• Director: Brad Bird
• With: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Josh Holloway, Michael Nyqvist, Paula Patton, Tom Wilkinson, Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Vladimir Mashkov, Samuli Edelmann, Ivan Shvedoff, Anil Kapoor, Léa Seydoux, Pavel Kríz, Miraj Grbic, Ilia Volok
• Music by: Michael Giacchino
• Duration: 132 mins
• Based upon the Mission: Impossible tv-series
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Rating: 8/10

Review:

Ghost Protocol is the fourth instalment in the Mission: Impossible series, with Tom Cruise reprising his role as Ethan Hunt. This time Brad Bird is in the director’s seat.

Benji (Simon Pegg), who is now an active operative for I.M.F. is part of a two person team to get Ethan Hunt out of a Russian jail. Ethan needs to be free for another mission impossible… they have to get into the Kremlin to steal a nuclear warhead before Cobalt can. But Cobalt seems to be a few steps ahead and when Ethan and Benji escape the Kremlin, a bomb explodes destorying part of the Kremlin. Hunt is wounded and ends up in hospital where he is under scrutiny of the Russian police, being accused of being the bomber. Ethan escapes and hears that the president called out the Ghost Protocol: I.M.F. has been completely disavowed. It’s up to Hunt and his small team to stop Cobalt can launch the warhead and start a nuclear war!

This is the first M:I movie where Jeremy Renner has a role in as Brandt. He was supposed to be the one who could have replaced Cruise as the main protagonist in new instalments but apparently Cruise didn’t want to let go yet… so Renner was in Rogue Nation as well and then left the series… I don’t suppose he will ever come back?

Ving Rhames, who plays Luther in the series, only has a very small part in the end of this movie and is for once not part of Hunt’s team. But he will be back in the other instalment to come…

Ghost Protocol is a very testosterone driven action movie that takes Hunt and his team (and its viewers) to different corners of the world: Russia, Dubai & India… there are some wonderfully orchestrated action scenes (the sandstorm, the bombing of the Kremlin, Hunt hanging from the Burj Khalifa which Cruise did all himself)

And this movie ends with the introduction of The Syndicate, one of IMF’s biggest threat in the tv-series… and we see Hunt’s wife in a small tribute to the previous movie (played by Michelle Monaghan)!

So all in all one of the best instalments in the series!