. Surprisingly, he is also confronted by Faust during the struggle. He eventually overpowers both women during the confrontation, kills Faust, and takes the key. The news of Faust's death and the loss of the key to Gabriel devastates Hunt and his team. Grace feels responsible for the unfortunate incident but gets pacified by Hunt's team and presented with an offer to join them. After Grace accepts the offer, the team sets out on a new mission to track Alanna, who plans to sell her half of the key to a buyer onboard a train.

The team plans to meet the buyer on the train by tricking him into believing that he is dealing with the real Alanna, using a face mask worn by Grace. They achieve this objective after Grace knocks Alana unconscious, gets the key from her, and takes up her identity on the train. Grace, disguised as Alanna, meets the buyer, who turns out to be Mr. Kittridge. Gabriel, who is also onboard the train, kills the conductor, causing the train to move uncontrollably fast. He also kills the Director of US National Intelligence after having a brief meeting with him and discovering the secrets he knows about the Entity and the Russian submarine.

During negotiations with Mr. Kittridge, Grace feels uneasy about selling the key to him and cancels the transaction before it gets completed. She walks out on the deal with the key in her possession but gets unmasked in the process after the 'real' Alanna shows up upon regaining consciousness. Alanna's men chase Grace to get the other half of the key from her, but she gets saved by Hunt, who forces his way onto the train after descending from a mountain using a parachute. Gabriel collects the key from Grace, making Hunt pursue him. The two men fight atop the train at great risk to their lives. After overwhelming Gabriel in their fight, Hunt gets distracted by the US intelligence agents who have been chasing him from Abu Dhabi, providing Gabriel with an opportunity to escape.

Gabriel, after escaping, is unaware that Hunt has swapped the key on him with a lighter during their confrontation. He goes on to blow up the bridge along the train's track using bombs. Observing this development, Hunt and Grace, with the help of the US intelligence agents chasing them, try to get other passengers onboard the train to safety by directing them to move to coaches behind while they disconnect those in front. Grace and Hunt manage to escape a life-threatening situation after some of the train's coaches fall off the destroyed bridge into the river. Subsequently, Hunt escapes from the US intelligence agents who try to arrest him again, and Grace unmasked, meets Mr. Kittridge, expressing her desire to join the IMF.

Hunt, having acquired the two halves of the cruciform key, discovers that it unlocks the stealth Russian submarine involved in the accident caused by the Entity. His new mission is to search for the submarine and learn more about its relationship with the Entity.

Review

I consider Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, a great movie because of its interesting plot, amazing artistic performance by its actors, and captivating action scenes that appear realistic. It is a movie that I highly recommend to anyone interested in action-spy films.

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Have a splendid day, folks.

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