Mission: Impossible III

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has retired from being an IMF team leader, instead opting for a quiet life with his fiancée Julia (Michelle Monaghan), a hospital nurse. The film begins in medias res with Ethan and Julia held captive and threatened by an unnamed man. The narrative then rolls back five days. During a party, Ethan is called in by IMF Operations Director Musgrave (Billy Crudup) for a mission. He refuses at first, but after viewing a video hidden in a disposable camera he finds out his mission is to extract his protege, Agent Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell), who has been captured in Berlin by Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a prominent dealer in the international black market (and the apparent interrogator in the prologue). He agrees to participate in the mission and meets his team consisting of Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), Zhen (Maggie Q), and his partner from the first two films, Luther Stickel (Ving Rhames).

The team assaults an enemy stronghold and extract Agent Farris, but she dies when they fail to remove an explosive capsule placed inside her head prior to the rescue. At Lindsey's funeral, Ethan is notified of a "package" sent to him by Lindsey, and discovers that it is a microdot hidden in a blank postcard. Ethan discusses its possible importance with Luther and both decide to keep its existence secret from the agency.

Using information recovered from a laptop in the Berlin mission, Ethan then decides to go after Davian himself, targeting him at a meeting in Vatican City, where a lucrative transaction involving a mysterious object, codenamed "The Rabbit's Foot", is apparently taking place. Neither of Ethan's superiors, directors Brassell (Laurence Fishburne) or Musgrave, have authorized the mission. Before leaving, Ethan reassures Julia of their relationship, and promptly marries her at the hospital in a small ceremony. The team then arrives in Rome and sets off their elaborate plan to abduct Davian, barely avoiding disaster in the process. The operation succeeds nonetheless, and while Ethan interrogates Davian on the flight home, he is angered by the man's overconfidence, and almost throws him out of the plane.

While transporting Davian across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in a convoy, Luther hands Ethan a laptop computer and plays the video message from the decoded microdot: Lindsey had discovered that Director Brassel is a mole, who has been leaking information to Davian about IMF operations. Suddenly, the convoy is ambushed and Davian is extracted by a squad of mercenaries. Julia is soon kidnapped, and Ethan receives a call from Davian with a proposition; he must retrieve the "Rabbit's Foot" from a facility in Shanghai, or his wife is dead. Ethan is then taken into custody by the IMF (accused of masterminding the ambush), but he soon escapes with Musgrave's help.

In Shanghai, Ethan reunites with his team once more and manage to infiltrate the building containing the Rabbit's Foot, stealing it and evading building security during a high speed pursuit. They disband, and Ethan goes to the established meeting place, where he is captured and subsequently implanted with an explosive capsule. The story comes full circle as we return to the room shown in the prologue: Julia and Ethan are bound to chairs and Davian threatens to kill Julia for the location of the Rabbit's Foot. Ethan insists that he delivered it, but Davian doesn't believe him. Julia is promptly executed.

Immediately after, Musgrave enters and explains the situation to a stunned and grieving Ethan; Davian will sell the Rabbit's Foot to Middle Eastern enemies of the United States, who will provoke a massive retaliation that would result in a hostile takeover of the region. He shows that the dead "Julia" was actually one of Davian's incompetant personnel in disguise, used to test Ethan's honesty in the deal. The real Julia is revealed to be still alive, and Ethan escapes by attacking Musgrave and taking his phone, which he uses to track down Julia's location. Instrumental in this is the assistance of Benji (Simon Pegg), an IMF laboratory technician who believes in Ethan.

Ethan finally finds Julia, but before he can free her, Davian discovers them and activates the bomb in Ethan's head. Davian begins to savagely beat Ethan around the room, and before Davian is able to kill Julia (as promised), Ethan manages to fight back, and kills Davian by colliding him into a truck. Ethan improvises a make-shift defibrillator to deactivate the bomb in his head and quickly teaches Julia how to shoot. Julia turns on the power and seemingly kills Ethan, after which she goes on to kill Musgrave while defending his body. She successfully resuscitates Ethan with CPR, and the two walk out with the Rabbit's Foot as Ethan proceeds to tell Julia the truth about his secret life.

Back at headquarters, Ethan is congratulated for his heroic actions, and then leaves for his honeymoon with Julia, with the blessing of his applauding teammates.