History Film / MissionImpossibleIII

Ethan is in semi-retirement, only training new agents, and is engaged to Julia Meade (Creator/MichelleMonaghan), a nurse who thinks he works for the Virginia Department of Transportation. He is convinced to come out of retirement when he learns that one of his students has been captured. After the simultaneous success and failure of that mission, he takes over the student's case: tracking down the whereabouts of an elusive arms dealer named Owen Davian (Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman), who is looking for an unspecified item known as [[MacGuffin the "Rabbits Foot."]]

* AndStarring: And "Creator/LaurenceFishburne".

* ShesGotLegs: The camera admires Zhen exiting the Lamborghini from the bottom up.

* MagicalDefibrillator: Messed up horribly. They need to use a defibrillator to shock someone in an attempt to overload the electronics inside an explosive pill (which has apparently been implanted in the person's head -- but the shock from the defibrillator, applied correctly, should not pass through the head at all!), but fail because the defibrillator (which, it should be reminded, is a tool that might be needed at a moment's notice) has a warmup time (with large-font countdown), which just so happens to be a few seconds longer than it takes for the pill to go off. To add to the defibrillator magic, a character acknowledges that shocking someone like that ''will'' stop her heart. TheHero responds that he'll just use it again to restart it.

* BackAlleyDoctor: PlayedWith. In the climax, Ethan Hunt pursues the villains down a back alley and into a house which to his surprise turns out to be a surgery (presumably unlicensed). Unlike other examples of this trope the hospital is neat and well-equipped.

* {{BFG}}: The G36 used by Ethan is treated like one despite a fairly ordinary assault rifle in real-life by shooting down the drone on it's attack run like an anti-air gun. Oddly averted moments later when Ethan fires on Davian's helicopter and causes zero damage despite a slower and bigger target.

''Mission: Impossible III'' (2006) is the third entry in the ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries Mission: Impossible]]'' film series starring Creator/TomCruise as Ethan Hunt.

* BottomlessMagazines: {{Averted}}. Ethan manages to shoot the wing of an airplane with a high-powered machine gun and takes it down. He then runs after Davian who is escaping in a helicopter. Not only does he miss the first few shots but he runs out of ammo soon after.

* ArmsDealer: Owen Davian. His day job is hooking up terrorists with weapons of mass destruction, and his night job is exuding sociopathic menace. Even when captured, bound, and faced with death, he remains [[DissonantSerenity preternaturally calm]] and merely rattles off all the ways he will torture the hero's loved ones [[strike:if]] '''when''' he gets free. The only time he shows a hint of fondness is when he aloofly recalls cruelly murdering one of the hero's partners ("That was nothing, that was... ''fun''. That was fun."). His chilling detachment is enhanced by the fact that he has [[http://www.reverseshot.com/article/mi3 no backstory or any humanizing moments whatsoever]].
* AsYouKnow: Ethan tells Luther that the magnetic one should be encrypted to which Luther replies that he knows that.
-->"Magnetic means encrypted..." "[[TheSmartGuy Yeah]], [[CaptainObvious I know that]]."

* ChewOutFakeOut: Ethan has been brought into HQ because his superiors think he's gone rogue (he's really trying to save Julia, who has been kidnapped by Davian). As he's lying immobilized, Musgrave begins chastising him (for the benefit of those listening in), while simultaneously mouthing an escape plan, knowing that Ethan can read lips.

-->'''Brassel''': ''[sternly]'' You were aware of this operation?
-->'''Musgrave''': ''[defiant]'' Yes I was.
-->'''Brassel''': ''[beat]'' Then, good work.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler: Lindsey's death.]] Ethan attempts to use a defibrillator to disarm the bomb in her head, however the defibrillator only finishes charging seconds after the bomb goes off and kills her. When fully charged he defibrillator emits a single, constant beep, clearly meant to imitate the sound of a heart rate monitor flatline.

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler: "Ethan, thank you." Lindsey Farris dies a moment later.]]

** Earlier in the film, Musgrave goes to inform Brassel that Ethan's team has successfully captured Owen Davian at the Vatican, a mission they did behind Brassel's back as they were still in his doghouse from the Farris operation.

* DeadStarWalking: Creator/KeriRussell is introduced as a protege of Ethan, and is then killed off immediately after one scene when a micro-explosive in her head detonates.

