Inciting Event: Director Hunley forces the IMF to be disbanded and taken over by the CIA, sending Ethan Hunt into hiding. He continues his tracking down of the group of the Syndicate as a fugitive, though no one else believes the Syndicate exists.
A lot happened before this, but nothing that irretrievably set the story on its course. It mostly established the characters, villain and setting. The biggest things were Ethan seeing Solomon Lane as he was temporarily captured and Ilsa Faust’s helping him escape, even though she is one of Lane’s agents.
First Plot Point: Ethan recruits Benji Dunn to help him find the man he saw in London, Solomon Lane, at the Vienna Opera. They don’t find him (he spots them, actually, and stays hidden), but do find Ilsa Faust who is in on an attempt to assassinate the chancellor. The Austrian Chancellor is wounded and they just manage to escape the building before lockdown.
First Pinch Point: Ethan and Ilsa witness a car bomb blow up the car taking the chancellor to the hospital just before Benji comes with their escape car. They are chased in the car, Ilsa convinces the two to let her go, after giving them a USB enabling them to find her.
Midpoint: Ethan, Benji and Ilsa break into a complex security system to get vital information on The Syndicate. Ilsa double-crosses them and takes the USB with the information and makes a getaway on a motorbike. Ethan and Benji pursue (in a totally EPIC car chase) but Ilsa escapes. Brandt and Luther (the other IMF team members) find them and the team is regrouped.
Second Pinch Point: Upon examination of Benji’s duplicate USB, the IMF finds that they can only unlock the information with a retinal scan and pass code spoken by the British Prime Minister. They conclude that Solomon Lane has a plan to kidnap him.
Ilsa brings the file to the MI6’s director, Attlee and tries to end her mission to infiltrate the Syndicate. Director Attlee refuses and secretly erases Ilsa’s disc files just before she meets with Lane, making the IMF’s disc the only one and therefore Lane’s target.
Third Plot Point: Benji is kidnapped and Lane presents an ultimatum. Ethan must bring him the unlocked disc at midnight, or he will kill Benji. Ethan agrees and, disguised as Attlee, he meets with the Prime Minister and gets the retinal scan and pass code. Hunley is present and the Prime Minister undoubtedly confirms the existence of the Syndicate and its origins as a British, secret operation.
Climax: Ethan goes to Lane’s specified location, expecting to meet him, but Lane has sent Ilsa with Benji, who is forced to be Lane’s messenger to Ethan by dictating everything Lane says in his ear microphone. Benji is strapped to a time bomb that will blow up the whole waterfront area if Ethan doesn’t hand over the disc and Ilsa says that she is ordered to shoot them both after she has the information Lane needs.
After a good bit of threatening Lane, Ethan reveals that he has destroyed the disc after memorizing all the information. He is the disc and the only way Lane can get the information is by letting Benji go and letting him live. Lane agrees, with a 19th of a second left on the time bomb, and releases Benji, then orders his men to kill Ilsa. Ilsa and Ethan make their getaway, using Ethan as a human shield.
Climactic Moment: Lane pursues Ethan on his own, fulfilling Ethan’s earlier request that they meet “face to face”. After Ethan jumps down a grate, Lane follows, thinking he has him, but a bulletproof glass box is closed in on Lane where he stands. The IMF members come forwards from the shadows and stand on all sides as Lane desperately shoots at the glass. Benji turns on the gas inside and knocks Lane out in an almost identical manner to how Lane captured Ethan at the beginning.
Resolution: Lane is taken into custody, Ilsa is free from both agencies that misused her and Director Hunley joins the restored IMF, filling the vacant place as secretary.
Comments: I wasn’t able to fully analyze all the subplots here with Ilsa’s story and Brandt’s near the beginning, but hopefully this gives a good idea of the main plotline without being too confusing.
(Submitted by Rosey Mucklestone.)
