“Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol” starring Tom Cruise as spy Ethan Hunt is the fourth installment to the movie series based on the television series that ran from 1966 to 1977. Directed by Brad Bird, who also directed “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille,” the movie was released Dec. 16 and was number one at the box office for four weeks, just recently losing to “The Devil Inside.”  

 “Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol” begins with Hunt in a Russian prison after taking the blame for a mission gone sour. He  escapes with help from his Impossible Mission Forces (IMF) colleagues Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton). Free, Hunt learns of his new mission to help get Russian nuclear launch codes back from a terrorist named Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nygvist). 

While on the mission to retrieve the codes, Hunt and his team are blamed for a bombing of the Kremlin. After a brief meeting with the United States Secretary of Defense, he learns that the president has invoked Ghost Protocol and has disbanded the IMF completely. At first it looks like Hunt is on his way back to prison, but then the secretary changes his tone with Hunt. He says that the only way the IMF team can escape prison is if Hunt and his team find a way to assault the secretary and his analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) and go out on their own to clear their names and prove the United States had no involvement in the bombing.

The mission is clear from this point forward: find the codes and prevent a war from breaking out between two of the most powerful nations in the world. The IMF team knows that Hendricks is responsible for the bombing but now has to prove it. Hunt accepts the mission only moments before the vehicle carrying the secretary, Hunt and Brandt is attacked and run off the road by gunfire. The secretary is left dead. 

Brandt joins the team unwillingly carrying a secret of his own. He reminds Hunt, Carter and Dunn about their lack of resources now that the U.S. government is no longer supporting them. Now left with only a few but important gadgets, the team begins to plan their best way to clear their names and regain the Russian nuclear launch codes. 

The viewer is on the edge of his seat for the entire one hour and 50 minutes of the film, which has twists and turns that leave him uncertain of the outcome for Hunt’s team. What looks like a sure victory one minute changes the next. A run-in with the Russian secret service threatens to kill Hunt and makes it seem like his mission is truly impossible. 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go and see “Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol” and find out how the fourth installment of the franchise ends.