* FamousLastWords:
** "Ethan, thank you." Lindsey Farris
** "And I told you I was going to kill you in front of her? Well, I'm going to kill her in front of you." Owen Davian

-->'''Theodore Brassel:''' ''[looking down at Ethan from atop]'' Now I am not a stranger to disrespect, you don't get to where I am without developing a thick skin. But what I won't stand for. What I will lose sleep over - and I love my sleep - is the idea of an irresponsible, rogue Agent working in my office. So I'm going to slow things way down here. ''[draws his face nearer]'' You can look at me with those judgemental, incriminating eyes all you want, but I bullshit you not. I will bleed on the flag to make sure the stripes stay red.

* BlofeldPloy: [[spoiler:The film opens with Davian appearing to kill Ethan Hunt's wife. It is revealed that, again courtesy of LatexPerfection, the woman he shot was his translator who failed him earlier in the film. It turned out she was also his security chief, so the fact that he was kidnapped when she was right there with him obviously made him rather...upset with her]].

* ChekhovsSkill: A long-term example - Ethan's ability to lip read and his wife's training as a nurse comes in handy near the end of the film, then it shows up again in ''Ghost Protocol'' when Ethan finds out how badly injured he is at the Russian hospital.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Brassel's very first scene establishes him as an intelligent, driven man. [[spoiler:So why on Earth would he contact Davian from the computer ''in his own office''? The movie deliberately interrupts both Ethan and the audience before they have time to think about it.]]

* IndyPloy: Offscreen, but when Ethan goes to retrieve the Rabbit's Foot, we hear over the frequency that he needs pickup ASAP. In the commentary, Cruise and Abrams noted that the audience has seen that sort of thing twice already[[note]]And, technically, in this film as well, if you count kidnapping Damian[[/note]] so they didn't need to show it.

-->''It's interesting - I used to have this professor at Oxford, okay? Doctor Wickham, his name was and he was, like, this massive fat guy, you know? Huge, big guy. We used to call him - you know, well, I won't tell you what we used to call him. But he taught biomolecular kinetics and cellular dynamics. And he used to sort of scare the underclassmen with this story about how the world would eventually be eviscerated by technology. You see, it was inevitable that a compound would be created which he referred to as '[[http://movieclips.com/gZeX-mission-impossible-3-movie-the-anti-god/ the Anti-God]].' It was like an accelerated mutator or sort of, you know, like a, an unstoppable force of destructive power, that would just lay waste to everything - to buildings and parks and streets and children and ice cream parlors, you know? So whenever I see, like, a rogue organization willing to spend this amount of money on a mystery tech, I always assume... it's the Anti-God. End-of-the-world kinda stuff, you know. ...But no, I don't have any idea what it is. I was just speculating.''
* MagicalDefibrillator: Messed up horribly. They need to use a defibrillator to shock someone in an attempt to overload the electronics inside an explosive pill (which has apparently been implanted in the person's head - but the shock from the defibrillator, applied correctly, should not pass through the head at all!), but fail because the defibrillator (which, it should be reminded, is a tool that might be needed at a moment's notice) has a warmup time (with large-font countdown), which just so happens to be a few seconds longer than it takes for the pill to go off. To add to the defibrillator magic, a character acknowledges that shocking someone like that ''will'' stop her heart. TheHero responds that he'll just use it again to restart it.

** The team successfully rescues Farris from her captors and finally escape the area via helicopter...[[spoiler: only the implanted bomb in her head goes off right before the defibrillator is ready to deactivate the bomb.]] Understandably, they are chewed out by their boss.

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Davian has no backstory, and no real motive beyond selling arms for money. Despite this, or even perhaps ''because'' of it, he's still considered an absolutely terrifying villain.

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Davian has no backstory, and no real motive beyond selling arms for money. [[TropesAreNotBad Despite this,]] he's still considered an absolutely terrifying villain.

%%* BigBad: Davian

** "And I told you I was going to kill you in front of her? Well, i'm going to kill her in front of you." Owen Davian

Ethan is in semi-retirement, only training new agents, and is engaged to Julia Meade, a nurse who thinks he works for the Virginia Department of Transportation. He is convinced to come out of retirement when he learns that one of his students has been captured. After the simultanous success and failure of that mission they learn that she was tracking down the whereabouts of an elusive arms dealer named Owen Davian (Creator/PhilipSeymourHoffman) and that he is looking for an unspecified item known as [[MacGuffin the "Rabbits Foot."]]

The big-screen directing debut of Creator/JJAbrams (who also co-scripted and did a bit of digital work), this film falls back to cloak-and-dagger tricks, with the action being more through time-frame constrictions or compromised missions, and even takes time to develop its characters. Though not intended to do so, it also works as a soft reboot of the series -- it's worth noting that the next film, ''Ghost Protocol'', brings back ''three whole characters'' besides Ethan, and the two who aren't TokenBlackFriend Luther Stickell originated in this one -- which might explain why Abrams has since been entrusted with relaunching [[Film/StarTrek2009 two more]] [[Film/TheForceAwakens major franchises]].

The big-screen directing debut of Creator/JJAbrams (who also co-scripted and did a bit of digital work), this film falls back to cloak-and-dagger tricks, with the action being more through time-frame constrictions or compromised missions, and even takes time to develop its characters. Though not intended to do so, it also works as a soft reboot of the series -- it's worth noting that the next film, ''Ghost Protocol'', brings back ''three whole characters'' besides Ethan, and the two who aren't BlackBestFriend Luther Stickell originated in this one -- which might explain why Abrams has since been entrusted with relaunching [[Film/StarTrek2009 two more]] [[Film/TheForceAwakens major franchises]].

* TheDragon: [[spoiler: Musgrave.]]
* DragonTheirFeet: [[spoiler: TheMole, Musgrave, survives Davian for about several minutes after Davian is killed by Ethan until he is gunned down by Ethan's wife Julia.]]

* MagicalDefribillator: Messed up horribly. They need to use a defibrillator to shock someone in an attempt to overload the electronics inside an explosive pill (which has apparently been implanted in the person's head - but the shock from the defibrillator, applied correctly, should not pass through the head at all!), but fail because the defibrillator (which, it should be reminded, is a tool that might be needed at a moment's notice) has a warmup time (with large-font countdown), which just so happens to be a few seconds longer than it takes for the pill to go off. To add to the defibrillator magic, a character acknowledges that shocking someone like that ''will'' stop her heart. TheHero responds that he'll just use it again to restart it.

*** Later on in the movie, [[spoiler: Ethan jerryrigs a defibrillator out of some live wires to short out the implant in his own ''head''. However, this time, he seems to know that a defibrillator will stop his heart, asking Julia (a nurse) to bring him back, before shocking himself. She does so, with some passable CPR and a few precordial thumps.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Davian would have likely not known the identity of his kidnapper had Luther not called Ethan by name. [[spoiler: Unless of course TheMole having him completely brief him on Ethan's team]]

* OfficiallyShortenedTitle: Posters shortened the title to "''M:i:III''". As a result, Creator/StephenColbert made a Running Gag out of pronouncing it "Meeeeeeeeee".

* AcrophobicBird: Ethan's team in a Huey helicopter try to evade a Cobra gunship by flying through a wind turbine farm. For some reason the Cobra doesn't fly above the farm and fire its missiles (which are heat-seaking) down at them -- but then if it did that we wouldn't have a cool scene of the Huey flying ''between'' the spinning turbine blades and the Cobra being smashed when it decides to TryAndFollow.

* AcrophobicBird: Ethan's team in a Huey helicopter try to evade a Cobra gunship by flying through a wind turbine farm. For some reason the Cobra doesn't fly above the farm and fire its missiles (which are heat-seaking) down at them -- but then if it did that we wouldn't have a cool scene of the Huey flying ''through'' the spinning turbine blade and the Cobra being smashed when it decides to TryAndFollow.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?: [[spoiler: Lindsey's death.]] Ethan attempts to use a defibrillator to disarm the bomb in her head, however the defibrillator only finishes charging seconds after the bomb goes off and kills her. When fully charged he defibrillator emits a single, constant beep, clearly meant to imitate the sound of a heart rate monitor flatline.

The big-screen directing debut of Creator/JJAbrams (who also co-scripted and did a bit of digital work), this film falls back to cloak-and-dagger tricks, with the action being more through time-frame constrictions or compromised missions, and even takes time to develop its characters.

%%* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: Right after the rooftop-swing stunt.